Now, I must say that I agree that channel #b0f7ca50a33445feb3e380c14f874712 is quite odd. I wanted to add idle chatter, make the responses realistic, and all of that, but the pressure of 48 hours and the corresponding technical limitations made that all not happen. I definitely understand your criticisms, and will apply them to the sequel. (Specifically about how you enter the channel: I had originally planned to make it so that you PM someone on the server to talk about entering the channel, but I couldn't do that because I needed the player to speak on the channels in order. (First on the "server" tab, then the secret channel tab, then PM tabs.) )
Ok guys! I figured out why the responses don't appear in some cases. The fix will come soon--trying to work out a sponsorship deal and I'm going to upload the new version once that's settled. I'm sorry some of you weren't able to see the game... I made a stupid mistake early on in the project and haven't realized the consequences until now.
@hombre4554: Hmm... when you click on the green, highlighted, "complete" the words "Join secret channel" should appear in the lower bar. You have to click on those two. (The pattern is "click keyword, then click what you want to do about that keyword.")
@chellers: I beg to differ... I idle on #ludumdare on AfterNET all the time, and we are very friendly. BurnZeZ and iFire are actually members from that channel who let me use their names in the game. Now maybe other channels are different--indeed, they must be different to spawn the quotes on bash.org--but you're making a huge generalization. Although you're right about the whole "secret channel" thing; there was some backstory I wanted to put in about how Seeker made it to the channel, but I didn't have time.
@buddy302: Well, it's Tebi and Tobias. I didn't notice that they were so close when I was writing the game... but they are intended to be unrelated. :/
@sirspikey: I address this in the instructions now--I already made a comment about it, but now I see that I do need to put this information in a more prominent place.
I put some more information in the game description addressing the "good ending", hopefully that helps. Might not be very pleasing to read, but I tried to at least clarify the situation.
@Colorblind/partially colorblind commenters: Thanks for commenting. Minerbot 2 indeed has a larger per-tile size--as a result, I can fit proper textures onto them. The problem with Minerbot in this respect is that the tiles are 2px by 2px, and the game architecture made it really hard to do extensive fiddling with the rendering system. 2x2 isn't really enough to make a bunch of unique ore types, but 16x16 will definitely make this happen.
@afroninja (and anyone else who can't figure out how to get 100%): The trick is that once car0t leaves, a few other topics disappear. What you should do is exhaust *all* other topic before choosing "Problem with car0t". It's not strictly necessary for 100%, but it's your safest bet.
Agreed about the branching. This was actually originally made for the Mini Ludum Dare #27, a 48 hour game making competition, so I didn't have time to write in all the branches I wanted to. I started with Darkil's branch because I thought it would be the most interesting, but then I ran out of time. (This is also why Tebi doesn't really do anything.)
About a sequel: I'm considering it, and it seems like a good project to do. However, I'm working on a sequel to my other game, Minerbot, and should probably finish that one first. You guys and your sequel requests. :)
@Troscufka: When you shoot two collectors into the exact same place, the second just fails to attach. However, when you put two collectors in the same ore vein, twice the number of collector "waves" are emitted, and it collects twice as fast.
@koolaidsuper: While I generally agree, some people might not do the tutorial if they already know the controls. The game is very confusing for new players, and making them play the tutorial to learn the controls also teaches them the gameplay, which is probably a good thing.
Also, about the time limit: I plan to remove it in the play->upgrade->play->upgrade mode, but leave it in for high score rounds. I'm adding a bunch more content, too--it's basically a whole new game.
@digitelanimefan: It would be hard to put Minerbot on phones, for a bunch of reasons. Performance-wise, this game is very slow--the original engine code was written during an 48hr game competition. The interface would also require some significant changes to fit on a cell phone, too. I'll try to keep cell phones/mobile devices in mind when making the sequel though, would be neat to show my friends my game on the go. :)
@DragonArcherZ: Thanks, that means a lot! Unfortunately I'm not old enough to legally drink yet. :) Also, very good tips weirdguy, I found that I've been using the same strategies when testing it.
Yep, that score is definitely hacked. Keep in mind also that there are two categories: total points accumulated (across all games you've played) and maximum points mined in a single round.
Oh man... you should make it a lot more clear that moving off the edge of the screen takes you onwards. It took me FOREVER to figure that out.
Other than that, though, awesome game.
 "Secretnet")
 "Minerbot")
 "p.i.g")