v5 · updated 2026-06-11

A tense, minimalist vertical descent survival game where you pilot a high-powered thermal drill into a relentless, upward-scrolling planetary crust. Your objective: survive the crushing weight of the subterranean strata and plunge deep enough to breach the planet’s core.

To descend, you must grind through solid basalt, which generates massive frictional heat — watch the HEAT gauge at the top of the screen. If it fills, the drill jams and the rising rock face carries your seized rig toward the surface. Vent it early, quench it in underground water, and keep the engine spinning. The crust changes as you sink: each stratum announces itself, runs hotter than the last, and the rock fights back harder.

Controls:

• ⬅️ / ➡️ : Steer Drill (Slide left and right to thread hazards)
• 🅾️ / [Z] : Supercharge (2.2x descent speed for nearly the same heat per meter — and it smashes boulders into bonus depth)
• ❎ / [X] : Vent Steam (Rapidly dump heat, but the engine stalls and the rock pushes you back up)

Hazards & Operations:

• Heat Gauge: 1 pixel = 1 degree. Past the red zone (80+) a warning sounds; at 100 the drill jams and vents while the basalt shoves it upward. Early jams are survivable — deep ones usually aren’t.
• Water Aquifers: Shimmering blue pockets. Steer into them for an instant -25 heat quench.
• Magma Pockets: Pulsing molten blobs, sometimes in clusters — and deeper down, full seams that wall off the screen except for one gap. Touching any of it is instant meltdown.
• Boulders: Dense grey rock. Hit one at cruise speed and the rig bonks — knocked upward and +8 heat. Hit one supercharged and it shatters for +10m of bonus depth.
• Crystals: Glinting pink gems. Drill through one for +25m of bonus depth.
• Screen Boundaries: If the upward-scrolling basalt face pushes you past the top edge of the screen, it is an instant Game Over. Your best depth is saved between runs.

📜 Changelog

v5 — 2026-06-11

• refactor: implement release latch to prevent accidental input auto-repeat and add helper for centered text printing

v4 — 2026-06-11

• feat: core drill overhaul - audio, hazard variety, fair boost, readable heat gauge

v3 — 2026-06-02

• Update Core Drill cartridge label image

v2 — 2026-06-02

• update file naming
• Add background drill trail/path carving effect

v1 — 2026-05-30

• feat(core_drill): add core_drill game source to main
• tune(core_drill): increase difficulty by boosting heating and magma spawn rates while reducing water