I’m not sure about you, but when it comes to cozy farm sim games, most of my time inadvertently gets dedicated to mining. The resources are precious, and the process feels almost meditative. So imagine my surprise when Gemporium came along, offering a mining-centric experience. 

Gemporium is an adorable mining game that has been developed by Merge Conflict Studio, and it has you playing as a small mole with a gem-selling business to stock. You mine, you clean, you sell, and you go back to mining. That’s pretty much the gameplay loop, and it is addictive. 

Mine, clean, sell

Each day in Gemporium plays out the same: You have some time to head down into the mines to mine for gems at marked hotspots of the mine walls, you bring any discovered gems back for refining and cleaning, and then repeat this process until your shop opens. 

Once it does, you’ll have to match gems to a variety of customers per their likes and dislikes. Any money you make selling gems can then be spent on various upgrades before you go to bed and end the day. 

It’s a simple gameplay loop that ends up being almost second nature, and it’s an addictive process. There’s a huge amount of satisfaction in unearthing a gem without cracking it, which happens when you make a direct hit with your chisel rather than using your drill, which is slower but less clumsy. The cleaning process is gratifying, adding a shine to the gem, and selling the perfect gems to the right customers feels really good. 

There are also artifacts to uncover down in the mines. The artifacts are discovered almost by accident, showing up where gems usually would in mining spots, and all of them are modern-ish references to life or pop culture. There’s a pack of stylus pens and a flip phone to be discovered, which, at this point, do feel like relics of their time, even if that time wasn’t all that long ago. 

Inventory and time management

Gemporium is undeniably cute and a joy to play, but the one thing that you may face an issue with is time and inventory management. Time is constantly ticking away while you’re down in the mines, and the days aren’t very long. Meanwhile, at least in the demo, you’ve only got 5 spaces in your inventory for gems that you discover while you’re down there. 

That means you have to constantly go up and down to deposit gems for safekeeping before running back to the mines to get more, because the more gems you have to sell, the higher your profits will be for the day. However, there are some ways around this that I’ve discovered. 

My biggest tip is not to be lured into mining as soon as you get into the mines. Those shining mining spots are all too tempting, but the further you go down, the more expensive gems there are to find, such as diamonds and rubies. While you’ll make a solid profit on rhodonite or citrine, these more expensive gems are worth seeking out, even if it means backing out of a mining spot once you know what’s waiting to be found. 

However, once you’ve figured out a way to balance your time with your money-making mining exploits, that too ends up giving you a sense of satisfaction that piles on top of everything else in Gemporium to make it the endorphin-producing, adorable indie gem that it is. 

Gemporium will be released in full on August 8, and it’s well worth digging into (pun intended) once release day hits, especially if you want something to zone out with while getting those feel-good vibes. There’s a demo available to play in the meantime if you want to get a feel for the mechanics and features that await in the full game.