A good start, however the lack of RPG elements makes me a sad panda. With the addition of a skill tree, a way of seeing how well you did on a given map, and an actual use for the gear this could be great.
Needs a way to pause. Ideally both a pause button (which hides the board when active) and a pause between levels where you press a button to go to the next one.
Interesting concept, though I find it a bit awkward.
I was also expecting something very different from the description. Most GEM games are more like bejeweled, and this is fairly different.
IN a genre as full as this one you need to do something spectacular in order to get more than a meh reaction. This game seems nothing more than yet another match three game. Not bad, just overdone.
Major problem: I ran out of wood and can't buy more I would be nice to be able to get some wood so long as you have some money.
Also: How the hell can there be a cave in when the only thing above me is air?
Are you sure there aren't any blocks of the light brown soil left? There should be thousands! Another thing is, you can mine without wood, it's just not suggested... Regarding the cave-in: The world isn't flat. There is still soil in front of you and behind you. I still makes a lot of sense.
First: it's bloody annoying having to deal with bubbles of colours you've already removed from the board. Either they should not show up, or there needs to be a way to be rid of the damn things without sticking them to the central mass.
If you want to impress people with a game of a type where there are already a crap tonne of games you need to do something more than the basics. There's nothing to make this game stand out from the very large crowd.