Made by one person, in Spain.
I am Luka, an independent iOS developer. Downcore is mine end to end: the code, the art, the music, this website. There is no studio behind it and no publisher, which is worth knowing before you read the rest, because it explains most of the decisions below.
Downcore started from a complaint about my own phone games. The good ones wanted both hands and my full attention, so I only ever played them at home, where I would rather be playing something on a bigger screen. The ones I could actually play on a train wanted almost nothing from me.
So the target was a game with real decisions that still fits in one hand while standing up. The answer was to give away the shooting: your drone mines, fires and picks up loot on its own, and everything you decide is about where to be. Drag to steer, tap for the ability. That is the whole control scheme.
The first version of it was boring, and the playtest said so. Measuring it showed why: the run was 97% waiting for a drill to chew through rock. The fix was to make falling fast the point. Your damage now climbs while you keep descending at pace and collapses when you stall, which turns every rock into a real question instead of a pause.
Your score in Downcore is how deep you got. An earlier version sold access to the deeper biomes, and it took one playtest to see the problem: a game scored on depth that stops you at a wall until you pay is not measuring skill, it is measuring purchases. That went in the bin. Every biome, relic, boss and the daily run are free, and the cores you mine buy variety, more relics and events in the pool, never stats.
There is no energy bar and no waiting between runs either. If you lose, the button says "new run" and it starts immediately.
Two ways, both optional and both visible. There is one purchase, Downcore Supporter, €4.99 once and never a subscription: no ads, replays of the daily seed, and two drone skins. And on the results screen you can choose to watch an ad to double that run's cores, up to three times a day.
What I decided not to do matters more than what I did. No interstitials, no banners, no ads inside a run, no ad you did not ask for. Nothing purchasable makes your drone stronger, so the leaderboards stay honest.
On your phone. There is no account, no login, no email and no server of mine to send anything to. Your progress is a file on the device, and if you delete the app it is gone. Game Center is optional and only used for leaderboards and achievements. The privacy policy goes through the details, including the two SDKs the game does use and exactly when.
Bug reports and blunt feedback are genuinely welcome, especially with a screenshot. Write to downcore.game@gmail.com or find me at @lukahristic. See the support page for the common questions.