There may be riches untold buried deep in the caverns of alien worlds but there are much easier ways to get rich.  A fortune is only worth having for the living, so the gems, minerals, fossils, and other artifacts can all stay buried in the depths.  It would take something truly extraordinarily unpleasant to compel someone to head down there, even with the prospect of the rewards they might earn, but an armed pirate taking over the ship fits that description to a tee.  The AI responsible for the transportation and well-being of its blobby alien passengers has no choice but to suit them up and send them down to a series of planets, digging up whatever they can find to pay off the ransom for their freedom.

Which sounds very dark, but Something Ate My Alien isn't quite so horrible to its cast as all that.  Except, of course, when they get killed by vicious wildlife, crushed by falling blocks, dissolved in corrosive liquids, or asphyxiated.  Other than that it's a fun 2D mining game along the lines of SteamWorld Dig, filled with vast caverns stuffed with loot.  Use the mining laser to carve out dirt blocks, shoot down the alien flora and fauna, solve the occasional puzzle room for a treasure chest packed full of rare goodies, and bring everything you can carry back to the surface once you've discovered new teleport platforms.  Something Ate My Alien delivered a demo today and it's an hour or more worth of exploration and shooting, plus a bit of crafting to give your little guys a better chance at surviving the dangers underground.

While the Steam page is up, and deeply appreciative of any wishlisting you might care to do, the demo is available at itch.io, Game Jolt, and IndieDB.  The controller support is still a bit early but everything else feels nicely polished and the game art looks especially nice.  Check out the trailer below, and then give the demo a play.

https://www.anrdoezrs.net/links/3607085/type/dlg/sid/UUhgUeUpU16121/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM2m1_v33Bo