Suggested Gameplay Mechanics: Mining Mini game

Here's one Concept for the Basic Mining minigame.

Layout

• Background consists of 6-10 conveyor belts running right to left, one above another.
• Each conveyor has 10-14 slots, giving you a grid of slots

Tiles

• 4 main types of rock: igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic, and rubble would make up most tiles. (done)
• mingled among them in much smaller quantities are copper ore, crude oil, coal, etc
• Rare items could occasionally appear as well

Mechanic

• Align 3 matching tiles in a row vertically or horizontally. (done)
• Tiles will only move if it creates a row of 3 or more tiles. (done)
• tiles disappear when matched (done)
• tiles to the right "ride the conveyor belt" to the left (done)
• never-ending flow of tiles from the right (done)
• a "Dump" button should be included to clear the entire screen, should incur minor delay
• Initial screen fill and dump refill should take care not to create "auto matches"
• Some blocks are marked as "vein" and when triggered remove all similar blocks

Rewards

• Matching 3 rocks gets you 1 stone added to inventory.
• Matching x+2 non-rocks gets you x resource added to inventory (3=1,4=2,5=3,etc)
• rare items do not require matches and can be picked up directly

Upgrades

• Upgrading your mining facility grants you more rows
• Different mining locations have differing quantities of resources
• Dynamite lets you extract a 3x3 patch and matches any set tiles within it's range
• pneumatic drill lets you remove an entire row, but it costs you one fuel

Misc.

• While the mining game would be optional, it would be more productive than less interactive methods like clicking. This would allow people who don't like it to skip it, yet reward people for using systems that encourage repeat play.