A patch of dirt seems a modest responsibility. Then the crew asks for drills.
Gneiss Work is an incremental quarrying game about building a working pit with a crew of Knaps: little workers who take their jobs seriously and their hats personally.
Work the face yourself or hire help. In time, there'll be a town on the rim and a considerable distance between it and your boots.
Breaking it is the easy part
Tap or hold to dig. Flick the loose rubble into the Lift to earn grit, then spend it on crew and upgrades.
Pickers break the rock and Carriers bring it home. You'll need both. A large pile is not quite the same thing as a large income.
Give the leftovers a second career
Rubble left on the Ledge builds Pressure. A Metamorphosis squeezes those chunks back into richer stone and raises the floor.
Let the piles grow on purpose, or keep the Lift busy. Either way, the ground gets a say.
See what the rock is hiding
Each of the ten strata calls for different tools. Hang lanterns as the pit grows dark, and mind the gas when the Torchers arrive.
Fossils wait in the face. Gem-filled geodes are rather more eager to come out.
A promotion, chiefly for the head
Shape hats from the stone you find, then dress a whole crew or pick one Knap who particularly deserves a traffic cone.
A granite top hat is not necessary. That is no reason not to have one.
Traffic Cone Rescued from a pothole on the rim. Its wearer is now clearly visible, if a little difficult to pass.
Crews that work together
Build two crews up far enough and they learn a Technique. A pick lands far harder on rock the Torchers have melted. A charge tucked into a Driller's shaft blasts further down it.
There are fifteen to find, and your Guild Rank decides how many you can slot at once.
Keep the good bits
Leave a claim to bank Core Samples for permanent Survey upgrades. Raise your Guild Rank and complete fossil sets for lasting bonuses.
The next pit starts fresh, with your collection and permanent upgrades kept. Special claim types and New Game+ give experienced crews another excuse to get their boots dirty.
Look after the place
Watch your surface town grow. Choose decorations and arrange curios around it.
It is a long way up from here. The town will keep.
Room to look around
- Dig or flick rubble
- Tap, or hold and drag
- Give the crew an order
- Two-finger tap
- Pan the view
- Two-finger drag
- Zoom
- Pinch
Play in landscape. View and Menu keep the shortcuts close by.
The crew works while you're away
Time away earns grit and stone, starting at half your recent haul rate with an eight-hour cap. Permanent upgrades improve both.
Seals only break while the game is running, so the crew saves the breakthroughs for when you're looking.
Also down here
- A working 3D quarry rendered as pixel art, with every hire and new machine visible on site.
- Active digging and crew orders, or an automated crew to watch and tune.
- Fifty-six fossils in sixteen sets, with permanent bonuses for completed collections.
- Special claim types, including a Speedrun challenge. New Game+ opens after the finale.
Somewhere below waits the Heartstone. It has been there longer than your pick.
Get it on Google PlayRequires Android 7.0 or later and a Vulkan-capable device for the real-time lighting and pixel-art outlines.
Gneiss is pronounced "nice". The Knaps are pleased you asked.