Big Dig: Mayor Dog's Narrative Incremental on Steam

Big Dig (Steam). Hover for a Voidge draft sketch inspired by a fragment of the header key art.

Deadass, the pitch alone sold me. Big Dig is a short narrative incremental game where you dig up historical artifacts so a slightly corrupt Mayor Dog can pave a highway across the Animal Republic and win his election. You click, the dirt breaks, the museum fills up, and the politics get mad shady along the way. It launched on Steam on October 19, 2026, from a two person team. App ID 4304900.

People are into it for real. As of about 19:00 BRT on October 27, the store shows 95% of 624 user reviews as positive, rated Overwhelmingly Positive. The regular price is US$7.99, with a 25% launch discount to US$5.99 until November 2.

Open the clip on X if the embed does not load. Cut from the official Big Dig release trailer.

Dig for the campaign, not for glory

Here is the setup. Mayor Dog's campaign is in full swing and his big promise is a highway. Problem: the route runs through beaches, suburbs, lakes, a middle school and more, and the ground is packed with artifacts he wants out of the way. You are the crew that clears it. Every tile you break pays out, every find goes to the museum, and every stretch of road you open moves the story forward.

That framing is what makes it hit. Most incrementals give you a number and ask you to love it. Big Dig gives you a number and a candidate you are pretty sure you should not trust, and the jokes land between digs instead of being buried in a codex. If you liked the satire in our Car Park Capital writeup, this is the same energy with way more dogs.

Big Dig (Steam). Hover for a Voidge draft sketch inspired by a fragment of the forest dig screenshot.

How the dig loop works

You start with a shovel and a small pit full of dirt tiles. Break tiles, earn money, spend it on the research tree. From there it snowballs: you hire a crew of helpers, unlock an excavator, pick up stronger tools and push into tougher ground. The game is split into acts, and each new area changes what is buried and how hard the soil fights back. There is even an option to dig without clicking, so your wrist survives the trip.

It is closer to a short management game than an idle you leave open in a tab. You are making real choices about where the next upgrade goes, and our Drillbound post is a good comparison if you want another short dig focused incremental with an actual ending.

The museum is the real progress bar

Everything you pull out of the ground ends up on display. The store says finds go from tennis balls all the way to dinosaurs, and the screenshots back that up with a full T rex skeleton behind a velvet rope. As the collection grows you add decorations and new rooms, and the museum earns you more money, which feeds right back into the dig. Guests wander around, and an earlier demo update even added the option to fling them around for fun. Wild, and I respect it.

Big Dig (Steam). Hover for a Voidge draft sketch inspired by a fragment of the museum screenshot.

If you are into the museum fantasy specifically, our DinoBones writeup goes deeper on the cozy skeleton side. Big Dig just makes the exhibit part of an election.

Short, complete, and it actually ends

This is the part I want more games to copy. The store says Big Dig runs about 3 to 4 hours, maybe in one sitting, with no infinite prestige loops and no time gated idle grinding. It tells a complete story with a real conclusion. Hjalte Tagmose told a player on X that it is mainly a linear story with two endings. The devs have also said they plan to add a way to view both endings in game, plus a way to replay the cutscenes.

What our clip shows

Three takes from the official Big Dig release trailer on Steam. First, a snowy dig grid and a park dig beside a bike lane, with a quick look at the museum entrance. Second, the museum packed wall to wall with visitors while dinosaur bones snap into place. Third, a city block dig where explosions chain across the tiles. No menus, no logo cards.

Launch numbers and patches

On October 21 the team posted that more than 10,000 players bought and played Big Dig in the first 48 hours, and Hjalte shared the same milestone on X. They also said they had received over 500 user reports. The patches since then are solid. On October 23 an end game update overhauled the Act 3 research tree so shovel upgrades scale much harder (the final node now reaches 1000% total, up from 400%), added excavator upgrades to Act 3 and let you trade money for research points. Version 1.4 on October 26 raised the shiny cap, added more settings and asked for accessibility ideas. That is a team listening, no notes.

On Steam it runs on Windows and macOS (no Linux build listed). The minimum is Windows 7 or above, an i3 class CPU, a GPU with 2 GB of VRAM and just 51 MB of storage. It lists full controller support, mouse only and touch only options, Steam Cloud and achievements, with English, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Thai. A Supporter Pack DLC adds Adrien, a French dog who moves into your museum and lets you decorate it.

Who makes Big Dig?

Steam lists Dan Schumacher and Hjalte Tagmose as developers, with the two of them plus Bird Gang and Gamersky Games as publishers. Dan, who goes by Schu, is the game designer, and Hjalte is the pixel artist behind all those tiny dogs. The store says it was made by two indie devs with help from friends, because they wanted to take a beloved genre and add a meaningful narrative. It is not their first rodeo either: the same pair made the cooking roguelike Omelet You Cook, which hit 1.0 in February. On X you can find them at @hjaltetagmose (about 6,100 followers, posts pixel art and replies to players) and @SchuMode.

Is Big Dig worth it?

For real, yes, if you want an incremental that respects your time. Fair warnings: it is short by design, the story is mostly linear, and launch week needed a few balance passes, especially in Act 3. But for under six bucks you get a complete, funny, good looking run with a clear ending. That actually goes hard. Grab it on Steam before the discount ends on November 2.

Image credits & rights

Images on this page are hotlinks from the official Steam store assets for Big Dig, used with respect for their copyright.

• Big Dig on Steam
• Hjalte Tagmose (@hjaltetagmose) on X
• Schu (@SchuMode) on X
• Header key art and screenshots by Dan Schumacher and Hjalte Tagmose.
• Screenshot sources remain on the Steam CDN (header and store screenshots for app 4304900). Voidge hosts only purple crop-inspired draft sketches for hover and fallback, plus the short blog clip.