He was never meant to go back down.
Mickel, known as Papounet, 72, heads down into the King's Mine one last time to find his father's lamp. Bandits blow up the entrance behind him: trapped, he must cross the depths to make it out alive. A 3D action-adventure game: free, ad-free and playable offline.
Game in French · Ages 13+ · Single player
The story
The King's Mine, in the Black Mountains, has been closed for thirty years. Mickel is its last miner. Despite pleas from Léa, his granddaughter, he goes back down to find his father Joseph's old lamp. Behind him, bandits blow up the entrance. His only way out: the old ventilation shaft, at the very bottom.
Chapter 1
Today, in the Black Mountains
Trapped by the bandits, Papounet crosses five underground worlds: the Abandoned Mine, the Frozen Cave, the Flooded Tunnels, the Burning Depths and finally the Great Bandit's Lair. On every floor, his father's journal and the bandits' radio lift the veil a little further on an old tragedy.
Chapter 2
The night of 27 April 1971
Flashback: Mickel is twenty. Alongside his father Joseph, he tries to stop foreman Gustave Malbec from blasting the rock face in front of the King's Lode. Defuse the charges, rescue the miners caught in the flood, face Malbec: the night that changed everything.
The last miner
72, stubborn and brave. He knows every tunnel of the King's Mine.
His granddaughter
She tries to hold him back, then cheers him on all the way down.
His father
A miner in 1971. His lamp and journal are at the heart of the story.
The Great Bandit
Leader of the bandits who blew up the entrance. He wants the mine's gold.
The foreman, 1971
Victor's father. Willing to do anything to reach the King's Lode.
A page hidden in every level. Dated March and April 1971, they gradually reveal what happened on the night of 27 April, and Papounet reacts to each one.
Victor Malbec, the Great Bandit, taunts Papounet over the radio all the way down. Every line in the game is voiced in French.
The goal
In every level, Papounet collects all the gold and diamonds: their weight acts as a counterweight to send the freight lift down to the next floor. But the moment the last treasure is picked up, the tunnel strikes back: it collapses, freezes, floods or erupts. Then the escape begins, against the clock.
Collect all the gold and diamonds, then reach the freight lift before the tunnel gives way.
Find and defuse three dynamite charges before they blow.
Free three miners trapped by the flood.
Break the boss's armor and defeat him in three phases: reinforcements, then rage.
Papounet starts with three hearts, plus one with the Resistance upgrade and one more on Easy. More hearts can be picked up along the way.
Out of hearts, the game is lost: « Réessayer le niveau » (Retry level) restarts from the last checkpoint.
Coins, nuggets, ingots, gold sacks and diamonds; boots, super jump, shield, magnet, ammo and smoke bombs. Chests hold 15 to 30 coins plus a weapon or a power-up.
Combat and dangers
Controls
On mobile, a virtual joystick and big thumb-friendly buttons; vibration can be turned off in the options.
The levels
Each world has its own atmosphere, lighting and music, but the tunnel layout is generated every game: pillars, pits, rickety bridges, ice, water and treasure are never in the same place twice. Levels unlock in order; finishing Chapter 1 opens Chapter 2. Three modes: Easy, Normal and Hard.
Level 1Chapter 1 · Gold and escape
Runaway minecarts, beams and powder kegs: your first run-in with the bandits.
Level 2Chapter 1 · Gold and escape
Slippery ice and falling stalactites; at the end, the ice gives way beneath your feet.
Level 3Chapter 1 · Gold and escape
Pitch darkness: only your headlamp and glowing mushrooms light the way.
Level 4Chapter 1 · Gold and escape
Lava pools, eruptions and tremors: the ground itself becomes the enemy.
Level 5Chapter 1 · Boss
Face Victor Malbec: armor to break and a three-phase fight.
Chapter 2 · Defusing
Mickel is twenty: three dynamite charges to defuse before they blow.
Chapter 2 · Rescue
The water is rising: three miners are trapped and must be freed.
Chapter 2 · Boss
The showdown with Gustave Malbec, in front of the gold seam everyone is after.
The score
At the end of a game, your score adds up:
The total is multiplied by difficulty: ×0.75 on Easy, ×1 on Normal, ×1.5 on Hard. Three missions drawn at random each game (for example « terminer un niveau sans dégâts » (finish a level without taking damage) or « vaincre le Grand Bandit » (defeat the Great Bandit)) award 30 to 300 bonus points. Your best score and greatest depth are kept as records.
Papi's upgrades
The gold you collect is banked at the end of each game. It buys five upgrades, each with three levels, for 40, 90 and then 160 coins.
Papounet runs faster.
He jumps higher; at level 3, double jump.
One extra heart.
He pulls in gold from farther away.
He carries more ammo.
In pictures
Behind the scenes
The game was born from a character: a miner grandpa with his headlamp and red overalls. The prototype was simply called « Papounet, le roi des mines » (Papounet, King of the Mines). The story of the King's Mine, Joseph and the Malbecs grew around him, until it became The Last Miner.
Almost everything is generated by code: procedural scenery and textures, music and sound effects synthesized at launch, a tunnel layout generated every game, and dialogue voiced by a French text-to-speech engine that runs offline. A single Unity scene, about 12,500 lines of C#, and no third-party SDK in the game.
17 October 2026
The Unity 6 project is created: the miner grandpa, his first levels and a first playable build on Linux. That same evening, the first poster.
October 2026
The King's Mine, Joseph's journal, the Malbec family and the night of 1971; cutscenes, voices, music and a second chapter.
19 October 2026
A new name, logo and poster, plus the first builds for Windows, Linux and Android.
21 October 2026
Signed Android package, store listing, screenshots and privacy policy: the game is ready to publish.
No account, no ads, no in-app purchases, no analytics: The Last Miner plays offline and your progress stays on your device.
Privacy policy
The Last Miner shows what we can do: a complete game, from idea to release, for Android, Linux and Windows. We build your game from A to Z or take over a Unity project already in progress.