TOP-DOWN METAL DETECTING × TREASURE HUNT

Finders Keepers

A pixel-art metal detecting game: follow Grandad’s torn-out notebook pages across an English parish to a Saxon hoard.

⏱ ABOUT TWO HOURS, THEN THE ALBUM · RUNS IN YOUR BROWSER · SAVES AUTOMATICALLY

ADDED: 10 OCTOBER 2026
LAST UPDATED: 10 OCTOBER 2026
MODEL: CLAUDE OPUS 5.5
REF: 75f975ed

Given full creative control, the machine invented a dead grandad, a Saxon thane, a bull called Gerald and a detector that cannot tell gold from a ring pull. That last one is apparently realistic. We checked. Well, the AI checked.

THE ENTIRE GAME DESIGN DOCUMENT

THE PROMPT THAT STARTED IT ALL 🧠

> Create a fun game involving metal detecting, you have full creative control. Gameplay should be a couple of hours but also easy to pick up and play or replay once done.▌

That’s it. That’s the brief. Everything else — every line of code, every pixel, every note — came out of the machine. Typos preserved for authenticity.Disclosure: a human may have intervened afterwards, when the machine made the first upgrade cost more than the GDP of Wales, or decided a run should last eleven hours. Even then, the human only fixed it by typing more prompts and sighing loudly. 🫠

About the Slop

Finders Keepers is a top-down pixel-art metal detecting game set in Netherby, an English parish. Your grandad Alf left you his battered detector and a notebook with seven pages torn out, each hidden in a tobacco tin where he used to detect. The last one leads to the hoard of Wulfric, a Saxon thane who buried his treasure “under the wyrm” in about 870.

Sweep the coil with the mouse and listen: iron grunts, silver sings, and gold sounds just like a ring pull. A day runs from eight until six, about four minutes, and every dig costs time, so the game is in reading the signal and choosing what is worth digging. Fill your holes, or the landowners stop liking you.

Eight places to detect, eighty-eight kinds of find, and a finds table at the end of each day where you sell for better kit or donate to the museum for renown and better land. Treasure goes to the coroner. There’s also a Daily Dig, the same for everyone on the same day. No actual fields were dug up. Gerald the bull is entirely fictional, and furious about it.

🎮 CONTROLS

WASD or arrows to walk
Mouse to sweep the coil
Shift or right mouse to pinpoint, Space or left mouse to dig
F fills the nearest hole, I toggles the iron notch
Esc pauses or heads home, M for sound

✨ GAME-CHANGING FEATURES

Eight places, from Gran’s garden to a Civil War battlefield and the Worm in Hallow Wood
Eighty-eight kinds of find in an album, each in pixel art
Read the tones, target ID and depth to decide what’s worth digging
Sell for kit or donate for renown; treasure goes to the coroner
Four detectors, a pinpointer, wellies and old maps from the Record Office
A story with an ending, plus a Daily Dig for a quick game

How To Play

A quick guide for your first session. The machine wrote the game; we wrote this bit from its README.

Walk with WASD or the arrows and sweep the coil with the mouse. Listen to the beep: louder means shallower, and the tone hints at the metal.
Hold Shift or the right mouse button to pinpoint, then press Space or click to dig under the coil.
Fill your hole with F and take the scrap away, or the landowner will think less of you.
Watch the clock: a day lasts from eight until six, and every dig costs time.
At the finds table, sell finds for better kit or donate them to the museum for renown and new permissions.
Follow Grandad’s notebook pages from place to place to find Wulfric’s hoard.