At first glance, 4D Miner looks like Minecraft. You're thrown into an infinite, procedurally generated world, tasked with digging the land to survive as long as possible. That is, until you move the scroll wheel on your mouse, you can see the elements in the game starts to appear out of thin air.
Video games usually have one of two dimensions: you have your 2D side-scroller, or more commonly your typical 3D adventure. The 4D views is something that is very new as you rarely see games beyond these dimensions because we still live in the third dimension.
Everything You See in 4D Miner Always There But 3D Worldview Limited Us To See It
Your world changes dramatically every time you scroll in 4D Miner. Elements right in front of you disappear while others reveal themselves. You think solid ground will open up, revealing hills and caves, and cave walls split into deep fissures. The problem is, none of these things have really changed. From a 4D perspective, everything you see as you scroll is actually always there. We just can't see it because we're limited to a 3D worldview.
4D games like 4D Miner took this concept and passed it on to us. Right now, we're a 2D existence, but we're experiencing a 3D cross-section of a 4D world. To a 4D viewer, the world looks completely normal, with all trees, caves, lava flows, and bodies of water visible at all times. However, we can only see what our current cross-section allows: as you scroll, you move the cross-section and show different parts of the 4D world.
This mechanic adds another dimension to the exploration of Minecraft as we know it. Instead of simply hunting for supplies, you need to dive into the different planes of the fourth dimension. You might think nothing dropped when you dig the tree, but scroll through the 4D space and you might find branches that were previously hidden from view.
Again, you'll find cave diving a lot more complicated than in Minecraft. In order to fully find the cave entrance, you may need to scroll to the fourth dimension and continue scrolling inside. Otherwise, you'll miss elements, paths, lava, and enemies.
4D Miner is currently available for free as a demo on Steam, with an official release scheduled for November. It won't be the first 4D game to hit the market, but according to this Wikipedia list, it's the first 4D game in 2022 and the third game released since 2020. Even though these types of games are limited, they are engaging to play.