I'm in love with this thing, i think, maybe, but i do have a few notes.
First off, a bug (ha): I've lost a few games seemingly out of nowhere after garbage spawns, possibly because the game thinks that the empty tiles it just dropped are actually a tower reaching to the kill zone. Should probably check that out.
Secondly, the shovel is probably one of the harder tools to use due to rng. As far as I can tell, it likes to launch blocks up to the highest tower it can find, but I haven't exactly figured out what its deal is.
Thirdly, the crane is the tool that I tend to lose on most often, due to too much garbage being piled up for it to be able to pick up anything, and its inability to move anything sideways within the pile.
Overall, a very fun experience. Will probably continue striving for a high score.
Yeah I might have reintroduced that insta lose you mentioned gonna be checking it out. The crane right now has the ability to extra move up to 4 blocks upwards, but I wonder if it should be infinite (I didnt to the sides because it was kinda hard), ive heard similar stuff to the shovel it moves -2, -1, 1 or 2 but I wonder if I have to do something else, i like the randomness a bit
With the crane, it could probably have infinite lift strength and still not be broken. However, game balance is always good to keep in mind. I'm also not entirely sure how a crane would be able to displace sideways without treading on the other tools' abilities.
I think the shovel having an element of RNG is fun, as long as it's somewhat predictable. Maybe a system could be implemented where the shovel will displace to the right if the last horizontal movement you made was right, and left if you moved left? It could still be random whether it moves 1 or 2, but you would have a way to herd the pebbles a little bit better.
A further thing could be that the vertical movement determines how large the number is, although that would remove the RNG.