Every hole digs up a soul
You must find 3 magic relics to help rid the land of evil. Use the Find-O-Meter and your trusty shovel to search the forest. But if you dig up the dead you'll need to fight them off to stay alive, so pay attention to everything you unearth...it might just save your life.

Find more than 30 items scattered throughout a spooky forest
Challenging shmup action as you fight off the dead
Simple and rewarding inventory management
Secrets and riddles abound

Playing the game
For PICO8 owners: Play through Splore or by running load #dontdig from the PICO8 commandline.
Gamepad recommended for best experience.

D-PadArrows: Move your character
B ButtonZ: Action button. Hold down to dig and shoot.
A ButtonX: Inventory
StartP: Pause and settings
Read the manual to learn more (PDF)

Explore the forest while paying attention to the Find-O-Meter. When the needle points at red and beeps, hold down the action button to dig and see what you've found. Use the items you find to power up. And keep an eye out for chests and unlock them to get powerful upgrades.
But remember, every hole digs up a soul and sends it into the wild. If you get caught by a ghost, you'll have to defeat it before you can continue on your quest.
When you find a magic relic, take it back to the old man in the village. Find all 3 and you can win the game!
Deluxe edition & strategy guide
You can also purchase the Deluxe Edition Bundle which includes a strategy guide, maps, a special in-game item, and an extra trainer cart. See the Itch.io page for details.
Thanks to the community
As usual, thanks to this great community for their support and willingness to share ideas, code, and assets that helped me make this game, especially @pahammond @Gruber @kevinthompson
This game took way longer to make than I had hoped but I'm really happy with how it turned out. It's part shmup and part exploration adventure that I thin