Fenlark

# Fenlark (working title)

An early prototype: one 150-second job, pulled out of a bigger idea to see whether it reads at all.

You have a drained fen, seen from the side, and one drone. The landowner wants his hay field dry enough to get a tractor onto it the day he cuts. A crane pair wants the upper lobe held at a particular depth, not too wet and not too dry, and held there for most of the job. And the reed bed has to stay wet enough that the roots are actually doing something. You cannot give all three of them what they want by raising the water, because raising it for one drowns another, so most of the work is sideways: plugs, ditches, a scrape here and there.

The fen answers fast. Notch the weir and the water table moves off across the screen like a slow wave. Put a plug in and an orange halo opens around its roots over a few seconds. Cut a ditch and the table sags towards it. There is also dye, which does nothing at all except show you where the water was already going, and it is usually what tells you what you got wrong.

Hover the (i) marks and each party will tell you what it wants.

Controls: pick an action, then click the fen where you want it to happen. NOTCH and FILL work on the weir on their own. Nothing starts ticking until you press start or touch the fen.

NB! this is a prototype rather than a game. One fen, one contract, no progression, and rough edges I have left on purpose. What I would most like to know is whether you could tell what was happening, and where you could not.