Upalu Mundi

Description

In a dwarven world shaken by the invention of the locomotive, you take on the role of Pyrael, a trolley-cart network engineer at Mountain Mining Industries, E.C. As the company pushes into new regions, you find yourself in a unique position to shape the world around you. Upalu Mundi draws inspiration from the challenge of efficiently linking producers and consumers in open-ended transport games, but distills these ideas into concise, self-contained puzzle levels. Using limited rail-switching logic on a neatly arranged 8x8 grid, each level offers a multitude of deterministic solutions. Working layouts are easy to grasp, but designing truly optimal networks requires ingenuity and experimentation. Design - Lay tracks, build stations, and steer the flow of trains using switches. The R&D department is hard at work inventing more sophisticated technologies. Until then, you’ll have to make do with the four switch types once used for trolley carts in the mines. Test - Before a transport network can go live, it must be validated on a simulation device. Push the throttle and watch your layout come to life as the miniature trains make their rounds on the model kit. Optimize - Refine your blueprints until they align with the optimal line revealed by the mysterious workings of the Upalu Mundi, an iridescent gem that seems to hold the knowledge of the world. Stay informed - Your decisions ripple through the world. Follow their consequences in the rich newspaper landscape, and browse the company’s meeting minutes to see what your coworkers have to say about your new look (and about any other issues on the agenda).