Impossible to Dig

Twelve metres with a sewing needle. The first well is free all the way to the water; the rest of the village is a single one-time purchase.

In Turkish, "digging a well with a needle" means doing something impossibly slowly. Here you actually do it: you have one sewing needle, the water in the first well is twelve metres down, and every tap digs 0.2 millimetres.

All of it plays out on a Karagöz shadow-play screen: the village, the layers of earth and the tools are cut from leather, with a lamp behind them. The whole well is always on screen, so you can see how close the needle is to the water.

The ground gives things back as you dig: old coins, bones, bits of pottery. Trade them for new tools: a safety pin, a nail, a spoon, and a bucket that keeps digging while the app is closed. Tools are never sold; every one of them is dug up.

Above the well is a small village. Muhtar Kemal, Nazmiye Teyze, Demirci Hüseyin and Küçük Zeynep keep an eye on your progress and have something to say about it now and then. When the water comes up, the village changes too, and the tea house starts smoking again.

The first well, the Old Yard, is free all the way to the water, and you can try the Garden for free up to its first root. The other four plots open with a single one-time purchase; there is no subscription. There are no ads, no energy bar and no timers either.