The Village Above the Well

The Village Above the Well is set in an old mining village built around a well that is older than the houses nearby. Beneath it lie abandoned galleries containing quarries, furnaces, crystal caves and ruins left by a forgotten people. The story follows a player whose grandfather lost a small blue stone medallion, the last keepsake of the woman he loved, somewhere below. The game presents it as a story about memory, loss and returning home.

The player rebuilds the village by gathering wood, stone, iron and crystal, each available in three quality tiers. Buildings include a sawmill, quarry, warehouse, forge and arcane workshop, and each can be placed anywhere on the map. Woodcutters, stoneworkers, miners and lapidaries can be hired and sent on expeditions lasting from 10 minutes to 12 hours, which continue to produce resources while the game is closed. Raw materials can be refined into planks, blocks, ingots and catalysts, which are used to forge equipment, upgrade tools to reach better resources and improve the adventurer’s gear.

The adventurer explores seven dungeons of ten floors each. Combat resolves automatically while the player manages the village, and how deep the hero gets depends on the progress made above ground. There are 42 relics to uncover, which strengthen the hero and reveal the history of the site before the village existed. Further progression comes from skill trees for mining and combat, three tiers of tools and ten upgrade levels for each piece of equipment. The well opens fully only once the player has gathered the six parts of the Founder’s Seal.