Minimal Mine

The Ruhr area around 1957, built from cubes: a map made from OpenStreetMap data with 90 selected collieries, each with its own profile. In the mission you go down into a model colliery, open the mountain and put a new panel in seam Sonnenschein into operation – not yet connected, flooded, with no ventilation path. You drive the roadway, install pump and face supports, open a ventilation path and lay track and belt – until water, air and coal work together.

Minimal Mine is the playable preview of an interactive museum installation. Under “As an installation” the game shows what it can become for museums, visitor centres or events: a shared game table with four stations, a projection wall, tailored content. You play right in your browser, in German and English: no download, no app, no sign-up.

• Open the mountain: Section and 3D show strata, shafts and roadways – changing the view never changes operation.
• Choose route A or route B: short and cheap through water-bearing sandstone, or longer and more expensive across a fault.
• A pump only works with a pipe to the main pumping station.
• Air needs a way in and a way out: first the ventilation link, then the air door in the old staple shaft.
• Work at the face starts only with roof support, a dry bottom gate and enough fresh air.
• The trial run reveals the bottleneck: a double-deck cage or faster winding brings more tubs up.
• The results count time, reserves and needless interventions – then a variant awaits: Wet ground or High output.