Night Shift: Sorting Depot

Depot 7, just after ten in the evening. The belt starts up, and it does not stop until six in the morning. Every parcel carries a colored label. Behind the belt stand three sorting carts, one in each color. Drag, land it, next. That is how simply a shift begins. THE TRAY IS THE HEART OF IT There are more colors than carts. For some parcels there is no matching cart standing there — those go on the counter until one rolls in. Up to three of the same color share a bay. So the scarce thing is not the number of parcels but the color: do you open a fourth bay for this one purple, or hold it on the belt a few seconds longer and bet that a second one is coming? THE MANIFEST The next three shipments stand top right, in color and symbol. Without the lookahead, buffering would be guessing. With it, it is a plan. NOT EVERY PARCEL IS A PARCEL From quarter past twelve, odd things turn up. Express parcels breathe visibly and pay double if they reach their cart in time. Fragile ones carry hazard stripes — the wrong cart costs a heart here, not just the multiplier. And on a misrouted parcel the label is smudged: which color is underneath, you only find out once you pick it up. PROMOTIONS Every time a new color joins, the shift stops and lays three cards on the table: an extra bay, a heart back, thirty seconds of double points, a throttled belt, a colleague who clears the tray. NIGHT DELIVERY At two on the dot, a surge arrives for twelve seconds. A night needs a middle. THE CLOCK 22:00 to 06:00. The end-of-shift screen names your knocking-off time by the clock, and the profile remembers the latest hour you ever reached. “I made it to four” is a sentence you can tell somebody. BETWEEN SHIFTS Every sorted parcel counts permanently and pushes your career along — from temp to depot legend. Plus a daily bonus, three daily goals and a shop paid for in stamps: cartons in charcoal, navy or with a gold edge, lacquered carts, and three offices that put a different night outside your window — rain, a skyline, or the first light over the yard. NO PAY-TO-WIN No account, and nothing you can buy makes your shift easier than the shift of somebody who buys nothing. The whole shop is paid for in stamps you earn on the belt. If you want to, you can buy stamps or watch a short ad between shifts for a few more — both voluntary, both pay only in stamps. Ads never run during a shift, and “Quiet Depot” switches them off for good. The game works completely offline. BUILT TO BE READABLE Every color also carries its own shape — circle, triangle, square, star, diamond, cross — on the label and on the plate of every cart. Red and green can be told apart without hue. Five hearts. A belt that keeps speeding up. And, eventually, six in the morning.