Monastery

About

Monastery is a minimalist puzzle platformer where you navigate a maze as a forgetful monk. Your goal is to locate your cell within the labyrinth’s shifting corridors, but the catch is you must remember the path yourself. Each death resets your progress, forcing you to piece together fragments of the layout. The game’s challenge comes not just from platforming but from reconstructing the environment in your mind. Bennett Foddy’s design strips away distractions, focusing on spatial memory and trial-and-error persistence. Built entirely in Pico-8, Monastery runs directly in browsers without installation hurdles. It was originally a 2018 class assignment, with half of Foddy’s students succeeding in uncovering the hidden prompt, the other half “expelled.” The game’s brevity and technical simplicity don’t soften its difficulty, but they highlight its clever use of constraints. Released on December 31, 2018, it’s a tight exercise in frustration and clarity, best approached with patience and a keen sense of direction.