This was so fun, I can't wait for more. Any critiques are mostly about expanding the game, which im sure will happen as you keep developing. I love the art style. I think it'd be nice to be able to have more ways to assign workers to do specific tasks, especially early game with the builders and Backpack carriers. To be able to command them to collect specific things or prioritize certain buildings would be nice. Adding an enemy, maybe a warrior class could keep things a bit more interesting
Thank you, that's a lovely thing to read.
The control question is the one I keep circling around. The whole point is that dwarves decide for themselves and you shape those decisions through what you build and where you build it. But there are clearly moments, especially early on when you have two builders and one carrier, where you can see exactly what needs doing and have no way to say it. I don't want to turn it into a game about selecting units and issuing orders, so the answer is somewhere in between those two things. It's high on my list and I've been sketching at it.
On enemies and a warrior class: there is work happening on what's further down, and it isn't just more of the same tunnels. The game isn't called Crown Below by accident. I'll leave it there for now.
And thank you for the art especially. I draw all of it myself and pixel art is the thing I've been doing longest, so that one lands differently.