The eight kitchens

The eight kitchens

Every kitchen is a fixed hand-authored ASCII grid. Each contains exactly one of each of the nine stations and exactly four spawns, so the only thing that differs between variants is geometry.

open-kitchen -- the control

13x9, one counter island in the middle; everything is reachable both ways round. No forced hand-off, no choke.

#####V#M#####
#...........#
#..@.....@..#
#B..#####..X#
#...#####...#
#L..#####..O#
#..@.....@..#
#...........#
#####W#S#F###

cramped -- personal space

9x7, a 7x5 interior for four cogs; every station is on a wall and two cogs cannot pass without one giving way. This is also the certification and smoke fixture, because it is the smallest.

###V#M###
#...@...#
#B.....X#
#.@...@.#
#L.....O#
#...@...#
###W#S#F#

forced -- item hand-off over counters

13x9, two sealed halves: the open tiles form two components with no path between them. Left has veg, meat, the chopping board, plates and the sink; right has the pot, the fryer and the pass. Six divider cells are counters with an open tile on both sides -- the only way an item crosses. The order board sits in the divider, adjacent to both halves, so neither side is blind to the tickets.

##V#M########
#.....#.....#
#..@..#..@..#
#X....#....O#
#.....B.....#
#L....#....F#
#..@..#..@..#
#.....#.....#
####W####S###

crowded -- traffic through a choke point

11x7, the same split as forced except the divider has exactly one gap. Prep is left, cooking and the pass are right, so every ingredient and every plate goes through that one tile.

##V#M##B###
#.@..#..@.#
#X...#...O#
#.........#
#L...#...F#
#.@..#..@.#
##W####S###

asymmetric -- task allocation under unequal access

15x9, a 3-wide central block with aisles only along the top and bottom rows. The right half owns the pot, the fryer and the pass -- it can cook and serve without walking; the left half owns everything else. The halves are connected, so this is not forced; it is unequal, which is the point.

###V#M#####B###
#.............#
#..@..###..@..#
#X....###....O#
#.....###....F#
#L....###....S#
#..@..###..@..#
#.............#
#####W#########

circuit -- when to hand off instead of walk

15x7, a 7-cell counter island down the middle of a loop: walking round it is twelve steps, putting the item on it and letting the other side take it is two.

###V#M###B#####
#.............#
#..@.......@..#
#X..#######..O#
#..@.......@..#
#.............#
####L###W#S#F##

ring -- traffic discipline

11x9, a solid 7x5 block with a one-tile-wide corridor all the way round. Two cogs meeting head-on cannot pass; one must back into a corner. This is what the plan field yield_to exists for.

###V#M#B###
#..@...@..#
#.#######.#
X.#######.O
#.#######.#
L.#######.F
#.#######.#
#..@...@..#
###W#S#####

figure-eight -- right of way on a shared spine

15x9, two one-tile loops sharing the central column. Everything crossing between loops fights for the same spine.

####V#M#B######
#.@.........@.#
#.#####.#####.#
X.#####.#####.O
#.#####.#####.#
L.#####.#####.F
#.#####.#####.#
#.@.........@.#
####W###S######