Dust Mates by Zirrrus
A little game about dust motes working together to clean up.
Update Oct 11th
While I wasn't able to get a Web version to work, I did fix some issues in the game: - Motes didn't do their job during animations, now they should actually do stuff instead of using telekinesis. - Motes now wait until enough are around before getting in position to do something. - Fixed some other small issues with animations. - The text above interactables should be bit more descriptive, hopefully it's clearer what to do now. - Resolved some errors in the background, there are still plenty popping up in the console. - Selection circles should be in the way a bit less. - Adjusted camera angle, main camera was incorrectly set to perspective instead of orthogonal. - Various small adjustments to the units and the level.
Controls:
Click on it to select a single little guy. Click and drag to select multiple.
When something is selected, right-click to send it there (if there is a path).
When the motes are carrying something, click on the thing to select it. Then you can move it by right-clicking.
When you want them to stop carrying it, instead drag-select the motes and send them away.
What to do
There are two types of things the units can interact with. One are "gates" where you need to send X to open them up.
Then there are objects which can be carried, these also have a counter above them. Once that is filled up, it can be selected like a unit and sent somewhere. Three of them go to the scale... the other you are trying to get rid of.
Sometimes the motes get lost on the way or distracted doing something else. This is their personality and has nothing to do with bugs or broken pathfinding. If a thing is not activating, just send the motes even closer.
Web version
Looks like it simply is not possible to prevent the crashes. It has something to do with the physics system. I tried reducing the amount of collision tests that happen in the game, but it didn't help. And from the looks of it, the crash happens completely randomly whenever a physics interaction happens.
| Link | https://zirrrus.itch.io/dust-mates |
| Link | https://zirrrus.itch.io/dust-mates |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/56/dust-mates |
Ratings
| Overall | 156th | 3.559⭐ | 19🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 170th | 3.361⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 160th | 3.361⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 126th | 3.763⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 171th | 3.5⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 120th | 3.278⭐ | 20🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 186th | 3.263⭐ | 21🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 47🗳️ | 11🗨️ |
![`()D%]Y2GV7{%)%6UNOO05G.png](///raw/eca/06/z/66267.png)
The things that are still there - which have "0 / X" above them - can be carried by that many units.
You are supposed to put them where it says "Weight: 0 / 10".
Send however many units are required there, once it is filled up, left-click the thing. Now it should be selected and you can move it around like a normal unit.
I should have made a visual distinction between the gates and the carryable things...
Anyway, this was awesome! I loved all the little cutscenes whenever you did something important, they really added to the experience! The premise here was great, and I liked the little dust mote, especially how they had different speeds (one of them kept getting left behind when carrying the crumpled paper, which was a bit annoying but also endearing). I didn't understand how carrying things worked until I re-read your description - I kept trying to just right click again after picking something up, only for the motes to drop it right back - but I can more than understand the lack of a proper tutorial due to the time limitation :) Overall, I really enjoyed it, amazing entry!