Tiny Lab! by Wren Erickson

[raw]
made by Wren Erickson for Ludum Dare 56 (COMPO)

Have you ever wanted to shrink people down and watch them live out their lives as teeny tiny people in an ant farm? Of course you have, that's why we voted for tiny creatures! Well now you can shrink people down and have some fun!

Recruit.jpg Shrink Them.jpg Build.jpg

​Controls:

A, and D moves the camera between the minimizer, the wall, and the terminal. Clicking on a cell in the wall will let you zoom in on it. Once zoomed in you may build in build nodes by clicking and then selecting your chosen object. Pressing escape will exit the build menu, pressing escape again will let you un-focus the current room.

Some important information:

Traits affect the salary of each test subject, additionally they modify how fast each of their needs deplete. You get more money from subjects who are happy, than those who are sad. Every 2 minutes you get paid, and 5 new subjects are added to the recruitment tab.

Beds are used for sleeping

Tables are used for eating

TVs are used for resting

Lab is used for working, working a lab will generate money for you.

Your test subject can do most things without furniture, but it will decrease their happiness, and they won't gain as many benefits to that activity.

Good luck keeping everyone alive!

​All assets made by me.

Tools:

Acoustica Mixcraft - Music

​Unity - Game Engine

Chiptone - SFX Generator

Blender - 3D Modeling

Aseprite - Pixel Art

Change Log:

Fixed several game breaking bugs where the AI would soft-lock itself.

Ratings

Overall 87th 3.763⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Fun 139th 3.447⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 54th 3.895⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Theme 20th 4.289⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 92th 3.868⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Audio 99th 3.526⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Humor 64th 3.639⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Mood 65th 3.833⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Given 25🗳️ 11🗨️

Feedback

Raymond Bourke
08. Oct 2024 · 03:32 UTC
Really excellent use of the theme, this is the kind of idea I wish I had the confidence to go with, very ambitious
AlxJE
08. Oct 2024 · 04:05 UTC
You have nailed the theme of tiny cretures in a unconventional way! The game play reminds me the ant hive I once possesd, really intriguing. Nice work done!
Lakea
08. Oct 2024 · 11:25 UTC
A really good entry, probably the longest played of all the ones ive played so far.
Pincushion
09. Oct 2024 · 00:43 UTC
Yes, I did want to shrink people down and watch them live out their lives. This is a really good entry. Fun to explore it and watch the anthill. Had fun hiring and monitoring test subjects.
stmate03
09. Oct 2024 · 15:18 UTC
looks to be a fun entry, got a bit confused because there are no tutorials or indicators or anything, alas looks to be a classic management sim with a fun twist, I like it!
Googoobachoo
09. Oct 2024 · 17:04 UTC
Damn, that is some complex programming you have done here.
The modelling is great, too. I like the lego bricks as building material.
The user interface on the screens is awesome as heck.

If I have to find a flaw, I would say the music is a bit repetitive. And there is no way to mess with your tiny humans (˵ •̀ᴗ•́˵)و

Reminds me a lot of Downsizing, the Matt Damon film and an episode from the show Solar Opposites:

![solar-opposites-2.png](///raw/54f/83/z/68505.png)
ThaProfesional
10. Oct 2024 · 12:15 UTC
The fact you built this for the competition absolutely blows my mind. Cool graphics, fun and very fitting music. The way they just run around and do stuff.. it's all so cool and cohesive. I'm really keen to come back to this when I have more time and just.. build and watch everyone run around. Great work.
bentglasstube
12. Oct 2024 · 21:01 UTC
Really complicated game to produce for a game jam, so nice work. Some minor details like progress on building things seemed to be missing but it was fun to watch the little workers scramble around building things. I enjoyed the calming music as well.
Adrien Tremblay
13. Oct 2024 · 20:06 UTC
Crazy concept! Not that much depth to the game, but what is there is very polished. The models, controls, and animations are very nice. Would DEFINETLY buy and play a full version of a game like this. Fallout Shelter but better.
island-jam-2-group-3
14. Oct 2024 · 20:58 UTC
The behaviour of the tiny workers seems a bit off at times, with all options built and they going for a walk of remaining still for a while. Also I am wondering if there is more to it than building all the basic buildings (ie. new buildings / updates). Other than that, it's impresive the amount of work put on this, congrats!
henk
17. Oct 2024 · 20:50 UTC
The level of detail is super impressive, and the game is highly enjoyable to boot!

Unfortunately, once I started building things on the second level, the path-finding
seemed to freak out: the little people would get stuck trying to pass each other on
the stairs and a bunch of them stopped moving almost entirely, eventually
starving to death.
DogeSquad
20. Oct 2024 · 18:00 UTC
Interesting take! Nice visuals I think it could have a bit more depth because the main idea is very good.