Stardust is my Ludum Dare 60 Compo entry. You play a clump of cosmic dust that pulls in everything smaller than itself and grows, through a whole star's life: dust cloud, gas nebula, protostar, yellow star, blue giant, hypergiant. When the hydrogen runs out, your star collapses, and its mass decides what it becomes: a white dwarf, a neutron star... or a black hole.

Finding the feel. The first prototype had sliders for everything. I quickly swapped them for a dozen complete "feel" presets — vacuum, real gravity, a funnel, a snowball, a heavy star — and played each one until one stuck. The winner made the star heavy: it turns slowly, moves with inertia, and the world falls into it instead of you chasing the world.

Yarn instead of fire. Stars are usually drawn as glowing balls. I went with twisted yarn and wool: the hero is a ball of fiery strands, and the dust is little tufts of fluff. It gives the whole thing a soft, handmade look while still feeling hot and alive.

The camera is the progression. The zoom depends on your mass. You always stay about the same size on screen, and the universe keeps shrinking around you. Every transformation is a moment where the scale suddenly makes sense again.

Small and fast. No engine: TypeScript on a bare canvas with WebGL shaders, about 3 MB. The music is synthesized live in code.

Play Stardust in your browser — I'd love your rating and feedback. What should a star eat next?