[[quoteright:217:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/From_Dust_cover_23.png]]
''From Dust'' is a video game published by Creator/{{Ubisoft}}, developed by Ubisoft Montpellier, and directed by Éric Chahi (the designer of ''VideoGame/AnotherWorld'' and ''VideoGame/HeartOfDarkness''). It was released on 27 July 2011 on Platform/XboxLiveArcade, and made available for the [[Platform/IBMPersonalComputer PC]] through Platform/{{Steam}} on 17 August 2011 and for [[Platform/PlayStationNetwork PSN]] on September 13, 2011.

The game [[AGodIsYou places the player in the role of an unnamed, unseen god]], tasked with protecting and enlightening a nomadic tribe. To aid this undertaking, the player is capable of manipulating the environment in miraculous ways.

''From Dust'' is notable for its nigh-unprecedented level of environmental detail. Plugging a waterfall with enough earth will cause the rivers resulting from the cascade to dry up. Lakes at the base of a volcano accrue sediment which increases their viscosity. Great tsunami waves will break against rocks and flow realistically over the land. [[SceneryPorn It's also really, really pretty]].
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!!''From Dust'' contains examples of the following tropes:
* AndManGrewProud: One of the unlockable tribal memories reveals that this is what happened with the Ancients. [[spoiler: They used their awesome power over the Breath to build themselves a paradise... which became so heavy that it sank into the sea. And that's just what happens to your men, in the end.]]
-->[[spoiler: ''And here we are, as on the first day...'']]
* ArtificialStupidity: The Men are very, ''very'' picky about what they consider flat land. They can run across flat land or gentle slopes but cannot climb steep slopes. The slightest obstacle will often cause them to flip out and take huge detours. And God forbid you try to raise a totem from the water with lava. Unless it's almost perfectly flat, they can get stuck five feet from it.
* CrueltyIsTheOnlyOption: One challenge map requires you to destroy a village with lava, to clear a path for water to flow.
%%* DishingOutDirt: Breath of Earth.
* TheFaceless: The Men, who all wear masks, male and female alike. The masks are actually [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in-game, as they apparently are necessary for the People to play music correctly to manipulate the elements.
* FantasyCounterpartCulture: The Tribe's [[SpeakingSimlish "language"]], manner of dress, and belief in everything holding a song is very similar that of Australian aborigines.
* GaiasVengeance: The entire game consists of you trying to hold back floods, tides, tsunamis, volcanoes, geysers, and explosive flora. [[spoiler:The ending is an even more extreme version of this, where Mother Nature has simply had ''enough'' of you and tears your entire land apart.]]
* GiantWallOfWateryDoom: Tsunamis, which appear at regular intervals on some maps to completely ruin your villages.
* AGodIsYou: The core premise of the game. You play as a god and have to manipulate the environment in order to save a colony of people.
* GreenThumb: You can uproot and move certain special kinds of trees at will. You can also get the power of the Breath of Plants in the last level, which can cause palm forests to spring forth on the bare earth or recede away entirely in an instant.
* GroundhogDayLoop: [[spoiler:Every time the Men complete the final ritual and end their journey, they're warped back to where they first began, with no memory of what happened and all their work undone.]]
* KillItWithFire: Volcanos and fire trees will put the Men on the receiving end of this very often, especially because any vegetation can instantly catch alight and form forest fires.
* KillItWithWater: When the Men aren't in danger of being flattened by tsunamis, they're often at the mercy of tides or torrential rainstorms.
%%* LavaAddsAwesome: Breath of Fire.
* MagicMusic: The tribe's magic, the Breath included, is based around the music of everything. For example, villages can learn music that will repel water to avoid flooding.
%%* MakingASplash: Breath of Water.
* NatureSpirit: The Breath, essentially an incarnation of the life in all things.
%%* PatchworkMap: Created by you most of the time.
* {{Precursors}}: The Ancients. The Men are their distant descendants, now on the brink of extinction.
* RaceLift: Though the Men are clearly dark-skinned in the game, the promotional adverts portray an individual who is either a very tan white guy or Hispanic.
* SceneryPorn: The environments are absolutely beautiful. It gets even better when you start manipulating the elements and watch the rivers, plants, and even volcanoes all grow, move, and flow on their own.
* SdrawkcabName: One of the challenge maps, the description being it's a "well-disguised homage" to the game's inspiration, is named Xuenylom, or Molyneux (from Creator/PeterMolyneux, creator of ''VideoGame/{{Populous}}'') backwards.
* SecretTestOfCharacter: In a way, the final level. [[spoiler: You're suddenly given many powers that you previously didn't have, so it's almost expected for you to go overboard with them while experimenting, intentionally or not. So it should come to no surprise that nature finds your overuse unacceptable.]]
* StuffBlowingUp: The explosive plant, which does [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin exactly what you would expect.]]
%%* TerrainSculpting: Pretty much the entire point.
* TimedMission:
** Many of the challenge maps, where the tasks can range from [[EscortMission making sure that one of your villagers finds the knowledge to repel water before they're flattened by a tsunami]], or laying out a path for your villagers to walk on before ''the entire island sinks in a massive landslide.''
** Normal gameplay has elements of this, too. Certain natural disasters are timed, forcing you to get set up before they hit. Any map with lava is also better to do quickly, because no matter how much you try to redirect the flow, the edge of the flow hardens and makes the drainage ditch smaller, eventually overflowing and forcing you to rebuild. Let this go on for too long and it gets impossible to manage.
* TomatoInTheMirror: [[spoiler:The Men ''are'' the Ancients, just BroughtDownToNormal.]]
* ViciousCycle: [[spoiler:Every time the tribe regains their ancient power, they anger the world by performing the final ritual and end up stranded back on the same windswept cliff over and over, for heaven knows how many times.]]
* VideoGameCaringPotential: The point of the game is to guide and take care of the tribe to protect them from the elements, which means you can divert lava flows and floods away from the villages and several territories have you protect them from tsunamis.
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: The player can simply drop water or lava directly on villages to watch them die, so long as they keep at least one village alive at all times.
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