The Universe Is Dark is an Idle Game by heartosis made for itch.io's Incremental Game Jam 2021. You are a protostar and have to collect particles to gain photos and buy upgrades, getting more mass by doing so. Once you reach enough mass, you can collapse into a star and begin anew, eventually becoming able to light up the universe.
The game is playable here
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This game provides examples of:
- A.I.-Generated Economy: Making three stars unlocks autobuyers for all three protostar photon upgrades, while 12 stars let you autocollapse stars.
- Artistic License – Physics: Colliding with particles emits photons, even though the game points out that's not how physics work.
- Cap: All three photon upgrades eventually reach a max level. Resetting for the first star removes the level cap, but makes them much more expensive past that point.
- Completion Meter: There's a bar at the bottom that shows the percentage of how close you are to lighting up the universe.
- End-Game Results Screen: The victory screen states how many minutes it took to beat the game.
- New Game Plus: Starting from 1e25 photons, you can collapse a star to reset its mass and have to grow it again, but you gain interstellar photons and stars for upgrades and milestones.
- Power-Up Magnet: Particles are automatically attracted to you. At 10kg it becomes stronger when you're standing still, while at 1000Tg it is permanently active.
- Reset Milestones: Resetting for stars grants milestones based on how many stars you have. These include buying max photon upgrades, automatically making protostars, autobuyers for protostar photon upgrades, and speeding up the star collapse animation.
