The Heaviest Objects in the Universe
A game jam entry exploring the heaviest objects in the universe: node_modules folders.
Theme: Inception - Dependencies within dependencies within dependencies.
Dive into packages to reveal their own internal dependency trees. Go deeper. Find more chaos. Tame it.
Bonus: No Text - Pure visual communication through shapes, colors, and symbols.
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How to Play
- Click the root to spawn packages
- Click packages to dive into their scope
- Resolve conflicts on red wires (click the X)
- Merge duplicates by dragging matching icons and halos together
- Ship to npm when weight fills the bar (earn Cache Tokens)
- Gained tokens unlock higher tiers, more packages, and deeper nesting
- At Tier 5: Hold to Collapse for the finale
Progression
- Ship packages to the npm registry mass
- Earn Cache Tokens based on weight + efficiency
- Higher tiers unlock deeper dependency nesting
- Tier 5 unlocks the Collapse - the true ending
Controls
- Click/drag to interact
- Scroll to zoom
- Drag canvas to pan
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Made for New Year's Incremental Game Jam 2026
Development log
- QOL and Teaching Changes2 days ago
Comments
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what if we like, took baby sensory videos and turned it into a game
A lot of people are/will be frustrated at the lack of clarity, but I think this format has A LOT of potential, I personally feels like it needs to be slightly more, erm, "incremental" (lol), in the sense of making sure that only one new functionality unlocks at a time to make sure the user is able to feel what it does. The little pictorial tutorial in the bottom right goes a long way but it's not the only possible solution. I definitely liked it and I personally would like to encourage you to ignore the "hurr durr i need explanation" crowd and keep exploring this direction, even if some people might complain!
EDIT: just found the little tooltips (they weren't there 24 hours ago, right?), that helps but I feel like more "show don't tell" would be more interesting? Not sure, but do keep going!
Yes, the tooltips are new.
The play button that shows up in the lower right teaching book after the first prestige should be closer to the `show` teaching flow.
this is all style no substance. the top left and bottom left stuff... no explanation for what it does. apparently its a prestige.... but why?
and when you complete a few they have errors suddenly... but why?
this game is just fully "but why"
I cannot tell what that bottom icon with the toggalable X does at all. I have prestiged 5 times now and filled up all the little dots. This game is super intriguing but others are correct that its hard to understand. That said I think your tutorials at the bottom right are fantastic. Stroke of genius. Seriously. I really like this take on textless. Great work!
I thik the togglable X is an automation regarding the red line bubbles, when it's on they stop appearing
Added a bunch of mouseover short animation loop tooltips to the resources, upgrades, and bit in the prestige panel.
Should help with clarity on things like automation
it's very beautiful! fun for a while... but the looks scored way higher than the fun for me... my personal experience was I got bored in less than 5 min... maybe the lack of words became a lack of meaning... my point of view...
I...feel like maybe it could have used some words after all. I admit I'm intrigued and I'm enjoying clicking on the funny little circles, but I can't really tell what I'm accomplishing. (Are my numbers going up? I don't even have numbers.)
Not giving up on it yet though.
Agreed. It’s not clear what the progress even is or what the upgrades even do.
I would really reconsider whether this is an idle game considering it's entirely active.
Fair, it is an active incremental. Removed idle.
Not even sure this can be considered an incremental
There's no number, no growing rate of progress, not accomplishing more
Just progressing at the same rate, doing the same things, for the same result
It's definitely incremental I could feel things unlocking.
It's incrementing the depth the player has access to with each prestige and thereby the number of nodes to "solve", so incremental is accurate. Numbers and an incrementing rate of progress aren't the only things that can be incremented, just very common; they're not a requirement.