A dust storm 15 metres from the capsule: the capsule is a faint shape behind orange haze and fast streaks of sand.

Colonyworking title

Stay in the capsule. Work outside through the robot.

You are stranded alone on an airless planet. Dust storms cover the valley, there is no compass and no satellites. A small scanner and a telepresence robot are how you find your way.

Early prototype · PC

WEATHER

The storm is the enemy

Dust storms come in five categories. A storm starts with a warning: the type, the direction and the time to the front. Then the light turns red and dim, sand streaks across the view, and visibility drops from 40 m to 10 m. In strong gusts the robot holds on to the rocks.

The forecast screen in the capsule: CLEAR, category none, 0 metres per second.

The forecast screen in the capsule. All clear.

The capsule on red sand on a clear day, cliffs behind it.
The forecast screen: dust storm from the west, category 1, arrives in 30 seconds, rising, with a bar chart that peaks later.

A warning: a storm from the west, the time until it arrives, and when it will peak.

The capsule outside, still in clear weather before the storm.
The forecast screen: dust storm active, category 4, 33 metres per second, rising to a peak.

Category 4. From 15 m the capsule is only a shape in the dust.

The capsule seen from 15 metres in a category 4 storm, almost hidden by dust.
The forecast screen at the peak: dust storm active, category 5, 45 metres per second.

The peak. Through the robot's camera there is almost nothing left to see.

The robot's camera at the peak of a category 5 storm: thick orange dust and streaks, the HUD still on.
The capsule from 8 metres in clear weather.
clear · 8 m
The same view from 8 metres in a category 4 storm: the capsule is dim and orange.
cat 4 · 8 m
From 15 metres in the same storm: the capsule is nearly gone.
cat 4 · 15 m
The robot's camera with dust spots on the lens, blurring the storm outside.

Dust settles on the robot's lens and on the capsule window.

NAVIGATION

No compass, no satellites

The planet has no magnetic field, so a compass is useless, and there are no satellites yet. Where the map would be, the HUD says NO SATELLITES.

To find the way home you hold up a slingshot-shaped scanner. It hears the capsule's beacon and the relays, like a radio direction finder, and its LEDs tell you where to turn. Each blink comes with a quiet beep.

  • Red blinking on both whiskers: searching, no target yet.
  • Yellow on one whisker: the target is that way, turn.
  • Yellow on both: straight ahead, walk. Faster blinking means closer.
  • Green on both: you are there.

The screen shows the mode and a rough distance. In a storm the signal is weaker, so the capsule seems further away than it is.

The robot's camera in clear weather, the scanner's left whisker lit yellow: the capsule is to the left, about 150 m.
clear · target to the left
The same in a category 5 storm: the left whisker lit yellow, the screen reads BASE about 220 m.
cat 5 · the distance guess grows
The capsule right ahead, green LEDs on both whiskers, the screen reads BASE under 50 m.
home · green on both

TELEPRESENCE

You never leave the capsule

Put on the telepresence helmet and the link boots up: “TELEPRESENCE LINK… CAMERA ON”. From now on you see through the robot's camera.

The further the robot goes, the weaker the signal and the longer the delay. A storm makes both worse, and the radio glitches on the feed.

The robot's camera in the valley, the scanner pointing to a relay: RELAY R-1 about 75 m.

The first loop: the robot carries ore, the printer prints a relay, and the relay pushes the signal further out.

  1. ore
  2. printer
  3. relay
  4. longer range

SUIT

Suit up

When you do go out yourself, the suit's visor HUD sits on curved glass. It fogs up when you run, your breathing goes from 14 to 32 breaths a minute, and the oxygen runs down. You pass through the airlock, and you see your own legs.

First-person view looking down at your own legs and feet on red sand.

This is an early prototype. Most objects are still simple shapes on purpose: the mechanics come first, the art comes later.