RTFA: http://dan-ball.jp/en/javagame/dust/

This web game is to use the mouse to feed Wind powder, the powder dance to enjoy the game.

Dan-Ball has released Powder Game 5.6! That’s right – not 5.1, but 5.6, which includes a bunch of new items like soap, thunder, and laser. The maximum dot count is 20,000 but the performance is great on the new version.

If you have never played Powder Game, then you might not initially understand how to “Have fun” with it… Well, let me explain. It’s a physics simulator, so you set up these cool scenarios and see how they play out. If you’ve ever played with a marble run, then you know what I mean.

In the picture below, I set up a simple holder for water, oil, and magma. I put a metal container around each one, and I put a clone block below each one. This is a recipe for disaster!

Basically, the cloner makes tons of dots out of whatever drops onto it. Then, the cloned dots fall onto the bottom of the screen and mix. Here’s where the magic of Powder Game comes in: each dot has different behaviors when they interact. The oil and the magma create fire and wind, which mixes everything up. The water and magma create stone. The water rusts the metal, the magma melts the metal, etc…

The dots all behave somewhat realistically, insofar as they have physical properties, and the simulator does a good job of staying true to the “meaning” of the dots. The end result is a sort of sandbox or playground that lets you create all sorts of great interactions. …and it’s up to you to figure out how you, personally, “have fun” with this sort of environment.

This sort of mechanism is similar to the new game from Namco, Noby Noby Boy. In NNB, you basically just walk around and mess with the universe:

There is no explicit goal in Noby Noby Boy, any more so than Powder Game has a goal. …and yet, these are definitely “games.” The underlying principle is that you need to find your own fun; the game is what you make of it. From an article by Matt Leone on 1up.com:

…the most common criticism of Noby Noby Boy around the office is that the game doesn’t set enough goals for players — it’s less of a game, and more of a playground. Katamari was an unusual mechanic wrapped inside traditional objectives and time limits, while Noby Noby Boy is an unusual mechanic without any of those trappings. But I’ve been playing the game almost nonstop for the past few days, and have been trying to figure out why I keep playing. And I think it comes down to a feeling that there’s always something new to discover.

A great way to find some fun is to watch videos of other people having fun. Here’s a Vacuum Cleaner, that was built with an older version of Powder Game:

Powder Game, which was originally released in 2002, has this “fun” element nailed. One time in 2006, I spent 6 hours making a volcano, filling it with gunpowder and oil, drawing intestinal underground tunnels for magma to flow through…

If I spend 6 hours moving little virtual dots around to make an imaginary volcano, does that make me a freak? Absolutely not! … which is the whole point of finding your own fun. I thought it was fun, and I don’t need some game designer to give me instructions, objectives, or goals in order to have fun.

What is your “fun” like?