You are a small dude in a red cone hat. Somebody dropped thirty ice creams all over the city. Go get them. Mind the traffic.
Play now
JUST A DUDE is a small 3D collect-a-thon in the look of a late-nineties console game: chunky low-poly models, wobbly vertices, blocky textures and a 480 by 270 picture blown up to fill your screen. It runs on a phone or a laptop straight from the browser.
Every run drops you in a freshly generated city with a timer running. Somewhere in the five-by-five grid of blocks are thirty ice creams and one golden sundae. Find them all, beat your best time, then press one key for a brand new city.
The dude was modelled after a plush toy: red cone hat, peach head, blue ball body and four stubby pink limbs. He has no arms to speak of. He manages.
Every city starts you at the ice cream truck on the central plaza. The timer starts the moment you press a key.
Ice creams sit on sidewalks, in parks, on plazas, in parking lots and down alleys. Walk into one to grab it. The counter in the corner tells you how many are left.
Grab the last one and the run ends. Your best time for that city is saved in your browser, so you can replay the same layout and shave seconds off.
Twenty-five blocks laid out from a seed number. Apartment blocks, parks with fountains, checkered plazas with statues, parking lots. The city number is on the title screen. Share the link and a friend gets the exact same layout.
Eight flavours: vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, mint, blueberry, lemon, pistachio and bubblegum. Some come with a second scoop, some with a cherry. They bob and spin so you can spot them from down the street.
One per city, always placed at the spot farthest from the truck. It doesn't count toward the thirty. It's there for bragging rights, and the end screen calls you legendary if you bring it home.
Traffic loops the streets on the right-hand side, all day. Get hit and you're knocked back and drop one of your ice creams. It lands nearby, so go pick it up again. Look both ways. Or don't.
Down to the last few and can't find them? Press the sense key and a compass points to the nearest ice cream with the distance in metres. It only lasts a moment, so read it quick.
Parked on the central plaza with a cone on the roof. It plays a jingle you can hear when you're close, which makes it a handy landmark when you're lost on the far side of town.
Grass, trees, benches, a fountain. Pigeons peck around and scatter when you run at them.
Checkered tiles, a statue on a plinth, open sightlines. Easy pickings.
Rows of parked cars. Ice creams hide between them.
Collect the thirtieth ice cream and the run ends with your time. If it's a new best for that city, the game says so. The golden sundae gets its own line.
From there you can replay the same city to beat your time or roll a new one. Best times are stored per city in your browser, nothing is sent anywhere.
Start a run
| Keyboard | |
|---|---|
| W A S D | Move |
| Q R or drag the mouse | Turn the camera |
| Space | Jump |
| E | Sweet sense: point to the nearest ice cream |
| N | New city |
| Enter | Start, and replay the same city after a run |
| Touch | |
| Left half of the screen | Virtual joystick, move |
| Right half of the screen | Drag to turn the camera |
| JUMP and SENSE buttons | Bottom right corner |
