Cosmic Commute

Rush hour at the starport

The concourse is packed and the shuttles will not wait. Tap a commuter with a clear path to the gate and it walks to the dock: if the shuttle there is its colour, it hops aboard. If not, it waits on one of the landing pads. A full shuttle launches and the next one docks, so keep an eye on the departures board and plan who goes when. Fill every pad with the wrong commuters and the station overloads.

A station full of surprises

• Reserved riders. Commuters wearing a gold star ride only a gold-star shuttle of their colour, and wait for theirs.
• Mystery signals. Hooded commuters only show their colour once the space beside them clears.
• Cryo pods. Frozen commuters crack free as the crowd around them moves.
• Wormholes. A queue of commuters steps out one by one whenever the doorway is clear; glass ones show who is next.
• Tethers and docking clamps. Some commuters are roped to their neighbours, or clamped until the way above them clears.
• Phase shifters. Ghostly commuters flicker between solid and see-through with every move.
• Buddy lines. Friends hold hands and leave together, if there is room for all of them.
• Oversize commuters. Some commuters need two seats.
• Cruisers and moving walkways. Long cruisers seat six at once, and walkways carry commuters along one step with every move.
• The dark side and unstable reactors. Beacons light up hooded shapes in the dark, and reactor-carrying commuters must leave before their countdown runs out.

A cozy commute

Hand-drawn comic stations, commuters whose faces react to every move, a lounge soundtrack, and a cheer for every clever run, from Nice! to Rush hour! Restore six transit lines, from the Central Loop to the Frost Moon, the Nebula Fairground, the Cloud Giant, where the fluffy pink Puffs ride, and the night side of Umbra.