Indie developer Moon Kid’s first game, Satellina, has released for iPhone and iPad. Now available on the App Store worldwide, this elegant and challenging “puzzle in motion” sells for $1.99 or equivalent in local currency. Owners of Android phones and tablets can join in on January 29 when Satellina arrives on Google Play.
In Satellina, patterns of green, yellow, and red particles move around the screen in sync with a melodic synthpop soundtrack. The objective is deceptively simple: drag your finger to collect only the green particles without bumping into yellow or red. When you’ve cleared all the green particles, yellow particles turn green and red particles turn yellow. Clear them all to complete the level — but don’t bump the wrong color, or you’ll have to start over!
With 50 hypnotic levels, a challenging but rewarding (and never punitive) difficulty curve, and a timed structure perfect for speedrunning, Satellina is a minimalist game that sucks you in. While the constant motion and running timer provide challenge and tension, the particles follow repeating routes, so success relies as much on pattern recognition and puzzle solving as it does on quick reflexes. Satellina includes an alternate color palette to accommodate players with red/green colorblindness.
For those who wish to relax to Satellina‘s entrancing background music without the pressure of spinning particles and a ticking clock, the full soundtrack is available on BandCamp. These eleven original tracks, described by game designer / composer Peter Malamud Smith as “melodic retro-styled synthpop with an early-’80s tone,” can be streamed for free or downloaded with “pay what you want” pricing.
You can follow Satellina on Facebook.
About Moon Kid
Moon Kid is the game studio of Peter Malamud Smith, a game designer, writer, and musician living in New York. Peter co-created the 8-bit adaptation of The Great Gatsby, writes occasionally for the AV Club and others, and plays guitar and cries and sings, la la la la, in a band called The Aye-Ayes.