Pocket Planets is a relaxing sandbox game that allows the player to explore the wonders of gravity by smashing things together and creating interesting solar systems. The player can spawn a variety of space objects in an open universe where they can experiment with physics, unlock new objects, and generally have a good time.
To get a better feel for the gameplay, here is a short trailer:
Development
During the fall of my Junior year at Champlain College, I studied abroad in Montreal. Among exploring the beautiful city, I took a course where each programmer in the class was tasked with creating a game from start to finish over the 15 weeks. After three weeks of weighing the pros and cons of various game ideas, I decided to develop Pocket Planets.
During the main 12 weeks of development, I focused heavily on making Pocket Planets a mobile-friendly game. My thought process behind the gameplay was:
What type of game would I want to casually play while sitting on the metro?
I’ve always had a fascination with space and physics, so I figured why not create a simple gravity simulator that unlocks the universe right in my pocket.
Gameplay Pictures
Playable Download
If you would like to download Pocket Planets and play it for yourself, I have created both a Windows and Mac version of the game. (Pocket Planets is meant for mobile devices, but until I pay for an Apple developer account, it will forever be on my phone only).
Otherwise, if you enjoy watching others more than playing, here is a longer gameplay video:
Repository
If you’re interested in the code behind Pocket Planets, check out the GitHub repo—my GitHub is Andy608.
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