Blog / Release notes
Planets: walking all the way around a tiny world
Planets started with a simple idea: what if a platformer had no left edge and no right edge? Every world is a small circle, gravity points at its center, and the camera turns so your astronaut always stands upright. Keep walking in one direction and you end up back at your house.
The other direction to go is down. Hold the dig key and you can tunnel through the crust, the mantle and the core, then come out on the far side of the planet. A finished hole works as a shortcut for as long as you keep using it.
How to play
- A and D walk, W or Space jumps, and Shift boosts.
- Hold S to dig. W climbs back out of a hole.
- E collects rocks, opens shops and uses machines.
- R switches your robots between following you and collecting on their own.
- On a phone or tablet, on-screen buttons do the same jobs.
Digging pays 5 rocks a second, and breaking all the way through pays a bonus. Spend your rocks on a pickaxe and a drill to dig faster, a jetpack and fuel tank to stay in the air, and an Ore Drill that doubles what digging pays.
Three worlds, three currencies
You start on the Moon. Getting to Mercury costs a toll of 1,000 moon rocks, and Mars costs 1,500 orange rocks. The rockets on Mercury and Mars have crashed, so you'll need to repair them before you can fly on. Once you've visited a planet, flying back is free.
Each world is bigger than the last: Mercury is one and a half times the size of the Moon, and Mars is one and a half times the size of Mercury.
Skins that change how you play
| Skin | What it does | Where to get it |
|---|---|---|
| Astronaut | The starting skin. Space jumps. | You begin with it |
| Rover | Wheels, with a radar you toggle on Space | The Moon |
| Martian | Space summons a drivable buggy | Mercury |
| Robot | Fastest boost in the game, radar always on | Mars |
Tips
- Finish a hole in one go. A hole fills back in after you've spent 20 seconds outside it on that planet.
- Buy digging speed early, since the breakthrough bonus rewards getting through quickly.
- Buy legs, arms, a head and a battery, then hold E at the fuse machine to build a robot. Press R and your crew gathers rocks for you.
- The game autosaves every couple of seconds, so you can close the tab whenever you like.
Release log
- First release, with the Moon, Mercury, Mars, shops, skins and robots.
- Holes now refill after 20 seconds outside them, so planets don't turn into Swiss cheese.
- Worlds got bigger. Mercury is now 1.5 times the Moon, and Mars is 1.5 times Mercury.