A small god game about smashing specks of dust into stars, worlds and life, and what happens when that life starts looking back. £0.99 until 27 November, then £1.99.
Standfirst:
Firstlight started as a question on a Friday: what if you were a god, but the only thing you could do was throw things?
You begin in an empty dark with a few specks drifting about. Flick two of them together hard enough and they make something new. Hydrogen becomes a star. Rock and ice become worlds. Throw a world at a star and it settles into orbit. If it lands in the temperate band, where it's neither scorching nor frozen, life takes hold.
Then, eventually, that life notices you.
Civilisations in Firstlight grow up. First they raise shields. Then they learn to push your throws aside, and then to shoot them down. The move that built their solar system no longer works on it. From that point you have to decide what kind of god you are. You can be gentle and earn their trust with gifts, or you can meddle in their wars. You can stay hidden, or let them find you.
What's in it
• 26 recipes to discover, from nebulae and comets to neutron stars, black holes and Dyson swarms
• Civilisations with minds of their own: they expand, go to war with each other and remember how you treated them
• Six endings, some of which you might not find on your first universe
• 26 Game Center achievements
• No ads, no in-app purchases and no account. Your universe saves on your device.
• Plays in a minute or two between things, or for an evening
Try it first
The opening of the game is free to play in your browser at casualfridays.co.uk/#firstlight. It runs from the first speck to your first living world. The full game picks up where the demo stops, when life starts looking back.
Launch
Firstlight is £0.99 until 27 November, then £1.99. Buy it once and you have the whole game.
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6817053662
If you play it, I'd love to hear which ending you found first. A review on the App Store helps a small game more than you'd think.
John,
Casual Fridays