Astrarium: Clockwork Skies

A one-thumb shooter of brass and pearls: graze bullets to charge your Overdrive, turn every bullet on screen to gold, and break painted constellations pearl by pearl on a voyage of 100 levels.

The sky is a clockwork, and it has turned against you. Astrarium is a vertical shooter built for a phone held in one hand. Your ship flies above your thumb; only its bright core can be hit, and every bullet that passes through the gold ring around it charges your Overdrive. Fire it and the bullets become gold. Break enough with it and you hold a Supernova: one ring of light across the whole sky.

The voyage of 100 levels leads through sixteen skies and a finale, each with its own enemies, its own rule and its own theme: curtains of sand with one wandering gap, twins that must fall together, a garden that grows back. The constellation bosses move: painted brass-and-pearl figures such as Scorpius, Draco, Orion, Gemini and Serpens, whose pearls are their weak points, plus labyrinth bosses you have to fly into. All 100 levels and 34 bosses are in the game from the first day.

After each level you choose one of three upgrades (54 in six signs), so every expedition builds a new ship, and there are six ships to fly: Polaris, Vega, Antares, Sirius, Altair and Deneb. Every sky has its own theme for celesta and choir; the bosses play it faster.

Free to play: reward videos are offered, never forced, and Patron is one optional purchase that gives the videos' rewards without the videos and a mark on the ship. No loot boxes, no energy, no pay-to-win. No account needed; plays offline. English and German.

auton is a tiny independent game studio in Bad Vöslau, Austria, run by Patrick Felber. It makes games for phones: Splash Survivors and Astrarium: Clockwork Skies are its first two, and Holiday Empire, an island resort tycoon for phones and PC, is in development.

Streaming or reviewing Astrarium? Ask for a Patron code at hello@auton.at.

Press questions and interviews: hello@auton.at.