planets & squeesars

Eliss is a artful and unique game with it’s own visual and acoustic language. App store link

In the game, two main kinds of objects appear: “planets” (the yellow cicles) and “squeezars” (the pink ring with dots). They can have different colours and sizes.

The Planets can be dragged around. You can join two planets of the same colour or split a big planet into two smaller ones.

The objective is to place planets on squeesars of the same size and colour. They will become supernovas, then disappear and you get one point. But if planets of different colours collide you will loose your energy.

There are 20 levels and they all work slightly different. Some are about matching colours and sizes, others are rather about avoiding collisions. Some have extra objects that will comlicate the task. Every now and then bonuses will appear.

The game soon gets pretty tough. Already in the third level I had to do a step back and look the instructions again. They are a nice detail of the game as they are not written down. Instead they are charts that explain the rules of the game if you pay close attention.

The graphics of this game were realised completely with core graphics i guess. They are abstract and plain 2d all over which gives the game a simple and artistic look. All dots, lines and even the typography are animated in a nice way. When the logo on the start screen appears you immediatly know that this game is something special. There is a soft soundtrack playing while all actions and objects make their own sounds. Playing the game almost feels like making music this way.

This game is special and different in every way. Thus it is interesting like a piece of art. It’s definitly one of my favourites games and I am sure I will often get back to it.

App store link and developer link: Steph Thirion.