Galaxy Planet Colonise
Cadet Pell
The first one you can afford
Academy class of 2169, bottom half; top marks in enthusiasm. One deep-space run, one minor crash. Sole commendation on file: “Shows up early.”
Galaxy Planet Colonise · for iPhone and iPad
It is the year 2170.
For eighty years the United Colonist Federation has pushed the human frontier out from Mars - to the Belt, to the cold edge of the system, and at last through the Ember Current: a door nobody built, nobody understands, and everybody went through anyway.
Beyond it lie twelve galaxies. Every one of them was already occupied.
Download on the App Store- Free
- No adverts, ever
- No account
- Plays offline
Galaxy Planet Colonise is a free space shooter for iPhone and iPad by independent developer Zoltan Tuskes, released on the App Store on 30 September 2026. It is played in portrait with one thumb: drag to fly, tap to fire, and every shot aims itself. The campaign is twelve galaxies of ten planets each - 120 hand-tuned levels, every one named after a real exoplanet, with a boss on every tenth world and a three-star rating per planet. There are no adverts and no account, it plays offline, and it needs iOS 17 or later. Coins are earned by playing; the only purchases are four optional coin packs, and nothing in the campaign is gated behind them. The game is in English, German, Spanish, French, Hungarian and Norwegian.
The record
How a colonist stopped meaning farmer
I The Climb Out
- 2026Boots on the Moon again, fifty-four years after the last pair.
- 2038First crew on Mars. A flag the wind takes down within a decade.
- 2052The Martian greenhouses go self-sustaining. The first child born off Earth is registered at Ares, under a sky she will never breathe.
II The Bloom
- 2089Eva Tender, a Martian botanist, finds the first alien life in space: the Tender Bloom. Not intelligent, not dangerous. Simply proof, growing quietly in a crater, that the answer was never no.
- 2094The United Colonist Federation is founded on Mars.
III The Long Dark
- 2115A Kuiper convoy goes silent with four hundred aboard. Eleven come home.
- 2127The Orbit War. Something crosses the solar system that did not begin in it, and in ninety days the colonies learn the frontier already has claimants.
- 2133The Corps is rearmed. Every colony ship after this year carries guns.
IV The Frontier
- 2139The Ember Current is opened. Humanity did not build the door, does not understand it, and goes through it anyway.
- 2142The first surveys chart twelve galaxies. Emberwake, the nearest, is volcanic, beautiful and already occupied.
- 2144The 73rd Space Base is founded at the Current's mouth.
- 2149The claimants are catalogued. There are far more of them than there are of us. They also disagree with one another - which, for twenty years, is the only reason we are still here.
- 2156The Xenidian Invasion. They come through the Current exactly as we did, and stop four jumps short of Mars.
V Now
- 2170Twelve galaxies. Ten worlds apiece. One Colonist at a time.
That last entry is where you come in.
The far side
A hundred and twenty worlds are waiting
Twelve galaxies lie beyond the Current, ten planets to each, and the Federation charts them in order:
- 01Emberwake
- 02Frostreach
- 03Viridia
- 04Duneveil
- 05Stormcradle
- 06Tidehollow
- 07Ironvale
- 08Glowmere
- 09Sporefen
- 10Aurorin
- 11Novaridge
- 12Coronis
Every planet is a hand-tuned run. Every tenth is held by a boss. The map keeps the score in stars - three per world, if you can earn them.
The run
One thumb. Every shot aims itself.
The skiff flies in portrait and you fly it with a thumb - drag anywhere and the Colonist follows. There is no joystick and there never will be. Tap the fire button and the shot leaves at an angle toward whatever is closest: aiming is not an upgrade, it is simply how the gun works, and holding the button to keep firing is standard issue from your first launch. What you can buy is autofire - after which the gun runs on its own and you go back to the only job that was ever hard, which is not being hit.
The planet surface scrolls beneath; the locals arrive in waves; bonuses drift past mid-run for anyone quick enough to want them. Survive to the end and the world is yours, rated one star to three.
Between runs
The last human structure before the far side
The 73rd Space Base has hung at the Current's mouth since 2144 - the last thing you pass on the way out, the first thing home. Its rails launch one skiff at a time. Yours.
Inside is the Armory - guns to buy, guns to upgrade, a blaster to grow into - and colonists waiting to be unlocked. All of it is paid for in coins, and coins are earned by playing. Coin packs exist as a shortcut; nothing in the campaign is gated behind them.
The Armory
Five guns, and a blaster that grows up
The Colonist Blaster you land with goes up five levels and never leaves your hands. Past it are five extra guns - Arc Coil, Plasma Burst, Ember Thrower, Rail Lance, Cryo Sling - and each one you own hangs under the field on its own cooldown, waiting for the wave where politeness stops working. Autofire is in here too - the one upgrade that buys you your thumb back.
Out in the run, seven kinds of bonus drift past - a shield, a repair, a freeze, a damage boost and rather more autofire than the Federation strictly authorised.
The Armory does not ask why you need a bigger gun. After 2133, nobody does.
Service records
Nine colonists fly out of the 73rd
You start as standard issue - no record of note, which is how every colonist starts. The other eight are earned with coins, and each one is a character with a file rather than a skin with a price tag. Five of those files, abridged, and the one at the end of the list:
Sapper Brann
Engineering
Rebuilt the 73rd's launch rails in 2166; cleared mines drifting since the Orbit War. Two fingers of the left glove are printed replacements - “spares from the job.”
Ranger Veska
Search and rescue
Led three sweeps through the white silence of the 2161 Frostreach Rescue; pulled nineteen colonists from a dead convoy. Refused the desk promotion. Twice.
Stormrider Halix
Evacuation pilot
Flew evacuation through the Stormcradle belts in 2156, threading lightning cells no instrument could chart. Four hundred colonists out, not one hull lost. Pilots still call a perfect storm-run “a Halix.”
Star Marshal Cyra
Orbit War veteran
Three cryo tours in the Orbit War; flew escort on the survey that opened the Ember Current. Twice decorated, once censured for “excessive initiative.” Keeps the censure framed.
High Commander Eva-2
Founder of the 73rd
Clone of Eva Tender, the botanist who found the Bloom. Fought the Orbit War, founded the 73rd in 2144, holds the Bibor Cross. The Federation lists her simply as “the reason there is a frontier.” She still flies it herself.
Surveyor Ondra and Vanguard Torren keep their files in the game.
The terms
What you would actually be downloading
| The game | A portrait space shooter for iPhone and iPad. Drag anywhere to fly, tap to shoot, and every shot aims itself. |
|---|---|
| The campaign | 12 galaxies × 10 planets - 120 hand-tuned levels, a boss on every tenth, three-star rating per world. |
| The planets | Every one of the 120 is named after a real exoplanet, using the proper names approved by the International Astronomical Union. Look one up. |
| The price | Free. Coins are earned by playing; four optional coin packs - Starter 2,000, Martian 9,000, UCF 20,000 and Admiral 42,000 coins - are a shortcut, never a gate. |
| The catch | There isn't one. No adverts, ever. No account, no sign-in, plays offline. |
| Languages | English, Hungarian, Spanish, German, French and Norwegian. |
| Requires | iPhone or iPad, iOS 17 or later. |
Recruitment
The Federation no longer calls this exploration.
It calls it colonisation - and it is sending you.
Join UCF
Free on the App Store, for iPhone and iPad.
Questions before then? awooche@gmail.com