Orbit Otter

Orbit Otter is a one-player game about a small otter crossing a wide, open space.

Drag anywhere on the screen, pulling away from where you want to go, and let go. The longer the pull, the stronger the jump. While you pull, a guide line shows the start of your path. The otter flies on a curve through the pull of the planets and lands on the next one, and you aim again.

The big Storm Giant planets don't let you land. They catch you, spin you around and throw you back out. While you are spinning, tap to let go at the moment you choose.

Three stages:

Shard Trip (Stage 1)

Collect 4 star shards, then head home. Take any route you like. The shards are on different planets every run, one in each part of the map from bottom to top, so every run takes you across the whole space. Home only lets you in if you drift in gently.

Number Trip (Stage 2)

Land on 4 numbered planets in order, then head home. The numbers change every run. The Storm Giant throws you toward your next target, and you can miss 3 times.

Sunset Trip (Stage 3)

The planets are placed at random every run, and the trip is twice as long as in the other stages. You can't land anywhere except home: loop around the planets and tap to let go when you face home. Clear it to unlock the 30-second challenge, then clear that to unlock a double-distance run.

It doesn't punish you much:

• Reaching home before you have all the shards is not a failure. You just keep going.
• If you come in too fast, you bounce off the planet instead of crashing. The edges of the map bounce you back too.
• In Shard Trip you have 4 bubbles (lives). Hitting a moon or a meteor, or drifting in space for too long, pops one, and you try again from the planet you jumped from. Shards you already have stay with you.
• Every 10 fish you collect gives back one bubble. In Number Trip, it takes back one miss instead.
• In Number Trip, a crash during a throw by the Storm Giant does not count as a miss.
• Sunset Trip has no lives. If a flight goes on too long, you start that flight again. Only in the 30-second challenge does the run end, when the clock runs out.

Each clear gives you up to 3 stars, depending on how few jumps you used. Your best score, stars and fewest jumps for each stage are saved in your browser.

Demo and full version:
The browser version on this page is a free demo with Stage 1 (Shard Trip).
The full version, with all 3 stages including the Sunset Trip challenges, is a $1 download. Stages 2 and 3 open after you clear Stage 1. Unzip it and open index.html in the Orbit Otter folder. It opens in your web browser, needs no installation, and works without an internet connection.
Tested on Windows with Google Chrome.

Languages: English and Japanese. The game picks one from your browser's language. You can switch it on the title screen.

Controls

Mouse or touchscreen:
Drag anywhere and let go: jump (pull away from where you want to go; a longer pull means more power)
Let go after pulling only a little: cancel the jump
Tap while spinning around a Storm Giant: let go
Pause button (top left): pause
Map button: see the whole map
Speaker button (bottom left): sound on / off
Back button (only during Sunset Trip flights): start that flight again
There are no keyboard controls.

How it was made

The code, the art (planets, the otter, items and backgrounds), the sound effects (synthesized in code) and the in-game text in English and Japanese were made with generative AI tools. A human directed the work, played it, and decided what to fix and what to keep.
No third-party assets, libraries or fonts are included. Text uses your system's fonts, and the small icons in the on-screen display are your system's emoji.