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PocketGalaxy's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Theme | #28 | 4.333 | 4.333 |
| Overall | #239 | 3.493 | 3.493 |
| Audio | #260 | 3.375 | 3.375 |
| Gameplay | #296 | 3.250 | 3.250 |
| Innovation | #326 | 3.292 | 3.292 |
| Visuals | #355 | 3.667 | 3.667 |
| Enjoyment | #553 | 3.042 | 3.042 |
Ranked from 24 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does the game fit the theme?
Pocket Galaxy is our entry for the Brackeys Game Jam 2026.1, a small but complete first-person exploration experience built entirely during the jam around the winning theme: Strange Places.
We explored a few ideas on the first day, but the one that stuck was this: as an interstellar traveler, the player hops between tiny, bizarre planets scattered across a pocket-sized galaxy. From the spaceship, you choose a destination, descend onto its spherical surface, walk all the way around it, and uncover what makes it… strange.
Each planet is a compact micro-world with a single clear objective and its own unique rule. Gravity may behave differently. The terrain might react to your presence. Something on the surface may feel intentionally oversized or oddly placed. The strangeness comes from the rules of each world.
Pocket Galaxy embraces Strange Places by making every level a self-contained world with its own logic. Instead of one large strange environment, the game becomes a collection of many small ones.
No combat. No complex systems. Just exploration, curiosity, and small planets with big personality.
Built in Unity and playable directly in the browser via WebGL.
What code and assets did you not make from scratch during the jam (if any)?
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3D Models & Environments
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- "Alien flora" (https://skfb.ly/puGwv) by Vishchun is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
- "Alien Plants" (https://skfb.ly/pxnMz) by Logan S. is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
- Farland Skies - Nebula One (https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/2d/textures-materials/sky/farland-skies-nebula-one-75181)
- Several assets by gavinpgamer1 (https://sketchfab.com/gavinpgamer1) licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
- HiRez Spaceships Creator Free
- Magic Effects by Hovl Studio (https://assetstore-fallback.unity.com/packages/vfx/particles/spells/magic-effects-free-247933)
- "LI Hover Platform 3D Object" (https://skfb.ly/oIFs6) by Laticis is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
- "Mini Planet" (https://skfb.ly/6XqXx) by kewalkishang is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
- Pandazole - LowPoly Bundle (https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/props/pandazole-lowpoly-asset-bundle-226938)
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GUI
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- Space Exploration GUI Kit (https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/2d/gui/icons/space-game-gui-kit-298577)
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Fonts
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All of them licensed under the SIL Open Font License.
- Asap by Pablo Cosgaya (https://font.download/font/asap)
- Righteous by Astigmatic (https://www.1001freefonts.com/righteous.font)
- Audiowide by Astigmatic (https://font.download/font/audiowide)
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Music & SFX
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- Abandoned Outpost
- Scanning the Unknown
- After the Starfall
- Atmos 4
- Hawaiian Instrumental Music - Ukulele Dance
- Tarkan Theme Song
- Background White Noise Starship
- Star Wars - Imperial March
- Spaceship Engine Start Up
- Spaceship Landing SFX
- Teleporting Sound Effect
- Ring Pitched Down
We lost attribution links for the above audio assets :(, if you are the creator of any of these works, thank you for your contribution!
How many people worked on the game?3
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Comments
Pretty looking game, it suits the theme very well, I liked the walking aspect though I got lost a little bit, the music fits the game very well. Nice work!
Thank you! Happy to hear the music and overall vibe worked well for you. And yeah, a few people got a bit lost exploring, part of the adventure, I guess haha. Thanks for playing!
This was such a great game and it fit the theme very well! It also had a lot of character. Each planet was unique and fun in its own way!
Thanks a lot! that’s really nice to hear! We had a lot of fun giving each planet its own little personality, so it’s great to know that came through.
Really appreciate you playing!
This had some No Man Sky vibes to it. I like that you had clear objectives (that were marked off as you finish each one) The sparkles were a nice touch to help draw you to quest areas, super smart design choice! Some kind of indicator that helped point you to your ship would help with navigation, there were times I was trying to explore new areas of the planets and would accidentally circle around to the same areas. Some kind of compass or extra navigation feature would help tremendously with that. I'm impressed with how many planets and biomes you managed to include, the game felt pretty polished as a whole! Really feels like a demo for a bigger game/idea. Great job to the whole team for getting this done in a week!
Heya! Thank you for spending that much time with the game, seeing someone go through all the planets really means a lot to us! Really glad you picked up on the objectives, we wanted exploration to feel guided without being too intrusive, so that’s great to hear (especially since that feature was actually a late addition).
And yes, navigation is definitely one of the main pieces of feedback we’ve received. A compass or clearer ship indicator was part of the original plan, but time got the better of us during the jam (Totally agree it would make exploration feel smoother) Also, the demo idea comment honestly makes us smile. that’s kind of how we feel about it too.
Thanks again for the feedback and for taking the time to fully explore it!
Nice game! You perfectly captured the theme of the Jam, and the amount of work you put into this really shows. After playing Outer Wilds I was craving that jet-pack action to get a higher view of the planets and get around faster, but they don´t feel too large to go around on foot. You should keep building on it and add further mechanics, SFX and more! There´s a lot of potential here.
Hey, thanks a lot! Really glad the theme came through and the Outer Wilds comparison is a huge compliment! ;) We didn’t think about a jet-pack specifically, but we did have an early idea of flying the spaceship around… quickly realized the planets were way too tiny for that and scrapped it.
But there’s definitely room to expand the movement and mechanics though. Really appreciate the encouragement! Thanks!
Wow, really nice 3D graphics. You did so much in 7 day it's awesome. It's really pleasant to play and discover all the planets. Great job !
Hey! Thanks for playing! Really happy to hear you enjoyed the overall experience. Doing all of this in just a week was intense, so comments like this make it totally worth it.
Appreciate the feedback!!
The amount you created in just seven days is incredible, the planets were all cool to explore and all of the menus between them felt super polished. Again the atmosphere of the planets, especially the ringed one, were great. My only issue is I wish the planets had more intractability or danger, but to be done in a week this incredible.
Thanks a lot! Glad you enjoyed exploring the planets and the overall feel of the game. Totally agree there’s room to add more interactivity, hopefully something to explore further after the jam
Really appreciate the feedback! :)
Audio and visuals are super on point here, the sense of scale is magical. I LOVED the asteroid belts circling around the planets in particular. I think if you take this concept forward, you should have some hostile flora and fauna on the little planets, and consider trying your hand at ship flight between them. But this a one week jam, and hoenstly you should be proud of yourself for how much you achieved here, seriously.
Thanks a lot! Really glad you enjoyed the overall vibe. Those ideas for expanding the game sound great and are totally in line with what we had in mind.
Appreciate you taking the time to play and comment!
Good game, although I would have liked to be able to run more, and sometimes I got lost on the planets. But understanding that it’s a jam game, it’s really good. The flower that reverses your controls is fun
Thanks a lot for playing! We’re really happy you enjoyed the overall experience and some of the weirder mechanics. Exploration and discovery were a big focus for us, so it’s great to hear that came through.
We know there are areas that could be smoother, especially around movement and getting your bearings, but given the jam’s time limits we had to make some tough calls. Still, we’re glad it was fun to play overall.
Thanks again for taking the time to share your thoughts!
This game is solid for the most part, especially the models of the galaxy, planets and the spaceship. I kept getting lost in the first planet that I chose to explore because I had troubles finding the flowers and other things that this planet has to offer. Also, that minimap, I couldn't figure out where the player currently is as it was too small for me to notice it.
Heya! Thanks a lot for the feedback!
Yeah, I totally get you.. Navigation ended up being one of the trickier parts, and the bare-bones version of the minimap definitely didn’t help. We had plans for a clearer system and add things like a more visible player marker or even a compass… but you know how it goes… the clock ticks faster during a jam.
Really appreciate you taking the time to share your experience!
Good work on exploration!
Gameplay is a bit repetitive, but still quite nice.
Thanks a lot! Glad you enjoyed it.
Yep, fair point about the repetition. The core loop is pretty simple in this jam version. On day one we went a bit wild with plans to add planet specific mechanics and more variation, but as expected, time caught up with us. Definitely something we’d love to expand on in a future iteration.
Really appreciate you playing and sharing your thoughts!
Hey nice job! This has so much detail and depth to it for a game jam. I'm impressed! I really liked the different planets and being able to cross along the whole thing. My only feedback would be that the mini map was too close to the player so it wasn't as useful as I would have hoped to make it back to the ship. On one of the planets I was walking around lost for like 5 minutes. Otherwise, nice work! Lots of moving parts here. Great job!
Hey, thank you so much! Really glad you enjoyed it and noticed the effort behind each planet, that means a lot!
You’re absolutely right about the minimap: the original idea was to include a proper compass and even a wider world view to make navigation clearer, but we ran out of time and had to ship a simpler version. I get you, getting lost for five minutes in this case wasn’t exactly the intended mechanic… though I guess it fits the “strange places” theme a bit too well.
Really appreciate the feedback! It helps us see what to improve if we revisit the project!
Visuals:
1 ... maybe adding flickering stars based on different values -> that would be perfect
2 ... make spaceship colorful
3 ... otherwise main menu looks tunned well
4 ... flying plants/rocks (is this intentional?)
5 ... I have feeling of possibility planets feels empty (low number of object, a lot of empty space where is not expected to be)
6 ... focus on cosmos animations -> to enchant space look
6.1 . wind/dust particles flying over words
7 ... I do not want to read missing quest -> what to do?
7.1 . maybe some nice GUI animation color flicker with little shake to gain eye focus
7.2 . or some future Avatar tablet design
8 ... some planets feels rushed (detail between planets doent align
9 ... water is complex (usually you would require to have shader & been able to step into -> currently it looks little of like ice, kinda)
Controls Walking on planet
1 ... very good, is possible to add running?
2 ... auto jump 2nd, 3rd time after jump is successful without releasing & pressing space button
Design
1 ... show location of spaceship (me getting lost + it fits your story)
2 ... There are small chances of getting lost
2.1 . maybe give player bot to help you discover world
2.2 . trackable pads to mark where have you been
3 ... I love this small planets design
Sound
1 ... very good no pattern found & its intriguing with exploration (Hellion)
2 ... some sounds might look misplaced (Hellion vs "Earth")
Bugs:
1 ... I am able to walk into rock, over some plants
Good idea, I would mostly focus on presentation of mystery & cosmos
Well thank you for taking the time to write such detailed feedback! It really means a lot.
Much of the points you mentioned were actually part of our initial scope: compass/navigation hints, running/dash (actually running got included, just hold “shift”), improved HUD feedback, more environmental interaction (gravity, platforms, etc.), and richer cosmos presentation, day 1 was full of ideas. Unfortunately time hit us hard and we had to cut many of those features to make the jam deadline.
You’re also right about some planets feeling less detailed, the later ones were built under heavier time pressure. We ended up creating a script to help us to place prefab assets quickly, which explains some of the floating objects. And yes… hand-crafting level design on spherical worlds takes way longer than expected, man Unity editor movement becomes chaotic!
As for the collider issue, yep… that’s on us. A few hours before the submission we were troubleshooting a strange behavior and we end up disabling some colliders for debugging reasons.. short story? we forgot to re-enable them.. :)
Maybe we’ll do a second iteration to bring in some of those missing pieces, so we really appreciate the thoughtful breakdown. Many thanks!
I love the own personality of every planet! Specially the suspicius lottus from Earthcraft!! Nice game!
Glad you enjoyed it! And yeah… that suspicious lotus was pretty much a reflection of our state around Saturday at 4am ;)
Thanks a lot for playing!
completely get the feeling, we were both on the same state lol :)
Very nice work!
I'm amazed with the amount of detail in the game, each planet is pretty unique visual-wise, and has its own objective. Graphics and audio are on point, and the controls feel pretty good. I think the base mechanic, which consists mainly in walking around, can get a bit tedious, personally I would have enjoyed it more if the planets were smaller in size. Still, this is a really impressive entry, fantastic job!
Thanks a lot for the feedback! Really glad you enjoyed it!
Yeah, we aimed pretty high with each planet. The original idea was to introduce mechanics like gravity variations, environmental interactions, and unique platforming elements so each world would feel mechanically different, not just visually distinct. The goal was to move beyond the basic “explore, find, activate, return” loop. Unfortunately, time caught up with us and we had to ship a much more stripped-down version of that vision. But the foundation is there, so maybe a future iteration can bring some of those ideas to life.
Really appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts!
How abundant the planets are :)
wow the amount of detail
Very nice! I liked the unique visuals of each planet. The one with the rings was especially striking.
I would have killed for a compass though. It was hard to find my way back to the ship, especially after eating the lotus. But it was still good fun.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Yeah, the original plan was to add a compass to the minimap for navigation and even a panoramic world map for each planet… but the clock caught up with us and those features didn’t make it in for the jam build. They’re definitely on the list for a future update though.
Thanks a lot for playing and for the feedback! Really appreciate it!
I find the core idea really good, but i think its pretty boring and mostly just hopping around a planet, looking at the mini map and returning to the ship. still a good game
Hey, thanks for playing and for the honest feedback!
You’re right, what’s in the build is mostly the core system in its simplest form. We focused first on getting the planet-loading and quest framework working, but ran out of time to really push level design and variety as much as we wanted. A lot of ideas had to be cut to meet the jam deadline. Still, the foundation is there, so hopefully we can expand on it in a future iteration.
Really appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts!