Faraway: be a shooting star, sew the sky together

Faraway casts you as a shooting star that has to build constellations to stay alive. Slingshot around stars, pull strings of light between them to harvest energy, and keep your fleeting spark burning as a procedurally generated universe unfolds around your run. Half the fun is spotting a route through the sky; the other half is actually swinging through it.

The rules are simple and the ceiling is high, with riskier techniques for extra energy and points, leaderboards to climb and a speed that ramps as you improve. Alongside the endless mode sit 16 handcrafted puzzle stages that slow things down and teach new tricks. The minimalist visuals and electronic score make it a lovely, meditative audiovisual trip.

It can be unforgiving, though. Steering by timing your tethers rather than picking stars directly can take some getting used to, an early slip can sink a run, and the tutorial is light. Some may also wish they could zoom out further, or skip the sequence that plays before a retry. Full controller, keyboard-only and mouse-only options, Windows-only, from solo creator Steph Thirion with Annapurna Interactive publishing.