Exo One is an "exoplanetary exploration game" starring an alien sphere

Of all the games starring a big ball—Marble Madness, Monkey Ball, Rock of Ages, NightSky—Exo One is by far the prettiest. It's a "a momentum-based, exoplanetary exploration game" where you play as an alien sphere that can roll about on the ground, but that can also flatten out to majestically soar through the clouds. I could describe how pretty it is using words, but it's 2017 and that's no longer necessary, as GIFs exist:

"Players pilot a strange, spherical alien craft that can manipulate the laws of gravity," developer Exbleative elaborates, "on mankind’s first ill-fated mission outside the solar system. The gameplay mechanics are inspired by games like Tiny Wings (iOS), Journey (PS3), and Tribes Ascend (PC). Every aspect of the game is laser focussed towards delivering an entrancing, flowing and exhilarating feeling of movement across a range of alien exoplanets".

There's more on the Exo One site. "Atmospheric, diffused visuals are merged with otherworldly sound effects and a hypnotic electric guitar soundtrack. See amazing, high-sci-fi planets, float through boiling cloud formations, slide and roll down hill and mountain faces, and drift toward alien horizons."

Yes please. As you can see from a recent trailer, below, you'll be accompanied on your journey by a narrator—although, as nice as the man's voice is, I do hope he's optional. I don't necessarily need story when I'm out exploring in my morphing xeno-ball.

Exo One just hit Kickstarter today, with 29 days left to reach its $35,000 Australian dollar goal. Now, obviously you should take Kickstarter release date estimates with an entire cellar of salt, but for the sake of completeness I'm telling you that the team at Exbleative are aiming for the game to be out in January 2018.

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.