‘Ethan: Meteor Hunter’ Alpha Demo: Pause Time, Solve Puzzles and Collect Meteorites

In this upcoming puzzle platformer from Seaven Studio, you’ll be playing as Ethan, a tiny mouse – with super powers! Well, just one actually, but something tells me he’s still the envy of all his friends, since his power lets him pause time and manipulate parts of his surroundings. Did I mention Ethan’s a tiny adorable mouse?

This rather unique ability was bestowed upon him when he was hit by meteorites (what an origin story, eh?). I’m pretty certain most would be thrilled to have such an ability and simply go about their daily life, using it to do either good or evil, but Ethan’s of a different mindset. He’s decided to track down and reassemble every last part of the meteorite that hit him! Why? I have no clue, but it makes for a decent and fitting background story.

Since this demo is from an alpha build, I’m sure you won’t be surprised to hear that it’s pretty short, clocking in at a mere two levels, the first of which is (obviously) a tutorial. I was quite surprised to find that I actually enjoyed this part, since I’m usually more of a learning-by-doing kinda guy when it comes to video games. Maybe it was the clever way new mechanics were introduced with thought bubbles containing a brief animation, showing how to do certain things like pause time, rotate objects and – my favorite – slide down hills to gain momentum! That’s definitely something I hope to see more of in the full version.

After I’d learnt the ropes, the game opened up quite a bit, with lava pits, platforms that dissolved under you, and puzzles that more often than not required time pausing. Oddly enough, this ability was somewhat restricted as you’d had to gather a certain item before it could be used. I guess the reason could be so designing puzzles around it was a simple task, compared to letting the player use it all the time? Whatever the case, pausing time mid-air and shuffling things around to create a path never got boring.

Once you have played the demo, a feedback.txt will appear in your installed folder. Please open it, answer as many questions as you can and send it back to us to feedback@seaven-studio.com.

According to Seaven Studio, the full version will feature a total of 50 levels across 3 worlds, but for now, we’ll have to settle for the brief alpha demo. Since the developer released it to get user feedback, I’d recommend trying it and, well, remember to follow the instructions above, eh?

Greenlight it!