Comparison

daWindci Deluxe vs Starceptor

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

daWindci Deluxe

Guide a balloon through challenging levels by drawing wind, hurricanes, and lightning. Explore a world of magical equipment and unique inventions at a relaxing pace. Customize your balloon and embark on expeditions to find items and solve puzzles.

Highlights
  • Draw wind, hurricanes, and lightning
  • Navigate balloon through obstacles
  • Customize hot air balloon
  • Explore 50 expeditions
  • Intuitive gesture control
  • Meditative soundtrack
Features
Read full description

Immerse yourself in daWindci Deluxe, the definitive edition of the Apple Design Award winning daWindci. Paint wind, hurricanes and lightning on the screen with the tip of your finger and thereby navigate your balloon through the riddles and obstacles of each level. A world full of magical equipment and incredible inventions is waiting to be explored at a slow and relaxing pace: Monumental wind turbines on the horizon, an impressive hangar door behind you and a surreal fauna and flora around you. Create your own hot air balloon with over 25 different designs. Embark in 50 expeditions in search of valuable items and mysterious puzzles. Sit down and enjoy the calming and meditative experience of playing daWindci – best enjoyed with headphones. Deluxe Features •Full Retina support with a re-imagined, colorful and much improved art style •New free-form wind drawing mechanics for a more intuitive and natural experience •All new particle effects, crisper textures and post effect shaders push your devices’ hardware •Rebalanced and enhanced levels •Compatible with iPad 2 and later, iPhone 4S and later and iPod Touch (5th generation) TouchArcade says: "With a smooth soundtrack driving the action and excellent puzzle solving gameplay, daWindci is a complete, beautiful, and unique puzzler that you really shouldn't miss out on if you're a fan of the genre." The innovative gameplay with intuitive gesture control, charming graphics and meditative soundtrack offers 5-8 hours of playtime and delights the casual player as well as core gamers. Play daWindci Deluxe at your own pace and relax. •Intuitive, natural gesture control •Meditative soundtrack, beautiful landscapes •5-8 hours of playtime fun •50 levels and more than 25 designs for the balloon •14 special tasks as Game Center achievements "If you enjoy physics challenges with a minor puzzle twist, this is the game for you." - AppSpy

About

Starceptor

Features
Read full description

Fly close to the bullets on purpose. Grazing them is what charges Overdrive — a few seconds of invulnerable, high-damage fire you earn by taking risks rather than by playing safe. Starceptor is a one-thumb neon shoot-'em-up. Steer with a floating stick, auto-fire never stops, and the run ends only when you do. EVERY SECTOR CHANGES A RULE Ten sector mutators, and six of them change a verb outright: blackouts that cut your vision, heavy gravity that drags you down, guns that overheat if you stand still, mirrored steering, jammers that strip your homing shots, solar wind that pushes you sideways. Each one is announced before it lands, and they stack the deeper you go. BOSSES THAT ANSWER YOUR BUILD Every boss picks a defense that counters the weapon you're carrying — armored arcs against piercing, evasive movement against spread, EMP pulses against homing. They scale with how deep you are, and they always land one full pattern before you can delete them. FIREPOWER IS A WINDOW, NOT A FLOOR Gun levels decay. Overcharge holds, then bleeds away. Every timed buff shows its own countdown, so you always know exactly what you're about to lose. A DAILY CHALLENGE EVERYONE SHARES One seeded gauntlet per day, identical for every player, unlimited retries, best score of the day counts. Miss a day and a streak shield quietly covers you — up to twice. OPT INTO DANGER Fly through a danger gate for double score and a stacked rule change. Or fly around it. EIGHT SHIPS, ALL SIDEGRADES Every ship trades something for something else, so they play differently rather than simply better. Credits from every run unlock them, and each run is graded S to E — the grade pays a credit bonus on top of your score. Reduce screen shake and reduce flashing are in Settings, both following iOS Reduce Motion by default. No ads. No timers. No energy bars. Nothing to wait for, and it all works offline.

Screenshots

daWindci Deluxe4 screens
Starceptor4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Starceptor at every 6 days against daWindci Deluxe's every 6 weeks. daWindci Deluxe's advantage is iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

daWindci Deluxe ships an update every 6 weeks, Starceptor every 6 days. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
daWindci Deluxe versus Starceptor: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterdaWindci DeluxeStarceptor
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (7 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews66.7% of reviews—
Number of ratings7 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeksEvery 6 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size142 MB3 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMimimi Games GmbHross cowen

In-app purchases

None

daWindci Deluxe

No in-app purchases

None

Starceptor

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is daWindci Deluxe free?
daWindci Deluxe is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Starceptor free?
Starceptor is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do daWindci Deluxe or Starceptor have ads?
Neither daWindci Deluxe nor Starceptor shows ads.
Which is updated more often, daWindci Deluxe or Starceptor?
daWindci Deluxe ships an update every 6 weeks, and Starceptor every 6 days. Most recently, daWindci Deluxe was updated on November 1, 2026 and Starceptor on October 31, 2026.

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