The player's ship moves left or right automatically, and its speed can be adjusted.

[citation needed] The platform game part consists of a character resembling an astronaut moving around on single-screen (non-scrolling) rooms in which the character has to reach the exit.

[citation needed] Octapolis was Tapanimäki's first commercial release.

Its shoot-'em-up phase resembles Stavros Fasoulas's Sanxion, which inspired Tapanimäki to try designing games.

[2][3] Tapanimäki sent a demo of the game to several foreign publishers, of which Hewson, CRL and English Software replied with an offer about a publication contract.