shaunjs 2014-08-25 20:10
I actually quite liked this but it took a bit of perseverence to get to what was cool about it. The fact that the early text auto progresses meant I ended up having to reload the game just to remember how building bridges worked before the end of the tutorial.
I like the mechanics and think it was a cool and interesting take on the theme! Has a very nice mood and atmosphere and I like how it feels living. The fact that the game is moving while you're in the tutorial and 'goes on with or without you' has a really nice feel to it. And I think the presentation is generally pretty good!
The UI handles a little sloppily, the controls are a little slippery and that can really let you down with a real time game. Sadly I only really got as far as trying the second objective before an enemy ship began to circle my systems blowing up all my trade ships and I couldn't work out what to do to combat this :(
As much as I like the idea of a rebel faction growing along side you I think this enemy threat is too present too early when a lot of intrinsic fun is being had just from moving resources around. I think the fertile worlds vs barren worlds, food management and the way civilians slowly die in transit is all very intuitive and cool though. I think these numbers might take a lot of tweaking to get right in terms of avoiding having the feel that once you have your settings of export and import set up you just have to 'wait' and hope your ships eventually meander in the right direction.
All in all, very cool! Quite a lot of potential and well presented but possibly let down a little by a lack of accessibility and sometimes awkward controls. Would love to follow how this develops if you keep working on it!
Great work!