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A Merchants Guide To The Galaxy's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Innovation | #265 | 3.184 | 3.184 |
| Theme | #399 | 3.122 | 3.122 |
| Overall | #527 | 2.759 | 2.759 |
| Game Design | #532 | 2.755 | 2.755 |
| Graphics | #539 | 2.816 | 2.816 |
| Fun | #590 | 2.592 | 2.592 |
| Audio | #703 | 2.082 | 2.082 |
Ranked from 49 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
How does you game fit the theme?
you discover that the solar system is actually occupied by a species of aliens, proving once and for all that we are not alone in the universe. however they have only revealed themselves via a series of rustic looking shops so you do the only logical thing. try to exploit the economy.
Did you write all the code and made all the assets from scratch?
yes, all code, cover art, animations, sounds, etc(excluding fonts) were made by my teammate and i
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Comments
Nice! I enjoyed the concept of the game and the art!
I would greatly appreciate if you would try my game.
thanks alot! and yeah sure, ill get to it soon!
hahaha this concept is silly and fun! i like how all the planets look, but wasn't able to enter planets unfortunately - but the cut scene at the beginning was a very nice touch :)
ah thats sad to hear, usually spam clicking works but sometimes it doesnt, this will be patched in the next update! and thanks for the kind words!
Nice concept and game, although I am unsure on the main objective and the usage of 'Enter' does not work properly, as I think you know already! I think the shops should not re-roll prices so that it is not a very large exploit: as in you could get infinite money without even moving the rocket ship. There should also be a stock limit, it just gives a greater incentive to move around and explore! But I enjoyed the game and its concept a lot!
yep its extrememly buggy sadly, and the balancing is completely off, something we are going to address in the next update, and the enter key is especially broken for some reason, but thanks for playing and im glad you enjoyed it!
I had some problems entering on a planet, "enter" didnt seem to register all the time. Great entry, I liked the intro.
hey! thanks for the feedback, and yep i am aware of the issue, if for some reason enter is not working, you can try the solution written in the description of the game! also thanks for the compliments!
I may be dumb but I couldn't figure out how to enter a planet :(
well it is slightly broken so i cant blame you xd, did you try the solution given in the description by chance?
thanks!
Wow, really liked what you did there. Don't know if it was intentional but whenever I got away of a shop and return back to the same shop the prices had changed. If you continue to polish the game after the JAM this is something I clearly see myself playing more xD
thanks haha, and yep it is intentional to keep the game a bit more interesting! and we do plan on updating the game after the jam ends so stay tuned xd
I run out of gas all the time, 10/10 would drift away in space again.
haha glad you liked it, will definitely balance the gas though haha
I enjoyed the intro scene, but I couldn't figure out the controls for a while, I finally figured out how to enter a planet, but then when I tried to leave I hit enter on the space ship but it kept taking me back to the shop.. I think just adding a description with some instructions would help massively!
But besides not being able to figure out the controls, I did enjoy the art style & overall storyline!
hey! thanks for the feedback! and yeah to exit the planet you have to hit enter pretty much for 1 frame( shouldve used a loading scene) but most of these bugs and quality of life improvements will be addressed in future updates! thanks for playing!
it was pretty fun but you should make it more clear how to take off and land
thanks! and thanks for the feedback, i definitely want to add some interaction prompts in the next update!
This concept is really neat, I like the idea of a merchant simulation in space :)
It has a few bugs, but nothing a bit of polish can't fix :D
thanks alot! and yeah haha its really buggy, we are planning to patch them out as soon as this jam ends! hope you enjoyed your experience!
The fuel limitation made this a tough game! I'd just start off looking for planets and then get a game over very quickly. When I did get to other planets, nothing happened. The cut scene was a very nice touch, but I'd appreciate the ability to skip it, especially as it's a tough game and so you have to keep on viewing it.
The graphics looked nice, but I definitely noticed the total lack of music and sounds.
thank you! i worked really hard on the visuals this jam and well the fuel being unfairly hard to manage is a balancing error, if you are interested, the next update will patch almost all of the errors and balancing issues! and ironically i dislike games without skippable cutscenes xd, it was more of a time contraint than a choice so i see what you are getting at, will definitely add a skip button. also the game does have some sounds, atleast its supposed to, ill check the build once, thanks alot for your comprehensive feedback!
I look forward to replaying the game. Good luck!
Great game idea and well executed. As you wrote in your description, the UI is a little bit buggy (I had a hard time taking off from a planet) and the trade balancing is a little off. It's hard to make money. But you'll survive a couple of days.
thanks, and about the balancing and the bugs, we plan on patching those (and maybe adding more features) after the jam!
Game with Intro?! 10/10
thanks haha took a long time to draw that xd
I enjoyed the cutscene! Unfortunately every seed I got except one left me without enough fuel to reach another planet. With a bit more time dedicated I'm sure this will be a great economy sim.
hey! thanks for playing the game and im sorry to hear that, i actually tried to make the fuel capacity go above 100% by a larger margin however it was very last minute and i think i forgot to change the value somewhere else! and i agree, there was far too less actual development time for this game( we spent 5 days screwing around with godot but we failed to get a few key aspects to work, thus moving to unity) but i hope to have a decent game in the near future!
Love the concept of a space economy sim in a Douglas Adams-esque universe, the game feels like a big homage to more oldschool video games and I think it's the biggest strength of the game. There is an unforgiving nature to the game, that while at first can seem off-putting, when put through the lens of video games of the distant past feels nostalgic and heightens the experience. That being said there are a few bugs and areas in need of polish, though that's nothing time couldn't have fixed. Overall a really enjoyable experience - great work!
hey, thanks alot! i personally am pretty inspired by retro games (and i like to think it shows lmao) and well the brutally hard difficulty is something that alot of people commented about so we are aiming to balance it in the near future, not get rid of the difficult completely, i aim to keep the game brutally difficult however i would atleast like it to be fair. i am glad you enjoyed your experience with the game!
I read the title and the description and I was hooked lol. The cutscene was super funny to me. I really liked the concept, I wish it had a little more time in the oven to cut some of the jank. Also, my first try I ran out of fuel before before hitting any other planets lol.
hey, glad you liked it, i came up with the cutscene at like 2 am haha in my experience the best ideas are always created by sleep deprivation xd. and i wish the same too lol but im still shocked that it was possible to even complete it after we switched engines like 4/5 days into the jam lmfao
personally not big on economy sims, but this seems like its got the correct ideas with just a lack of development time (but its a gamejam after all so thats normal lol).
leaving a planet had me go back and forth between planet and space for a few times before i could actually leave, and using the actual enter key is not the most intuitive imo.
I think just having fuel last longer would go a long way to make this more fun, because i found that sometimes you can just run out before getting anywhere, which is pretty unfortunate.
Balancing is something important to check upon. Meanwhile noted the fuel concern. Initially the plan was to be able to upgrade the ship but we kinda run out of time 😅
thanks haha, and yeah sadly theres alot of jank in the game which we are most probably going to patch. and the balancing, my god the balancing is essentially based on random values lol which is definitely something i will address, hope you had a somewhat positive experience despite the jank lol
Pretty good concept! I enjoyed the idea and the story a lot, but the gameplay mostly boiled to hopping in and out of a shop until gold was in better stock by long. I'd love to see a sort of space trading idea like this expanded into something more exciting! Good work on the assets and the idea
thanks! honestly the game isnt living up to either my teammates nor my vision, so i do plan to update the game and add some proper balance and polish after the jam! also im glad you liked the assets!
Time was really one resource that would help a lot and most likely after the Jam a lot more can be added to the world generation and balancing. Thank you for playing ☺️
I really liked the style of this and enjoyed going around to the different planets! I had some bugs like getting stuck on a planet but refreshing and choosing different seeds for awhile yielded good results. Well done!
haha thanks, and yeah sadly due to a complete engine change like 5 days in the jam, there are many bugs xd
Godot bested us this time so it was the ol reliable Unity.
yeah lmfao