This game is incredibly well put together. Whilst it seems very complex at first, it is actually quite easy to get the hang of. My first few attempts I died in a minute or less, but once I got a sort of strategy going (enough grabbers, only move in one direction, and shields), I managed to hold out for 4 minutes or so before getting bored (I got one of the larger tiles).
My biggest gripe is that the pacing it too slow, and that the craft you start with is too big. I wish there was a stronger feel of progression, cause currently I takes me a half a minute to a minute for every tile, and once they start getting bigger it is even worse. Perhaps the refinery/other tiles offer a solution to this, but I didnt get to figure that all out in the time I played.
Don't be fooled by the criticism though, you made a fantastic game for 96 hours, well done!
Viewing post in AstroBuilder jam comments
First off, good job getting a large tile in four minutes. It’s pretty difficult to get your first couple big tiles, but properly scales from there. We are very aware of how horrible the balancing is and wish we had more time to fix it.
As for the starting craft, we figured it was the most compact way to provide every necessity to someone who didn’t already know how to play. If it started without four thrusters, people might be confused why they couldn’t move in some directions, if it started with only one grabber, it would be annoying to see junk you are physically unable to get, no storage and you would die instantly, no fuel and you couldn’t move, no refinery and you couldn’t get fuel.
This issue could have (and may still be) solved with the addition of a tutorial that teaches you to collect stuff and build these things at the start.
Thanks for playing!