Your rating:
GDD
Perfect GDD, plenty of details and images, and there's even a glossary at the end. What a nice touch.
Gameplay
I could separate the game into 3 sections. Exploration/navigation, resource gathering, equipment fabrication, and combat.
At first, I was confused with the exploration; there's no tutorial in the game. But after I messed around with the buttons, I figured it out, and the game became more fluid. The tracking mechanics saved me a lot of guesswork I had to do on my first playthrough. Something to ease the player on those mechanics would be welcome.
After you get to your destination, the gathering process is straightforward. By sending the little robot to collect resources, it felt like another game, in a good way. For something so simple, there was a lot of polish. The resources are used to craft weapons and components to upgrade your ships, and this mechanic felt pretty good. This whole section is very grindy, but that's the essence of RPGs like that.
Combat makes the game switch over completely. It becomes a classic JRPG, with very in-depth mechanics. I would like to see an easier fight for the start, so let the player know what to expect. And the touch of death not being the end, but a setback, was awesome.
There's so much game in this game.
Art
Amazing art direction. Every section of the game has its own style. The free roaming made me feel like i was inside the ship, the gathering like i was remote controlling a drone, and the combat was just a treat. Different style, great art, everything meshing together. The color palette is great.
The menu is very fleshed out and stylized, and hats off for the intro.
Sound design
At first, all you have are space sounds, so not much BGM. In this section, some SFX when you accelerate pops up. For the gathering, the SFX is nice, going from node to node. Now in the combat, the BGM and SFX shine. Amazing blood-pumping music, responsive and well-polished SFX. What a treat.
Last thoughts
What a fantastic experience. Like I said, so much game in this game. The only thing I would recommend is a switch of pacing. The game, as it is, is amazing; I wanted to spend a good hour on that. I know the game is deep enough to keep me going. But for a game jam, we simply don't have all this time. Being slow to start and having to figure out the mechanics takes a lot of the little time we have, so it can be counterproductive.
I did give a lot of time, though, and I loved the experience. Please keep developing this game; I want to see it on my Steam wishlist soon.
Great job.