Nice theme and decent implementation of rogue-like deck-building.
PROS:
- The basic systems of the game are easy to grasp and the standard objective and failure state make the design nice and simple for newer players.
- The ships look pretty cool and have some nice firing and explosion animations while playing the cards.
- The squeaky noise on death definitely softens the blow of failure, lol.
CRITIQUE:
- Combat felt slow because I basically had to turn my ship on every time I ever encountered an enemy. I wish that I was persistently combat-ready when entering combat and the cards were more focused on combat options rather than just trying to get my ship up to the point where it could fight.
- I don't think the design benefits from an opponent ship having their own deck/hand rather than just having a telegraphed "this is what the enemy ship is about to do" and then letting players decide which card to play based on that info. It feels like the player would feel cheated often if they hadn't memorized all the possible card options that an opponent ship could have and then attempt to play around those cards (though your deck is so small often that playing around things isn't really possible).
- Would be interesting if combat had residual effects on the player's ship. Right now It feels like players are encouraged to engage in combat more often rather than decide if they want to take the risk because you can only gain resources and never have residual negative effects after finishing the combat. You could die, but you need to get the fuel from somewhere if you want to grow or survive.