Semi-on-the-fly remarks:
- The pitch is somewhat reminiscent of Returnal! And a bit of Edge of Tomorrow.
- ‘It looks and acts like the final boss from a video game:’
I was expecting the infamous line from Zero Wing to follow. X) - Maybe showing the beginning and/or end times for the mission could help? Or you want to engage the player and have him think / write down by himself, which can be fine too.
Also, showing the upper limit for Hungry would help, as we have no way of knowing (before trying).
Another possible indication would be to show the ‘cost’ and ‘benefits’ of each action, but once again, you may find this too big of a helper. - Apparently, you can take the rover even if its fuel tank is empty! Is this a bug? I understand the number is about the fuel you carry, but the description speaks of getting stranded; maybe this is not relevant for gameplay. Probably my bad!
- Weird: I filled 10 units of fuel and repaired the rocket, but cannot take it??
Ah, the initial instructions say 12, but those from the rocket site say 10! Apparently, the good answer is 12. X) - I did not beat the game, although I think I am close…
Conclusion: nice concept! And the (very nice!) pictures really got my imagination working. If I wanted to be nitpicky, I would say that the loop amounts to a mere screenplay twist to talk about a game over, but after all, the way you put gathering information and a sense of what to do into the game mean that ‘losing’ is winning information — Outer Wilds style. I am conflicted about whether things should go this way or giving out more quantitative indications… Not an easy design choice!