I meant to get to this game sooner, but other things got in the way!
- I honestly have no idea how CTR works... I'm new to all of this, I haven't been here for two weeks yet!
- I personally like your choice for the cover image! It perfectly nails the game's vibe and is cool to look at :)
- The only tips I have for attention-grabbing other than hunting down users to try your game is to join discussions with users who have games with similar mechanics/themes to yours. Making topics about these mechanics in games can potentially attract them!
- The tags you have are accurate enough I think! "Simulation" is definitely sufficient. Maybe including the resources you used as tags, like the engine, could attract other users as well.
- The amount of text on the game page is fine, especially since it's quite necessary for beginners to understand what to do. The screenshots depicting the text is also a good touch (And good call putting HanniballNOR's gameplay video there, it certainly helped me out!)
- I'm happy to say that I found no issues with the game! For a game that takes place outdoors, there isn't a bug to be found...
- Part of making a unique game is taking other genres you like and mixing them together in a way that works and is fun! It's hard to get right, but with enough patience and practice you'll figure it out. Instead of trying to match what made the source material work, try to find what makes your unique game work independently from them.
- The updated tutorial does a great job of teaching the player how the mechanics work, and how a good colony should start off. I will say that I understand the point of the research system, but still don't fully grasp how to use it. I can always go back and spend more time figuring it out, though.
- Designing the jobs system from scratch is probably the best option! It allows you to get a lot more creative and makes it easier to iron out the flaws of past colony games, which fans of the genre will greatly respect and enjoy.
- Don't worry about the drafts system, I'd say. I actually think it's cool to watch the little guys do what you tell them to, but I see how it could be an issue to people who get far in the game. I would say to make the margin of error for some tasks larger for larger-scale colonies, but players might feel like they're constantly missing something going wrong, and there might be too much to keep up with.
- Maybe creating and assigning jobs can be done a little quicker. The icons make sense, but reuse of them does make it a bit confusing sometimes, but only at the beginning.
- I quite like the sprites! The sprites of the icons and people are pretty dynamic and convey the idea well, but the UI isn't as stylized (not really a big problem), so I'd probably say 9/10 in general.
- The lack of music was a little unconventional for me at first, but you don't really need to add licensed music if you don't want to. Maybe a few sound effects would be cool, but otherwise I don't think it maters that much.
- I didn't hate anything about it at all, and I really like the amount of realism and detail you put into the colony simulation. The demo makes a very good first impression for what the full game will be!
I also left some feedback in the community on your game page. The full game is gonna be really cool if that much detail was put in the demo! Good work!