Hey,
I did pick up this game while it was free. For a free game, it was worth diving into if you like base-building colony sims. I played for an hour before feeling like I was satisfied.
Strengths:
> Great aesthetic, how you need to search the map with your mouse to find things is an immersive (possibly unintended) feature. Instantly hooked in the first minutes.
> Tutorial will actually cover most of what you need to know.
> Automation is very easy to set up, no math or belting required.
> The design that defenses create pollution which creates more monsters that require more defenses is a natural escalation curve.
Weaknesses:
> The sound effects were great but the volume wasn't. Each package that gets delivered makes a beeping noise so when you sit next to the core... A lot of robots. And the alarm was really loud too.
> Tutorial did not cover how to properly use the factories, so I didn't know what the checkmark or production limit does.
> Needs a lot more upgrades and possibly legacy (upgrades that you keep forever) upgrades to work towards.
Other Dev Suggestions:
> Currently I don't think Oxygen does anything, so why am I stockpiling 1000s from Ice?
> The Production Limit also doesn't actually limit how many are made in total, so I spend most of the mid-late game babysitting factories for the right amount of stuff.
The effectiveness of a Furnace / Factory is based on how close it is to the core. A Furnace right beside the core feels twice as effective as a Furnace farther away. This may not be true, but that's what it feels like.
> This is an okay feature, as on paper the bigger your factory, the less efficient it will be. But you need to give players the ability to pick up their buildings after they become aware of this/expand.
> There should be some indicators such as a trail (only visible while placing the building) between the core & the building w/ a stat on how long it will take for packages to transport & the throughput.
A strength of this game is you don't need to be an electrician, wiring factory belts together to maximize throughput. However, this game will benefit a lot from being able to see the paths the deliveries take and the ability to manipulate them!
> Make it possible for the player to path the ore packages to the furnaces, then the furnaces to the factories. Should still be simple, shouldn't need to worry about paths overlapping the packages since they don't have a collision.