PLEASE NOTE: This review is written by a PARTICIPANT of the Game Jam.
The game seems complex at first but as soon you figure out how each of the machine actually works, it actually turns out to be mostly a "numbers managing game", and you just have to find the best values for each machine and then a strategy on how you manage repairs.
What makes this game tricky to win is that your expenses constantly go up and there is no way to stop it. So if you take too long before making a serious profit, you are doomed to lose. The GUI has a few bugs for me, the text is "overbleeding" for some reason, and I use default fonts. But fonts are kind of a mess in Minetest anyway, unfortunately. Until Minetest has better font handling, I don't punish the game rating for it.
I appreciate the in-game help, although those highly technical formulas ... ooff!
Considering this is a game jam submission and the game jam theme is "small game", I therefore give a thumbs up.
For those who are interested, here is my winning strategy: Immediately buy 50 food (should be enough for the whole game), set HVAC and heating to 15, set cooler to 300, set drill to 300, keep airlock closed, then go to gravity generator and WAIT. When energy is lower than 50 and nothing needs to be fixed, sleep. If the gravity generator breaks, you can instantly fix it because you're already standing there (the gravity generator is very important, if it breaks, other machines will soon follow). If the cooler breaks, RUN and fix it asap to prevent a full breakdown. For other machine breakdowns, you can just walk. If you don't have anything else to do, wait in front of the gravity machine to insta-fix it in case of breakdown. This setup seems to be most stable.
"What makes this game tricky to win is that your expenses constantly go up and there is no way to stop it."
Expense increases actually stop at $2000.
At max speed, the drill can earn over $2000 per cycle.
So even if you make some mistakes and get behind, it is still possible to win.
The amount of time you are allowed to earn the $30k is unlimited.
You can supplement with money earned from research also.
"the GUI has a few bugs for me, the text is "overbleeding"
I haven't seen this problem before.
The game was primarily tested with Ubunutu, Lubuntu and Linux Mint.
I used lxde and lxqt desktop environments at 16:9 screen resolutions.
I also ran the game once with Windows 10.
I never selected any font options in Minetest.
Whatever is used by default is what I was using.
Maybe there is some difference between these tests
and your configuration. If you figure out what it is, please let me know!
PLEASE NOTE: This review is written by a PARTICIPANT of the Game Jam.
The game seems complex at first but as soon you figure out how each of the machine actually works, it actually turns out to be mostly a "numbers managing game", and you just have to find the best values for each machine and then a strategy on how you manage repairs. What makes this game tricky to win is that your expenses constantly go up and there is no way to stop it. So if you take too long before making a serious profit, you are doomed to lose. The GUI has a few bugs for me, the text is "overbleeding" for some reason, and I use default fonts. But fonts are kind of a mess in Minetest anyway, unfortunately. Until Minetest has better font handling, I don't punish the game rating for it. I appreciate the in-game help, although those highly technical formulas ... ooff! Considering this is a game jam submission and the game jam theme is "small game", I therefore give a thumbs up.
For those who are interested, here is my winning strategy: Immediately buy 50 food (should be enough for the whole game), set HVAC and heating to 15, set cooler to 300, set drill to 300, keep airlock closed, then go to gravity generator and WAIT. When energy is lower than 50 and nothing needs to be fixed, sleep. If the gravity generator breaks, you can instantly fix it because you're already standing there (the gravity generator is very important, if it breaks, other machines will soon follow). If the cooler breaks, RUN and fix it asap to prevent a full breakdown. For other machine breakdowns, you can just walk. If you don't have anything else to do, wait in front of the gravity machine to insta-fix it in case of breakdown. This setup seems to be most stable.
Thanks for trying my game!
Also, congrats on beating the game!
"those highly technical formulas ... ooff! "
This idea should help with that: https://github.com/Droog71/moontest/issues/4
"What makes this game tricky to win is that your expenses constantly go up and there is no way to stop it."
Expense increases actually stop at $2000.
At max speed, the drill can earn over $2000 per cycle.
So even if you make some mistakes and get behind, it is still possible to win.
The amount of time you are allowed to earn the $30k is unlimited.
You can supplement with money earned from research also.
"the GUI has a few bugs for me, the text is "overbleeding"
I haven't seen this problem before.
The game was primarily tested with Ubunutu, Lubuntu and Linux Mint.
I used lxde and lxqt desktop environments at 16:9 screen resolutions.
I also ran the game once with Windows 10.
I never selected any font options in Minetest.
Whatever is used by default is what I was using.
Maybe there is some difference between these tests
and your configuration. If you figure out what it is, please let me know!