piece of ship!

I met one of you last Thursday and played a version of this game. I just beat it after about 15 attempts or so, and it was extremely fun! There's definitely a steep learning curve, but I enjoyed the process of slowly learning what the different numbers meant and experimenting with different strategies each run. Every time I died, I felt a little closer to winning.

Here's my thoughts (spoilers ahead):

• Boosting the reactor was the most exciting mechanic of the game for me, because I had to plan the timing of each of my tasks around being able to get back to the engine room before it explodes. The rising sound effect got my heart pumping. However, this crucial mechanic is ostensibly discouraged in the game description: "Don't pull the lever". I understand that this is written from the perspective of the pilot handbook, but it's super misleading.
• My ultimately successful strategy was to start by rushing Thrusters with 30 power to get to clear space before doing anything else. Meanwhile, I feathered my life support and the reactor while bringing fuses to the warp drive. Once in clear space, I diverted all non-defensive power to the warp drive.
• The recharge rate of shields doesn't feel worthwhile. I found it better to power Thrusters and Weapons to spend less time under attack than to try to heal from attacks.
• I never figured out what the wrench was for (if anything)
• I never had to enter the turret room. It's cool, but since I can't aim the turrets, going inside is a waste of precious time.
• During my final run, I only had to reload one turret once. That seems weird considering how many ammo capsules we're given.
• It seems impossible to recover from a reactor explosion. Having the fuses break makes sense, but suffering reduced power for several seconds is brutal. If you want the penalty to be that severe, you might as well kill the player.
• There's a lot of info on the Tactical Console that didn't seem relevant to me. It was cool to look at (like pirate hull integrity), but it didn't affect my strategy much.
• Labelled doorways would be extremely helpful, especially while learning.
• The victory sequence is pretty anticlimactic (which is completely understandable for a jam game), but I felt satisfied anyways.
• You mentioned to me that you want the player to feel like Han Solo. I think you nailed that. Occasionally falling over, although frustrating, really added to the fantasy and excitement.

I love this game, which is why I took the time to write all these points out. I don't know what your plans are for this project, but I hope to see more, and would absolutely love to help test any future versions.