Congrats on finishing the jam! I'm really impressed by how much you were able to get done. This is very polished great job!
The art is solid, the sfx and music really work well to give you the scifi feel. The battle music is a banger but the game in general is quiet so when entering battles the loudness change was difficult - I had it turned up to hear the ambience but then it was too loud. Maybe some balancing to do there.
I liked the UI and it fit the screen well, but some on screen prompts for what to press or do would be nice. I found myself a little confused a few times, specifically with the resource gathering.
I liked researching materials and recipes and gathering resources to build things, but I think it would be nice if there was a bit more of an obvious equipment tree with the items. For example wood -> iron -> steel. Maybe it's just the scifi setting but it might help. That or locking more materials and items behind progression as it's a little overwhelming at the start.
I found myself not really understanding the stat assigned for each ship. It might be helpful to have a glossary somewhere or integrate it into a tutorial of some sort. Generally speaking I think a tutorial or gradual easing into the game will solve most if not all problems.
Some other ideas:
- It would be nice if there was combat earlier when gathering resources or some sort of stake
- When you identify an enemy and get information it would be nice if it was available when making decisions in the battle
But yeah, overall a great polished game! Looking forward to where you take it!