Expanding the movement mechanic from Outer Wilds into a full game is a cool idea, was fun slingshotting around stars till around round 13 where gravity became too much. I had a couple exciting moments where I was almost out of fuel and needed to get a green powerup or perish in space. I also liked the different kind of powerups you can get and the obstacles, although in practice the cubes I wouldn't really bump into unless I tried to. And nice job with the sound and music, the jet sound effect was immersive without being annoying and I liked that there were multiple music tracks.
I think to expand on the idea, could lean even more into what Outer Wilds and other games with orbital mechanics have with features like making the player need to land on planets and take damage when bumping into something too hard, and also a variety of more interesting and dangerous obstacles could be nice. I found the optimal strategy was slingshotting past a planet and then looking backwards at it as I escaped away with some breaks for green powerups, which was fun initially but some extra variety in gameplay could be nice. For a roguelike, adding upgrades that do stuff beyond just straigthforward stat boots (e.g. you boost faster backwards) would be cool, but could also possibly do level based gameplay where the focus is on pure mechanical skill and completing levels fast (something like Neon White). Nice job!
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Thanks for all the notes and feedback! It's super cool to hear a comprehensive review of everything, especially into the high level stars. I actually only made it to twelve when I was doing runs. I really like the Neon White idea, I really want to stick with a pure skill approach but I definitely want to add more types of upgrades, and I do want to keep the basic level structure the same but I think more types of obstacles and preset procedural obstacle configurations around different stars would be cool. Something I didn't get around to implementing was a gravity based grapple hook which lets you grab on to objects and slingshot around them manually. I also did have an impact damage system implemented but I decided that having only fuel as health was a better idea for the scope of a game jam, but I can totally add it back in for a full release at some point. Also thanks for noticing the SFX and music stuff, my main goal with this project was to figure out that side of game development so I'm really glad you liked it!
The main thing I don't have a plan for is an end game goal, so if you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them! Also any ideas for other types of upgrades too, I was struggling to come up with more upgrade ideas but I figured as a small project just a few was ok. Thanks so much for leaving a comprehensive review, that was really helpful for converting the project into a full game.
Grapple hook sounds interesting! For an end game goal could go with something like a challenge level with a special modifier (gravity is increased, less fuel, stuff like that) or a boss/special encounter if you're feeling more ambitious. Best thing for me at least is to play games similar to what you're going for to get inspired for stuff like that. Good luck!