Hi Joerg,
Thank you so much for this. Four playthroughs, the Signal ending, detailed notes on the UI pain points — this is exactly the kind of feedback that makes a solo dev feel like they're building something real.
The comparisons to Seedship and Beyond the Chiron Gate genuinely mean a lot. Those are touchstones for me too, and knowing Dead Reckoning is landing in that neighbourhood (but with its own characer) is encouraging.
I wanted to share some news: based on some publisher outreach and recommendations I've received, I'll be moving Dead Reckoning to Steam in the near future. Anyone who bought on itch will get a Steam key — I'm not yet sure of the exact mechanics but that's a firm commitment regardless of how it plays out.
Your feedback on the Operations tab, the Technology screen readability, and the probe workflow is going straight into the backlog. The toggle-to-enable thing trips almost everyone up and you've articulated exactly why.
A couple of things I'd love to offer you, as a thank-you for the support:
1. Would you like to join the Discord and help shape the game further? There's a small but enthusiastic community forming and I think players like you are a big part of what makes a game like this worthwhile.
2. Would you be open to having your name added to the colonist bank — the pool of named crew members who appear in the ship's personnel record across runs? It's a small thing, but it felt like the right gesture.
On the title — the horror read is intentional, in a way. Dead Reckoning is a navigation term: estimating your position from known speed and heading, with no external reference. It felt right for a ship that left all its landmarks behind. But the horror is retroactive. You don't realize how frightening the name is until you've seen an ending where the colonists reach a planet and have no idea what to do with it — worshipping the ship as a god because three generations of drift have made the surface incomprehensible to them. I always wanted the title to glance at that. Sounds like the Signal ending got you there anyway.
Thanks again! This kind of engagement means a lot.
— Garan Lorn