Post by Tipo in Shoot for the Stars: Journey Home comments

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Hi, I really like the game and mood, good tension and pacing (especially until tier 6), I don't love the lack of definition in the pixel art but I respect it because atmosphere is well executed.

A few things I found out as feedback (some already in other people comments but still):

- Hard to cancel things that are in queue, sometimes nearly impossible, I had to make multiple clicks until it triggers, sometimes 2, sometimes 8.

- The notification about generator shutting down because of missing fuel is too close to the actual shutdown, I had to struggle removing things in the queue on short notice to process fuel (but hard because of the feedback above)

- I don't how useful is the fire indicator, specially after automating the feeding and having the log chopper, it's always low or 12% (positive), but doesn't give any value.

Some experiences that I don't consider errors but I wanted to point out, maybe they help:

- I didn't understood the timer on the power until day 20 / 25, I'm dumb.

- I finished all the buildings and secure the planet on Tier 6, had to wait like 10/15' to move forward to tier 7 because I was lacking RP to advance (scientific path). Same thing with tier 7 to tier 8, but I waited 20/25'

- I found the battery save activated by chance while I was waiting, it's a little laggy on PC with it, maybe there is a better way to let the user select it in the beggining without causing friction to start the game, or maybe detect the device in someway (mobile -> enable by default, pc -> disabled by default) but I don't know.

Overall, a great game, hope you keep improving it and making games in general.

leifenberg25 days ago

Thanks for taking the time to write this up, really appreciate the detail!

Cancel queue — you're not imagining it, it's a real bug. The button can shift position mid-render when the queue updates, so your click lands on nothing. Looking into it.

Generator warning — fair point. The alert fires too close to actual shutdown to be useful. Going to add an earlier low-fuel warning so you have actual time to react.

Fire indicator — you're right that it loses meaning once the slope and log cutter are running. The intent was early-game survival tension, but I haven't figured out a good way to gracefully retire it once it's no longer relevant. Something to think about.

Power display — curious what specifically confused you there, if you remember. Always trying to improve that area.

Waiting 10–25 minutes between tiers — that one stings to hear :) but it's useful. The late research gap is somewhat intentional (you're supposed to feel the grind before propulsion) but 20+ minutes is probably too long, especially if you've already maxed everything else. Going to look at the research rate in that window.

Battery save — it should be defaulting ON for mobile and OFF for PC automatically, so you shouldn't need to find it. If it was on by default for you on PC that's a detection bug worth knowing about — what browser/device were you on?

Glad the atmosphere landed.

Feedback like this is genuinely what keeps me going. I'm actively working on improving the game and already deep into planning the sequel.

More updates coming!

Tipo24 days ago(+1)

Hey, thanks for the answer, and I am really glad that you are planning a sequel!
Following up your questions and doubts about my experience:

- Battery save, I was playing on Brave, it was activated by default on PC.

- About the waiting between tiers I also notice that the timer that indicates the time remaining to the next tier it's a little weird, If I waited 10', the timer said like 22 min but was like speeding between 2 and 3/s per real second (I didn't do the actual calculus, it's was only a visual evaluation)

- The power display is okay between demand and amount of power available, but the timer didn't make sense until I actually see it grow with fuel and be almost drained along with the notification, maybe I missed a tutorial showed?

About the fire indicator, maybe a progress bar of some kind (simplified to 5 levels of fire?)

Many of these things in the experience are around the cycle update for all the UI, maybe there is something there to check, but well, again, great game!

leifenberg24 days ago

Thanks for the detailed feedback, really helpful!

Brave battery saver — good catch, I wasn't aware it's on by default on PC. The game uses delta-time clamping so gameplay stays correct, but the visual tick rate will stutter when the browser throttles background timers. I'll look into using the Page Visibility API to pause/resume more gracefully.

Tier timer counting fast — that's a real bug, thanks for flagging it. The timer is likely displaying in game-time units instead of real seconds. I'll track it down and fix the display.

Power/fuel display — you didn't miss a tutorial, it's just not explained well enough. I'll add a clearer label or hint near the power row so the fuel→generator→power chain is obvious before you experience it for the first time.

Fire progress bar — love this idea. A 5-level segmented indicator would make the fire urgency much more readable at a glance. Adding it to the list.

Once again. thanks again for playing and for taking the time to write this up — this kind of feedback is exactly what I need and I hope you will play and help with the sequel as well and help me make it better!

itch.io

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