I really like the concept and the pixel art! Nice work!
If you continue working on the game, the top 3 things I would suggest focusing on are:
- The TTS lag and backlog issues other reviewers mentioned. This is a showstopper for blind players. One idea to help address this is to reduce the amount of TTS needed, by using sound effects to communicate different disasters, crew dying, etc. Lo-fi sound effects like with bfxr would fit the pixel art theme perfectly.
- Better explanation of the gameplay. I never fully understood what was going on. E.g. what does each part of the ship do? Can I avoid bad events / lessen their impact? Why should I assign more or less crew to each part of the ship? Are the crew dying from disasters or old age? Etc. It doesn't need to be an in-game tutorial, even adding some more explanation on the game page or README would be a big help.
- Reducing UI friction. Navigating the UI is central to the gameplay, so it's worth making it flow quickly and naturally. For example, when I open Cryo, it's probably because I want to awaken people and assign them to the tab I have open, right? So there's probably no need to make the player select an assignment on the Cryo screen. Another easy improvement would be hotkeys for selecting the different tabs and for opening Cryo; that would also reduce the need to use TTS to say which tab is selected. There are lots of little ways the UI could be streamlined like that.
Even if the game isn't perfect, the effort and care you put into it really shows! And congratulations on making a complete game that can be played from beginning to end! :D