I just played Orbital Margins 0.7.1 for a while, and as a fellow game developer leaning toward hobbyist generalists, I must say, I admire what you've achieved here in your game's early phase. Overall, the game's flow and loop are enjoyable, although I must admit I wish I were better at it!
Here are some feedback and suggestions that I believe could enhance the overall gaming experience:
Technical Issues:
- The game crashed a couple of times, particularly when the in-game currency was in the negatives. Would you like me to send you the save data when this happens?
- The slide and checkboxes at the top of the screen seem like they should be read-only. Currently, I can interact with them, but they just reset when time passes.
Suggestions:
- Have you considered adding a loan system and/or a retirement story/end game scenario?
- Consider allowing players to continue the tutorial by hitting the specific button referenced in the tutorial window and/or using the "continue" button.
- Instead of just telling the player they cannot use the game UI if the tutorial window is active, gray out everything but the tutorial window.
- Add elements to the HUD as they are explained in the tutorial. I like that the tutorial windows went where the context was.
- Bold important words in the tutorial and consider creating a glossary with hyperlinks to key terms such as "cislunar" or "v-delta" to improve player understanding, especially for when players are not in the tutorial.
- When (de)buffs are applied after a task roll, have them visually show for a second, in case the player didn't read the mouse-overs on the faces. Perhaps consider adding a logbook to the HUD that shows all buffs and status changes as they happen, allowing players to go back and see what just occurred.
- When dragging dice from the pool and there is already an active die, it would be nice if dropping the dice swapped them.
- The find job menu covers your current location.
- If you hit the roll button on a task before time allows flash/highlight the time button.
Overall, I enjoy this game. It gives me nostalgia for older games of my youth like Taipan! and Sid Meier's Pirates!. I anticipate further updates.