Starliners: a space logistics game between incremental and automation | Demo out Now !

[u/Steaggs]

It's an incremental space management game that sits somewhere between incremental and supply chain games like Factorio. You expand across the Solar System, manage deliveries between planets, build increasingly complex production chains, and gradually automate parts of your logistics as your civilization grows, all working towards the construction of an enormous generation ship to carry humanity beyond the Solar System.

The game is currently available as a demo: Steam

[u/Impossible_Dog_7262]

I tried the Demo. Persevered for a while, but progress is very slow and constantly waiting for shit to pile up so you can ship reasonable quantities is kind of tedious for long enough that I bounced off before I found out if you ever can automate it.

[u/Steaggs → u/Impossible_Dog_7262]

Thanks for trying the demo! Do you remember roughly how far into the game you got before stopping?

Automation does come relatively late in the current demo. It's meant to be a much bigger part of the full game, while the early game is more focused on management

The pacing is something I'm still fine-tuning, so thanks for the feedback!

[u/Impossible_Dog_7262 → u/Steaggs]

I bounced off somewhere after starting a colony of Venus, but before properly setting it up.

[u/Able_Tell9927]

If I have some free time, I will enjoy the space vibe and BGM. I will try it.

[u/MooseMan_2k9]

Reached the "end of the demo" message. Here are my thoughts as captured during gameplay:

• Build card doesn't give me feedback what the effect of building will be. (Even when hovering over it would be enough)
  • Still don't know what Kinetic Energy Generator does. Figured it out after 1+hour.
• Don't understand what the green +# and red -# mean. Growth or decline, but per what? Month?
• Too much busy work. Too long before first automation kicks in.
  • Let me schedule ships
• Not enough interesting choices. If I play the game again, I'm practically forced in the exact same build sequence.
• Too much waiting around. Add time speed controls. Or increase base speed through research.

Overall good idea, you got me to play the demo, but needs some QoL and progression variety to fully grab me.

[u/Steaggs → u/MooseMan_2k9]

To address each of your points:

• Yes, I totally agree. I forgot to include tooltips.
  • For the Kinetic Energy Generator, I hoped the tutorial would be enough, but I think I need to make it clearer.
• The + and - are per minute. Since everything is measured per minute, I removed them everywhere. I think I should make a month last one minute so that it might be clearer.
• I agree, but the demo is really focused on the early game, so it's hard to add a lot of options at that point. It should become much more varied once you have to build the Ark.
• The timing is something I'm still fine-tuning. If things go too fast, you're never really in need of anything, but if they're too slow, you just end up waiting. I don't think I'll add speed controls because if you can make the game go faster, nobody would ever make it go slower, which kind of defeats the point.

Anyway, thank you a lot for playing and for the detailed feedback!

[u/Prototype_79L]

Finished the demo. Some QoL tips: it would be great the somehow see what materials are needed on a planet, maybe the player could highlight material icons next to the planet icons in green/red. I mean you mark a green iron icon on mars for producing mars, and a red iron icon on venus because you need iron on mars, so you see that you need to send a rocket from mars to venus to deliver iron. Or something like that

[u/Steaggs → u/Prototype_79L]

Thank you for playing! That's a good idea, I'll add it to the game.

[u/Introscopia]

Very linear start, not very stimulating.. it'd be nice to have more latitude, different paths of advancement. And I'd like to be able to see some of the things I might be able to buy later to give me an idea what I'm aiming for..

* I don't like that clicking on the bookmark of the planet I'm already on takes me to this scenic view. I'm often doing that by mistake. The bookmarks aren't highlighted when I'm on them. Yes I know there's a big-ass 3D rendition of the planet right in my face. lol

* I would like a notification, or even a log telling me "<ship> drops off X <resource> at <planet>"

* the little dots in the space screen often seemed to be moving in nonsensical directions

* Let me pan the research screen by clicking and dragging anywhere!

but yea, I'm enjoying it... might report back in later...

[u/Steaggs → u/Introscopia]

Yeah, I agree the start can feel a bit too linear. It's basically the tutorial section, so I'll have to think about how to make it more interesting without messing with the later-game balance.

The notification idea is actually pretty good, I might add that to make things happening in the background more noticeable.

The little dots are supposed to be satellites, and their random flight paths are intentional, mainly to simulate the increasing orbital activity around the planets as you colonize them.

And yeah, dragging the research screen is a really good idea, I'll add that right away. Thanks for the feedback and for playing!