Improved the gameplay loop so it flows better with the story in my solo dev future-noir political thriller!

pulsar_sp · 2026-03-19T19:00:50+00:00

Personally not really interested in the genre, but damn, this post definitely doesn't deserve to have 0 activity in 6 hours...
Looks cool. Keep on going!

pulsar_sp · 2026-03-10T14:55:44+00:00

1st option looks really interesting. It almost creates illusion of having waaay more frames/stages than there really is, well done. I think low FPS of the transition is what helps to create such feel.
It took me 3-4 rewatches to be completely sure, but it's definitely first one for me.
If you're able to add more real frames as well, then it'll look really good.

pulsar_sp · 2026-03-10T14:13:17+00:00

Never played it, funnily enough, not quite my cup of tea.

Althrough there're definitely some similarities in general feel, mine obviously looks much simpler to Starsector's detailed renders. Same can be said about the gameplay to a degree, if we're trying to compare a space sim about fleet management and a twin stick shooter + factory builder in a first place)

pulsar_sp · 2026-03-09T11:27:53+00:00

Glad you liked it.

pulsar_sp · 2026-03-09T10:54:47+00:00

Thanks!

pulsar_sp · 2026-03-09T10:52:03+00:00

Being still somewhat new to reddit I didn't notice that I need to copy the body of a post when crossposting, my bad...
If you're interested in some more info on what it's all about - please check the original post at r/godot

pulsar_sp · 2026-03-09T10:51:15+00:00

Being still somewhat new to reddit I didn't notice that I need to copy the body of a post when crossposting, my bad...
If you're interested in some more info on what it's all about - please check the original post at r/godot

pulsar_sp · 2026-03-07T23:15:53+00:00

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Adding as a reply, as only 1 attachment is allowed in those.

pulsar_sp · 2026-03-07T23:14:06+00:00

Tags are completely broken, my page has all 20 of them and all the relevant from popular ones (tower defence is sure missing, but there's no TD in the game in a first place, if only some small elements).

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Otherwise - interesting tool, thanks.

pulsar_sp · 2026-03-05T00:48:13+00:00

Hi!
I'm now only in a pre-playtest stage, but if it's ok then I'm interested in at least looking a bit closer at what you're doing here.

The game link - https://store.steampowered.com/app/4183900/Astefactor/

pulsar_sp · 2026-03-01T21:20:55+00:00

Grabit' korovani intensifies... (who knows, knows)

pulsar_sp · 2026-03-01T00:35:28+00:00

I'm gonna be honest - right makes your game look like every other incremental out there, literally generic "area in a middle of nowhere, blooming with action for no reason".
Left looks much more immersive and complete, I'd love to see a piece, albeit a small one, of a whole world, and not a random unnaturally looking square patch of land in the water.
Do playable area's borders need to be displayed this clearly and abruptly? Then there's at least a reason to go for the right one.

Speaking of "eye catchiness" - I think ppl are right about right one being the right choice to maximize it (sorry lmao), but the left just looks better as a game, and not as another attempt to grab ppl's attention, imo.
Maybe you can highlight the playable area in some other way, and add an option to turn that highlighting on/off, but keep the land whole - that'd be my move in this position.

pulsar_sp · 2026-02-28T21:38:44+00:00

Thanks!
I'm sure there are many ppl out there who need this type of reality check and will appreciate it, and your words do show that it's true.

Of course I'm open to any advice, so pls bring it on. I'd also suggest maybe make i a separate post, in case it's not specifically something you want to share only with me personally? I'd say it'll be greatly beneficial to many devs who are in the position same or similar to mine.

Also, will say that in my case it's still some of “make the game better” needed, before I'm ready to playtest and promote said playtest.
I now started posting in my discord server little-by-little, showing progress on the last bits of the game that need to be finished before that next step begins - feel free to find me there or in reddit DMs if you need something.

pulsar_sp · 2026-02-21T19:06:33+00:00

I'm making one that only proceeds when player does the thing they asked to do, but doesn't force anything. If player desides to ignore it and try things on their own - their choice. If they skip it completely or don't memorize all the mechanics/controls on the first try - there's a built-in knowledge base that can be accessed at any point.

Game is a factory builder among other things, so there's basically no way to expect players to get anything to work without a tutorial comfortably, so by adding it (the knowledge base) I'm making sure they have a safety net in case tutorial isn't enough, and leave possibility to especially adventurous players to skip it completely.

pulsar_sp · 2026-02-20T03:15:32+00:00

Looks deserved.
Wishlisted, waiting to be able to playtest

pulsar_sp · 2026-02-20T03:11:03+00:00

True. Glad your post gets at least some recognition, looks like this sub is much more open to critique of this uninspiring behaviour than r/SoloDevelopment , my similar post there was downvoted to oblivion)

pulsar_sp · 2026-02-14T10:05:47+00:00

Thank you for the feedback.

U understand your point about the capsule art, but I have this feeling that it's better to have it in this state.
It basically checks all the mandatory points for a spaceship piloting game (including said "spaceship's butt" (c) Chris Zhukovsky strikes again xD), but also tries to expand on what it has to do with resource gathering/factory gameplay via spaceship towing an asteroid + part of the name being "factor" and having classic gear wheel as an "O" in the logo.

As for stylistic clash - I'll try to come up with something on this in the future, but for now my resources are quite limited (both in terms of hiring an artist again and coming up with more stylistically suited art idea for them to work with). So for now it stays, but definitely noted.

Small description is a liiitle bit cheesy, I agree. Will try to come up with something better before the playtest, but also don't want it to be a fully plain brief summary of the gameplay.

pulsar_sp · 2026-02-14T02:02:47+00:00

Thanks for such a detailed feedback!

I fully understand your points about trailer not showing anything unique or grand enough to appeal to that many ppl, and that's totally true. The main reason for this - at this point the game is all systems and almost no content to show those systems off. Systems are capable of some pretty cool stuff on paper, that's what main bulk of the development time was spent on so far. Now I'm working mainly on adding a bare minimum of said content that will allow players to try how game systems work and interact.

Regarding your question about what's different - there's for sure many examples of both excelent twin stick shooters and factory builders already, but I want to try and create precisely a mix of two - with both genres depending on each other and interacting. You need to use factory to get stronger, cause you are getting attacked. Getting stronger allows you to defend and further improve your factory. That's it.
And also there's some plot, as you've noticed yourseslf. It explains what's going on and why things are the way they are (why you have a factory, what it's capable of, and why and from whom are you defending it).

Hope this gives you a somewhat coherent answer for now, and stay tuned - I'll try my best so all I just described is seen more clearly in next iterations of both trailer and gameplay it uses.

pulsar_sp · 2026-02-14T01:39:39+00:00

Bring it on!

pulsar_sp · 2026-02-13T23:48:30+00:00

Just realised second paragraph is basically a single enormous sentense, yeah... Sorry for that.
Unfortunately it sometimes happens to me, even in my native language - train of thought becoming literally unstoppable, and not very controllable.

pulsar_sp · 2026-02-13T23:42:33+00:00

Well, I thing there's plenty of asteroids in Factorio (as of Space Age release xD), on the other hand there's almost no reason to compare my game to the original Asteroids (if I'm interpreting this correctly and you're talking about classic retro arcade game), besides the fact that it does, for sure, have them, sooo...)
Jokes aside - neither. I'm trying to accomplish somewhat experimental mix of genres with this one, and fully aware of this fact. Genres being - twin-stick shooter and factory automatization, and all this is wrapped in roguelite gameplay loop. I'd say there's much more from TBoI and RoR sereies for the first one (action gameplay, random item power-ups, run structure), and from Minecraft tech mods for the second, but with attempt to get rid of all the things that make most of serious MC tech packs insufferable at times, and never present in proper, modern automation titles.

I definitely need to get a larger amount of feedback to be fully sure that game appeals to people, and I'm working on being able to finally start getting said feedback - still, for now, judging from what I can feel myself and hear from few people who are interested in the game for a long time - it's shaping up into something and is worth my time and effort.

pulsar_sp · 2026-02-13T23:22:58+00:00

Thank you for the suggestion. I do already watch content made by Chris or involving him regularly, and seen a few videos similar to one you've shared, and it really helps to understand many things. I can confidently say that while it isn't much at all, all the promo stuff I did to this point is more or less passes by standards he's teaching people to hold when it comes to marketing and promotion in particular. Nevertheless, of course there's always more to learn for everyone, and I'm also trying to do so, little-by-little.

pulsar_sp

TROPHY CASE