orbit.industries

This is just a review of the demo so take this with a grain of salt, but that's still a few hours of gameplay and I seriously doubt the fundamental formula changes. With that out of the way... Seems like a middling game. The building happens in 2 steps: Placement in 3d and then again in 2d. 3d placement follows two simple rules: not colliding with other modules or airlock approach and some ports only take blue modules and some only take orange modules. It's trivial to build the entire station as a single long line. There's no pressing need to consider the station's moment of inertia or any other metric that rewards building a compact base. Additionally there's no correlation between the 3d placement and the 2d placement, so any module can be anywhere for the effect. 2d placement is similar. Once the module is added in 3d, the 2d modules can be placed. They do need to be connected to the lines with resources, but there's no throughput limitations so this also can be built as one long line. Or if one prefers, taking the Factorio approach and having a main line that transports resources and branches of identical modules. Beyond this, picking missions to keep your modules busy (and thus paying for themselves) is the whole game. More resources and modules are added during the game, but the fundamental simple rules don't change. Beyond that, the UI is bit clunky and doesn't follow the usual tropes I've taken for granted and took a little getting used to. (Seriously, vertical lists have a horizontal scrollbar at the bottom that indicates the list's vertical position!) The writing is very peculiar and makes lots of references to bureaucracy for bureaucracy's sake and not in a tongue in cheek humorous way. The game's intro credits a German grant, which may explain that quirk.

A lot of the game is just keeping things organised and scalable, I expected it to be tedious but it's quite fun. Most importantly for me, the economic aspect isn't just for show. If you build stuff and then keep it unused, you can easily go bankrupt - and if adapt and keep things optimised, you'll be raking it in. Changes are cheap so there isn't that much of "oh if I make a mistake now I'll lose the game an hour later" and decision paralysis. The interface could use some improvement - time control keyboard shortcuts don't always work so I end up clicking the buttons (which do), I also wish there was more help in locating given elements in the physical view. But in the end, it's very playable and I had a hard time breaking away from the game.

I love this game...it is very detailed in regards to how all the systems interact with each other. If you like to tinker with systems and try different configurations to make your station work at peak effectiveness you will like this game. There is very little hand-holding -- so you have to be able to think for yourself and have the ability to figure things out on your own...if you cannot do that then go play s simple/easy game. But if you like challenges, then give this one a try.

It's a nice game, considering its Early Access status. But especially in Early Access I expect much more support and communication. From a GOG perspective the game is dead at the moment, no support activity, no updates, no forum. On Steam it looks different, but I am buying on GOG. Can not recommend it at the moment because the lack of consideration.