Space Drilling Station
Build a multi-level drilling station on an alien planet to harvest an exotic new energy source. You have daily export quotas to meet that increase as you perform better. Overall not a bad game, though some of the logistics handling is a little annoying. Workers need to travel from place to place, but you can’t control where they sleep, so someone may be sleeping a long way from where they work. (And it doesn’t appear to sort itself out on its own.) With a few quality-of-life updates, this could be a fun little management game, though the ever-increasing quotas could put a damper on some of the management aspects if they don’t cap out.
Tower Factory
As I started playing this demo, I realized I had played it before. (Apparently before I started blogging about these demos, since I can’t find a previous mention of it.) It’s a tower defense game where you have to harvest and process resources to build your towers. It’s a little slow starting out, but as you unlock upgrades, you can do more. It’s built a bit too heavily on that meta-progression (the demo level is basically impossible to complete until you’ve unlocked several upgrades), but it’s a decent little tower defense game.
Microtopia
A management game where you manage a colony of microscopic robotic “ants”. You set up trails and assign ants to them to perform certain tasks, which is a little annoying until you get the hang of it. There are some rough edges, but I love the theming.
Beyond Astra
A strategy game where you build structures on planets and command ground and space forces. Looks good and seems interesting, though the controls felt a little unwieldy; moving from space to ground could cause some weird camera shifts. Ground combat was largely pretty boring, but space combat is pretty good.
Wild Planet
A pretty basic survival game with a minimal aesthetic. Pretty rough in its current state.
Space Tales
It’s essentially StarCraft, except with a retro-futuristic style. The design aesthetic is all over the place, and the interface is so huge it makes it difficult to play (though that may just be a scaling issue with my widescreen monitor). What’s here seems pretty good, but it needs some polish and maybe a little restraint when it comes to the various styles they’re mashing together.
Knights in Tight Spaces
A sequel to Fights in Tight Spaces, Knights swaps the spy thriller style for a fantasy setting. Plays about the same, but with a significantly expanded set of abilities, as well as giving you a party to control.
refarm
Essentially a clicker game with farming.
Planet Scanner
Scan planets for your corporate overlord, earning a fraction of their value, which you can use to pay for rent, food, water, and upgrades. A lot like Hardspace: Shipbreaker but more laid back.
Stellar Outpost Commander
A base building game where you construct base facilities and provide weapons and equipment for pilots that are autonomous. You don’t directly control the pilot ships, but provide attack and scout orders with bounties to entice the pilots to complete them. In return, the pilots spend their credits at your station, which you can use to hire new pilots and issue new bounties. It’s an interesting approach and something I was tinkering with in one of my game projects in the past. It’s not a terrible game, but needs a lot of polish.
Warspace 2
I didn’t play this one long because I didn’t like the control style, and the tutorial seemed to bug out at a certain point where I couldn’t progress. Looks like it could be fun with some updates.
Owl Force
Like Star Fox and Everspace had a cute little owl baby. What I played in the demo seems pretty basic, but it was a fun little space shooter. Controls are pretty good, and the graphics look great.
One reply on “Steam Next Fest – 10/24”
I like.