I don't know anything about your setting, but modular (upgradeable) suits sounds more practical.
In all seriousness, the fact that your protagonist isn't properly clothed actually really distracts from what are otherwise some pretty cool screenshots. Strongly recommend you prioritizing getting spacesuit graphics (or at least CLOTHING graphics) ASAP. It is super distracting to have this dude running around in his pixel skivvies.
YEARS ago (maybe before you even started doing RPGMaker who the eff knows) Max McGee made a
game (and then cancelled it, because that was kind of his MO, making games that might or might not have been good and then canceling/abandoning them because he couldn't handle criticism and was a drama magnet and a goddamn baby; I mean also dude couldn't get a break he called this particular game something like "Codename The Greatest Game That Ever Was Or Will Be" which was clearly to me a self-deprecating joke but everyone on RMN seemed to take it like it was 100% serious, it's a shame because he was pretty talented if this seems like I'm being excessively salty towards him it's probably because I still want
Backstage 2 and I'm never gonna get it **** hell I still want
Iron Gaia 2 and I know I'm never gonna get that either, because like 15 years or w/e ago a GW mod squirted conditioner on his computer screen; don't ask) that was conceptually similar to this with the exception of y'know, not being in space. He also made a bunch of games that are set in space but nothing at all like this one which is as irrelevant as I am stoned right now (quite).
Anyway, my point was just that it was very open ended and the goal was just like to make enough money not to go to debtor's gaol, which reminds me of your diamond debt incentive. This game vaguely reminds me of that game (which I actually liked) only IN SPAAAAAAAAACE! and with (what I think are?) custom gfx! Journeyman (I went over to RMN to check what it was called) was basically just all fishing and farming and crafting and so on w/ the open-ended goal of chasin' that paper. Um, speaking of which, you know how you said it would be great to have a writer on board. This is a service I'd be happy to provide just...not free. Feel free to PM me.
I detect that English is not your first language. If you have any plans for monetizing this project, I provide *localization* services for a reasonable price (making all the English
in your game perfect, in other words). If you are a native English speaker, I apologize, but I see what looks like a lot of indications you aren't--it should be "explore an unknown planet", not "explore a unknown planet": whenever the word 'a' is followed by a word starting with a vowel it needs to morph into the word "an" instead. English is a pretty dumb language.
ANYWAY: overall, I think the best thing that you can do with this project is try to reign it in a bit. It's already reaching really far in a lot of different directions and you are only one person (or one team) and you will burn out at the rate that you've got feature creep going on. Like...it is not "on accident" that you've never played any other videogame which had elements of both space fishing and horror. Here's some more constructive criticism if you like:
* To me at least, the spaceship looks way too much like it was pulled straight from indie darling roguelike FTL (this is subjective tho).
* SpaceChase is a very uninspired name.
* Your GUI (graphical user interface) there is just way TOO MUCH of it. Too many bars. Too much stuff. Reminds me a little of
this meme. See what I mean? There's too much goddamn stuff going on on the screen.
* Actually let's unpack this a tiny bit (because why should I sleep just because it's 2:50AM and I'm stoned off my ass when I can be criticizing a stranger's game on the internet!) and look at individual elements of your gooey (GUI). So first, we've got the heart icon, the boots icon, and the ham icon. I am guessing these are the PC's health...stamina...and hunger respectively? But I want you to know, I only got from "Boots" to "Stamina" because I have like 20 years experience developing RM games (I know, shoot me) and even then I'm far from sure.
* Beneath the heart/boots/ham bars we have two currency counters. Why exactly do we need two currencies??
* Next we have an UTTERLY MYSTERIOUS set of yellow and purple bars that there is absolutely no indication of WHAT THE **** they are. Beneath the yellow and purple bars there is a date
in the future of space. I don't know if the yellow and purple bars are supposed to relate to the date beneath them, in which case they are redundant, you only need them or the date, not both. If they aren't related to the spacedate I have no idea what the **** they are.
* Okay, I'm gonna quickly hop to another topic besides the GUI. Um, you do know that planets have like, different orbital revolution speeds and stuff and different distances from their sun than sol and maybe even are in systems with dual stars and my point is basically that "Wednesday 11:30" is meaningless because you are exploring planets where "Wednesday" and "11:30" are not real things.
* Back to the GUI reading across the top next we hit green and red bars above the "Time/Day" (which I just explained is nonsense there are no sundays in space) that again I have no idea at all what the **** they are supposed to represent.
* And then we've got the most mysterious effing bars of all, the red green and blue bars located below the currency/heart/boots/ham bars...there is not even the slightest indication anywhere what those bars represent.
* Okay this provides a relatively organic segue from criticism of the GUI to criticism of other things. The Q W S D hotkeys in the upper right corner. First off, they add to an already
cluttered GUI but having made that point I find it weird that captain underpants of the starship SS
I Don't Own Any Clothing is using stuff like a shovel and a pickaxe during his adventures in the future of space. I feel like he should have some kind of futuristic space jackhammer or mining nanobots or whatever the fudge. You know, something science fictiony. The sword is even less appropriate than the pickaxe or shovel.
* Related note, if you want this to feel like scifi, don't use mundane, modern day terms like "gas station" and "garage". Do stuff like "Scoop Helium from local star" (to refine as fuel) instead of gas station or "visit spaceport" instead of garage. WORDS are always the cheapest, easiest way to establish a game's setting/flavor/themes/mood. They require no effort to construct like custom graphics or custom music, anyone can choose the right words to make their game feel more like the kinda game it wants to be (although most people don't).
* Same basic point as above but again, if you're setting a scifi game in space, why the hell are you calling your currency "Gold" instead of Rare Earth Elements or Deuterium Crystals or Galactic Credits or anything appropriate for science fiction? The presence of stuff like "gold" and "gas station" and "garage" on the screen all at once really sabotages the scifi/space exploration feel of the game.
* First screenshot: why include the option to "do nothing" when you're IN A SPACESHIP THAT IS ACTIVELY ON FIRE. Sorry, that's just dumb. Also you BETTER not kill that poor little doggo. *shakes fist*
* Screenshots 3-5 look a LOT like you can actually see the edges--both edges--of the planet which is incredibly silly and reminds me of tiny planet from the end of the second season of Rick & Morty and then when I think of that it takes it from silly to unintentionally hilarious. It occurs to me that it might simply be a "fog of war" effect that restricts your vision to a limited sphere around you but if that's the case, it needs some fine tuning because right now it just looks like you are on a comically small planet.
* I don't know what's going on with the illuminated green circle around the PC in the gif you posted of him blowing **** up. If it's a lighting script, it appears to be working w/o applying a "black mask" layer (but I could be mistaken). In any case I'd like to know what script it is unless it's proprietary to the game. I'd recommend if you're going to use any kind of lighting that you set it to 'flaslight' rather than 'globe' mode if that's an option. A one-directional flashlight reminds me of like, the shoulder lamp on an astronaut or space marine's shoulder and I think it would look/feel more scifi.
Ok, ****, now I've spent enough time talking about this that I'm invested in it. If you need any further help with this game lemme know. I don't know if going full custom gfx is a priority to you but I do believe that I have some spacesuited astronaut sprites that you could at least use as placeholders. Again, this dude running around unexplored alien planets in his boxers is really distracting.
BTW I was as disappointed in No Man's Sky as you were. That being said, if we're really talking about the year 2286 it seems more likely than not that a ship designed for mining would be able to do that mining from orbit w/o making planetfall. So I recommend you do that, let you mine from asteroids or planets from your ship. You can still require PCs to land to look for valuable flora and fauna or to get salvage from derelict colonies or w/e but it's hard to buy that on the eve of the 24th century space mining involves landing on the planet and
hitting rocks with a pickaxe.
This was a lot of text so if you can only take away like one thing from it, make it this: your GUI needs less "semen remaining" and "fingerless glove" meters so to speak, or at LEAST explain to me what the SEVEN mystery bars are for. Also find a better icon for stamina if that is indeed what the boots represent I don't actually know maybe they represent the battery remaining in your spaceboots.
FINAL EDIT: because I swear like a sailor just be advised that the censorship filter has changed all instances of the f-word to "fudge", seems to have changed all instances of GD or the f-word ending in ing to "cursing", and the s-word to "sheep". Only the last one's really relevant but I didn't want you pondering "blowing sheep up? what flipping sheep?".
The artwork is far from complete. What would you like? A suit you can upgrade with perks for resisting heat, cold, toxins e.t.c.? or different suits with different perks?
