Orebits Demo

Well its a demo... but damn...it runs so bad for me atleast, had asteroids where i have massive lags like 5 sec in and i just had to wait until axe is destroyed and back to menu... and the bouncing pickaxe is weird and you see how bad it really is when you have to only rely on only that and not idle/click with your clickaxe at the start.. eventually got the 2nd axe and beat the demo after it kinda wish it came faster. 10 clears felt like to much atleast in this demo run

game just crashes randomly please fix this

i would say an axe falling and bouncing is weirdly out of theme for th is sci-fi space-sim style of game. and really out of theme given the atmospheric nuances like the music and UI. i like it so far.. just because it seems kind of high quality. but the falling bouncing pickaxe is just so odd.. it's like one of those ad-driven mobile games... and then in every other way some kind of serious melancholy vibe sci fi sim type game. super weird and i don't think i particularly like that clash.

i'll keep going though and see if the bouncing axe makes thematic or mechanical sense further in.

Alright. I think I gave this game a fair shake, here's my thoughts on it after mining out the first asteroid and 1 site on the second one, 6 mining attempts in total.

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First, I still haven't unlocked more than half the tabs. That could be normal for incremental games, but the only tabs I have unlocked are "asteroids" and "objective", neither of which allow me to spend currency to become better. This means that I need to pretty much waste my time doing exactly the same things exactly the same way for who knows how long, with absolutely no signs that it will be any time soon. I hoped that mining on the second asteroid will unlock something. It didn't. That was my que to quit.

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This frustration of pretty much not having anything to do but mindlessly click on squares is then compounded by the fact that 2 out of 3 of my objectives require something I don't have access to. I really hope this is an improperly made demo, where a lot of systems broke. Which, while it implies your team is somewhat incompetent, would be much better than if you actually designed your game this way and not having access to research and "earth" is something intended after 6 entire sessions of, again, mindlessly clicking squares. My suggestion would be to remove missions from the pool until the appropriate tabs are unlocked for them to be completable, and probably also add missions that actually unlock the new tabs, just so that the player can see what they need to do. Signpost their progress and such.

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It is also somewhat frustrating to have to remember what missions you have while mining. It would be nice if there was an interface showing what missions you have while mining. Either just a simple panel that shows the quests or a star next to actions that the game wants you to preform.

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Hired help seems to range between "useless" down to "down right detrimental". I can repeat my thought about (hopefully) incompetently made demo (instead of incompetently designed game) to point out that deployables are (as far as I can divine) not available in the demo, so a card that pops up and says "hi, you can improve your deployables" is annoying. My main example, however, is the "trade" card. It reads "Trade all ores for +[number]% [ore]". Does that mean that "any ore you mine on this mining session will turn into this ore"? Or maybe instead "you trade the cost of this card for more ores in this session"? Or maybe "All your stores of ores are removed and you get a bonus to this one ore for this mining session"? Because it can be any of these.

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One final criticism. If the upgrades to mining gear persist between mining sessions, move those upgrades out of the mining session, or at least make them available to be upgraded out of the mining session. Not only is it annoying to have to frantically scramble to apply the new upgrades immediately as you embark, as it stands now, the upgrades send a message that they are temporary and will only stay until the session is finished, which is the opposite of what they actually do. In addition to that, moving them outside the hectic action time will lead to the feeling of progress each time the session ends, creating a gameplay loop of "mine, upgrade, repeat" that games like "To the Core" are built on, and for a good reason. Right now the loop is "play the game, stop, quit", with the time between sessions being practically useless (though, I will assume that that changes later in the game) and thus giving players enough time to wonder "do I actually want to play this game". Instead you want them going "upgrades, upgrades, upgrades!", then get those upgrades and go "can't wait to test these babies out". Much better in terms of flow.

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With the bad out of the way, here's the good. The game is very competently made. I encountered no bugs. Music is repetitive but fine. Voice acting was a pleasant surprise and is good. Art is slick and well put together. The Art Style is also solid and very much your own. If the game underneath it all was better, I would consider buying it.

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Sorry, running out of space at the end.

I'm not a fan of demos being uploaded here, especially when the "full game" ends up being something you have to pay for.

Alright. I think I gave this game a fair shake, here's my thoughts on it after mining out the first asteroid and 1 site on the second one, 6 mining attempts in total.

-

First, I still haven't unlocked more than half the tabs. That could be normal for incremental games, but the only tabs I have unlocked are "asteroids" and "objective", neither of which allow me to spend currency to become better. This means that I need to pretty much waste my time doing exactly the same things exactly the same way for who knows how long, with absolutely no signs that it will be any time soon. I hoped that mining on the second asteroid will unlock something. It didn't. That was my que to quit.

-

This frustration of pretty much not having anything to do but mindlessly click on squares is then compounded by the fact that 2 out of 3 of my objectives require something I don't have access to. I really hope this is an improperly made demo, where a lot of systems broke. Which, while it implies your team is somewhat incompetent, would be much better than if you actually designed your game this way and not having access to research and "earth" is something intended after 6 entire sessions of, again, mindlessly clicking squares. My suggestion would be to remove missions from the pool until the appropriate tabs are unlocked for them to be completable, and probably also add missions that actually unlock the new tabs, just so that the player can see what they need to do. Signpost their progress and such.

-

It is also somewhat frustrating to have to remember what missions you have while mining. It would be nice if there was an interface showing what missions you have while mining. Either just a simple panel that shows the quests or a star next to actions that the game wants you to preform.

-

Hired help seems to range between "useless" down to "down right detrimental". I can repeat my thought about (hopefully) incompetently made demo (instead of incompetently designed game) to point out that deployables are (as far as I can divine) not available in the demo, so a card that pops up and says "hi, you can improve your deployables" is annoying. My main example, however, is the "trade" card. It reads "Trade all ores for +[number]% [ore]". Does that mean that "any ore you mine on this mining session will turn into this ore"? Or maybe instead "you trade the cost of this card for more ores in this session"? Or maybe "All your stores of ores are removed and you get a bonus to this one ore for this mining session"? Because it can be any of these.

-

One final criticism. If the upgrades to mining gear persist between mining sessions, move those upgrades out of the mining session, or at least make them available to be upgraded out of the mining session. Not only is it annoying to have to frantically scramble to apply the new upgrades immediately as you embark, as it stands now, the upgrades send a message that they are temporary and will only stay until the session is finished, which is the opposite of what they actually do. In addition to that, moving them outside the hectic action time will lead to the feeling of progress each time the session ends, creating a gameplay loop of "mine, upgrade, repeat" that games like "To the Core" are built on, and for a good reason. Right now the loop is "play the game, stop, quit", with the time between sessions being practically useless (though, I will assume that that changes later in the game) and thus giving players enough time to wonder "do I actually want to play this game". Instead you want them going "upgrades, upgrades, upgrades!", then get those upgrades and go "can't wait to test these babies out". Much better in terms of flow.

-

With the bad out of the way, here's the good. The game is very competently made. I encountered no bugs. Music is repetitive but fine. Voice acting was a pleasant surprise and is good. Art is slick and well put together. The Art Style is also solid and very much your own. If the game underneath it all was better, I would consider buying it.

-

Sorry, running out of space at the end.

i would say an axe falling and bouncing is weirdly out of theme for th is sci-fi space-sim style of game. and really out of theme given the atmospheric nuances like the music and UI. i like it so far.. just because it seems kind of high quality. but the falling bouncing pickaxe is just so odd.. it's like one of those ad-driven mobile games... and then in every other way some kind of serious melancholy vibe sci fi sim type game. super weird and i don't think i particularly like that clash.

i'll keep going though and see if the bouncing axe makes thematic or mechanical sense further in.

I'm not a fan of demos being uploaded here, especially when the "full game" ends up being something you have to pay for.

Well its a demo... but damn...it runs so bad for me atleast, had asteroids where i have massive lags like 5 sec in and i just had to wait until axe is destroyed and back to menu... and the bouncing pickaxe is weird and you see how bad it really is when you have to only rely on only that and not idle/click with your clickaxe at the start.. eventually got the 2nd axe and beat the demo after it kinda wish it came faster. 10 clears felt like to much atleast in this demo run

Not a big fan of games where I have to click so much, but still seems very fun