A moody game with such a satisfying gameplay loop! Like, seriously, flinging my mouse around the screen to collect information about stars was just so juicy and satisfying, 10/10 game feel there. I also loved the decisionmaking and strategy involved in placing your platforms, since having platforms closer together can be an advantage since it'll be easier to whip your mouse around, but you also want to pick areas with lots of stars. For some feedback, while the game works well as a semi-idle game(a bit like cookieclicker), I would love to see how it would feel with a bit more stakes, like a timer or something to make it more frantic, but I understand if that's not the kind of game you want it to be. Anyways, great game! One of the most satisfying and polished submissions for sure.
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Deep Space Observatory's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Audio/Music | #10 | 3.640 | 3.640 |
| Overall | #13 | 3.510 | 3.510 |
| Art/Graphics | #15 | 3.840 | 3.840 |
| Fun/Engagement | #15 | 3.480 | 3.480 |
| Theme | #34 | 3.080 | 3.080 |
Ranked from 25 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Did you work alone, or as part of a group? (If in a group, list their names)
Alone
Did you use any publicly available assets? (List the type of assets used.)
Sound, Music, Background image
Comments
I love the concept! The sfx is crispy and sooo satisfying. Really impressed with what you did there with the graphics and skill trees! I'd love to see an expanded version of this game.
Pretty cool and surprisingly well-developed for the time frame; I was already impressed with how fleshed out the skill tree was before I even tried New Game+. Though, for whatever reason when I went into the menu with the cards (probably, though it could've been a different menu), I couldn't back out even though there was the option to in the top-left.
Thank you so much for the kind words and for giving the game a try in the first place! Really happy the skill tree and overall amount of content stood out to you.
About the menu issue—yeah, that’s almost certainly the hardcoded tutorial that forces you to begin New Game+. During that specific sequence, some menus (like the card screen) can lock you in, and the back button you saw was sadly non-functional there. I know it’s a pretty rough design choice, and I plan to soften those restrictions after the jam. I really appreciate you bringing it up, and thanks again for playing!
I really love idlers and this one has a really nice idea with wiggling the mouse instead of clicking.
I'm not sure I agree that it fits the theme of the jam, but as a standalone game it is very fun and I could definitely see myself playing a game like this outside of the jam.
Some improvements to the UI and the ability to toggle off or decrease the warping would be nice too. All in all, really cool concept and I hope you continue to improve on it
Thank you so much for the feedback! I'm really glad you found the game fun and see potential in it.
Regarding the UI and warping — I've already made extended graphics settings where you'll be able to reduce the distortion, turn it off completely, and adjust other parameters to your liking. Unfortunately, the jam is still ongoing and the rules don't allow me to upload updates. As soon as the jam ends — I'll definitely push it out. Thanks again for playing and writing! It's really motivating to continue development.
Sorry I'm not going to say much cause I'm not a fan of Idlers. I only really noticed the lateral upgrades and none of the vertical ones. Also you can still scan stars with your mouse while the menu is open. The music and aesthetics sound and look really nice, though I have to agree with the others that the scaling and warping on the UI is something you may want to adjust or allow people to tweak in the options.
This is the most impressive game I’ve seen so far—even the music alone is perfect I’ve maxed out all the settings and I don’t want to stop playing I’d buy it even if it were on Steam. Congratulations By the way, I’ve made a game too—it’s not as ambitious as yours, but it’s actually my first game. I’m looking forward to your reviews—they’re important to me.
Super sick! I loved the idea of the mouse having to wave over it instead of a standard clicker. I thought this was also super polished and enjoyable in that sense too. I had some issues with the UI scale, I had to take it out of full screen mode to be able to see anything at the top of the screen. I also would've liked to see the platform tab be renamed Build or the tutorial say to open the Platform tab instead of build mode so it was more clear what I was meant to do. Otherwise great game and I'd love to play it more!
Thank you for the detailed feedback and kind words! I'm overjoyed you liked the hover‑based interaction idea and the overall polish of the game.
Special thanks for pointing out the naming issue in the tutorial—you're absolutely right, it's confusing. I will definitely fix this bug in the next update: either rename the tab or correct the tooltip text so it's crystal clear where to click.
Thanks again for your feedback; it really helps improve the game!
I've only played the first two cards so far. But this is truly a great game. However, you could speed up the update process a bit. I feel there are too many downtime periods before encountering new upgrades.
Thank you for your feedback and for giving the game a try! I'm really glad you're enjoying it so far.
You make a fair point about the downtime between upgrades. I'll definitely look into speeding up the pacing a bit — maybe by reducing the wait times or introducing upgrades more frequently. I could also add an option (like a game speed slider or a "fast mode") to let players adjust it to their liking.
Thanks again for the constructive criticism — it helps a lot!
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