🛰️ YOOO THIS IS ACTUALLY REALLY COOL! 👀

I really liked the whole mercenary → fame progression system. Starting from nothing and working up to 100 Fame gives the game a nice sense of purpose, and it honestly feels like there’s a much bigger game hiding inside this jam version 😄

The mission system was my favorite part — getting objectives, completing them, and building reputation feels really satisfying. It gives the game a strong structure and makes it feel like a proper space career sim.

Also, respect for the ambition here 😂 — missions, stealth, XP, maps, menus, briefing screens… you packed a LOT into this.

Presentation-wise, the intro + dialogue + music combo really sells the space mercenary vibe. It immediately sets the tone, and the pixel art fits nicely.

If I had one suggestion, it would be to improve onboarding a bit. A quick in-game tutorial (MOVE / SHOOT / INTERACT) at the start would make the first minutes much smoother. Also, some visual consistency + clearer font choice would help readability a lot.

Combat could also use a bit more feedback juice — hit effects, screen shake, enemy reactions — just to make shooting feel more impactful.

But overall, I really respect the ambition here. You didn’t play it safe at all, and that’s awesome. With some polish, this could become a really solid space mercenary game 🪐

And if you have time, please check out my game too and leave a review! 🥹 I’d really appreciate your feedback since I’m still collecting thoughts on mine.

Good luck with the jam, PAX! Hope Scouger gets the attention it deserves. 🌙

Pro:

• the “fame” concept is very good
• the missions core-loop is nice

Con:

• the different quality and resolutions of the images create a “not-so-looking” style
• the keyboard controls are clunky and even the “easy levels” are though
• the font is quite difficult to read

The VIBE is awesome. Especially the intro scene with the cool music and mission-type dialogue style! It starts off super strong. This is probably just a me problem, but it was difficult to kill the enemies because you couldn't do it unless you looked straight at them. (After talking with some other people apparently this is pretty normal so dw about it -- it won't subtract from the rating). I also normally play WASD, but it makes sense if you were making it for a controller. Anyways, this is a great game and it's clear you put so much time into it! Thank you!

Ambitious idea! I feel like taking a step back would help here. There's a LOT in this game. Mission select, with several mission types, calendar, experience points, core gameplay. I think if you cut some of this and spend the time polishing what's left you would end up with a better game.

Gameplay. It's cool that you added the option to re-read the briefing in the pause menu, otherwise I wouldn't know what to do, because the first time I clicked the mission at random :) After finishing I discovered I could keep clicking the same mission, and it would show up as finished, but still give me xp. I'd like it more if the levels grew faster. Without the xp glitch it would be a bit of a grind to unlock new missions. The core gameplay was fine, but could use more variety. Tip for cool enemy behavior- make it so they don't go towards the player, but a random point near the player, that changes every couple of seconds. This way enemies look like they try to dodge the player fire :)

Graphics. They are ok, but need some polish. It would be nice, if enemies had some death animation when hit instead of disappearing.

Audio. The music is ok, but some sound effects do wonder for atmosphere and feedback. Some "pew-pew" for the gun, and impact sound for when you hit the enemy.

Theme. Not much stargazing here to be honest. I guess you are in space...

Over all- I see a lot of potential here, really. When you take part in a jam next time (the next Goed is in September, btw), make the game in half the time, and spend the rest polishing and bugfixing. Keep it up man!

I liked the art and the idea, but I didn’t fully understand what I was supposed to do. There was no guide on how to play, and I didn’t discover that I could shoot with Z until later. I also didn’t know what I was supposed to do in the first mission.

That said, it was really fun to play, and I loved the little astronauts, haha! Just add a simple guide explaining the controls and objectives, and it would be much better. Great job!

I'm gonna be honest. I didn't really knew how to play it. Some quick "How to play" in description would be nice. Good work on creating game for a jam and finishing it nonetheless.