


I just want to say that, as a PhD student in astrophysics, this is the coolest thing ever. I'm seriously thinking about showing this to my students in class so they understand bound orbits and escape velocities, if you'd be ok with that!



Really, thank you very much for creating this game. I'm still freaking out about the game system. You are amazing!



@Kruskal Thanks! Yeah, of course I'd be ok with that. I'm happy it could be of use academically. The physics are cheated considering the scales I'm working with, but if it gets your point across then awesome!
@Calvoflash thanks! Glad you like it!



Hm, not sure this is an intended game mechanic, I spawned a new explorer and this happened, fortunately I tapped the fuel and I was free.



I think I have the worst luck, It keeps putting the asteroids way too close to the star and I waste most of my fuel evading the sun and carry too mush momentum to land on the colony.


@reskbob learned more Abt piko 8, now I understand
I got a lot better at it :D
I am really enjoying the game



tips for new players
- don't mess with asteroids close to the sun
- you can refuel by landing back on your home planet, which is easier than orbiting gas giants early in the game. I personally like the risk of orbiting gas giants and how the strategy changes as your ship upgrades (spinning around early game vs hovering later)
One of my fav pico8 games! but the only thing that I'd second is the confirmation for starting a new game. I lost two games I put quite a bit of time into because I crashed into a sun while holding arrow+button and it automatically restarted/lost all progress. Anyways- thanks for making and sharing, super fun!



One of my favourite games on here for sure. I did not read the tutorial and was captivated without even knowing how to use any of the map functionality from the start. I ended up "feeling" the gravitational pull of objects and starting to try and navigate by gravitational pull alone. The fact that it was still engaging and interesting with just that really shows great polish and refinement of the core mechanics.
Eventually I did find out about the map and played the game all the way through. Mechanically, I really liked the challenge of refuelling from gas giants. It really encouraged me to work with the physics to sweep back and forth to skim the surface for fuel, which was rewarding to master. Another high point was finding a solar system to be unreachable from a certain point that was realtively close by, and planning an alternate route to it. This process could have been aided by the ability to look around freely on the galaxy map but its a small complaint.
It's already been mentioned, but like a few others, I accidentally reset my galaxy and lost a lot of progress at one point. My only other point of frustration with the game was the ending. It could just be me, but the poetry collected from each probe felt to me like it was hinting at some sort of final mysterious hyperdrive jump to give the game some sort of conclusion. The game as a whole becomes a bit repetitive towards the end, and would really benefit from something to elaborate on this intriguing world. These are really the only gripes I have with the game though. I even liked the fact that hyperdrive jumps sometimes sent me careening into planets. This added to the game's sense of a "natural law" over player convenience which makes for a more dynamic game overall.
You clearly put a lot of thought and care into this and it shines all the brighter for it. Excited to see what you make next.



This is tremendously impressive! It brings to mind Elite for the NES (i.e. "this feels like it shouldn't be possible!")
As with many others, I accidentally lost my galaxy. I did it while holding buttons down to try to escape the gravity well of a star, before crashing into it! Because I was holding the buttons (I think) it hurriedly flipped to new galaxy and selected it.
Apart from that, this is awesome, and I see myself spending several hours more with it over time!
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