Tiny Space Program

For me it’s a slow paced game that doesn’t make me feel like I ‘absolutely need to do this thing now’ like other games. I usually get home from work, do my chores for the afternoon and then sit for a bit and play the game. Rinse and repeat the next day. There’s no rewards for “played seven days in a row” and such and I actually really appreciate that. I can miss a day without feeling penalized in some way when it’s meant to be a means of relaxation after a long and tiring day. After about a week I finally got a better understanding of the controls and which actions progress me in this way, as the tutorial doesn’t exactly explain much other than “push this button and do this”. I feel like other than that the game is not meant to be a button crunching game that you can gain 30 levels in a day if you just keep watching the screen. It’s just very chill. Do a research expedition that takes an hour, go searching for space rocks for about 5mins or do tours of space for space tourists. Then put it down and spend time with the family and pick it up later and choose something different. 4 stars as there are definitely some learning curves you gotta get through but other than that I’d say to keep up the good work.

1) the space station needs a revamp. The models used for the ‘mini game’ visuals are extremely hard to follow. 2) I’m lost and confused. Been playing the game for a few days, and I’m still unsure about what does what. This wouldn’t be a bad thing if the game itself wasn’t a economical version of dark souls. Every mistake seems to be a punishment. 3) Economy needs to figure itself out. When I started playing, the way I made credits were from logging in and selling the free items, then that turned into selling space rocks. And after that, you’d think that it would get easier, but now I just watch Netflix while spamming advertisements for credits. I’ve watched well over 25k credits worth in advertisements (100 credits per ad). 3 1/2) The other part of the economy needs to figure itself out. I still cannot, for the life of me, figure out an efficient way to get research. And all of this wouldn’t even be that big of a deal, if 4) the timers for the research/building weren’t so long. They almost make me feel like its actually me whose out and about building/researching myself. And I really like this game too, but these kind of things hinder the experience.

This game is definitely on to something. It is a super cool concept and considering its being made by 1 developer is quite impressive. The game definitely makes you feel like you’ve accomplished something when you start a new base or achieve something you’ve wanted to do. However this is in part to the INSANE cost of everything and the inability to generate really any consistent revenue in return. There are no random ads that pop up in game which is always a plus, however you’ll still be watching your fair share as it’s really the only way to get more credits without buying any. 1 30 second video gets you 100 credits which is gone quicker than you can blink. Most buildings require about 10 resources to construct on average and each individual resource costs 50 credits per item in the market, so one can imagine how much of a grind it is to just construct one building. Most rewards you get for completing daily or weekly challenges are about 100 credits as well and one has to spend usually more than that purchasing the space craft needed to complete the challenge. The grind is really real and quite frustrating. Also, the learning curve of this game is wild. The tutorial gives you a very very short and basic understanding of the game and you’re left to your own devices to figure out anything more advanced than launching a rocket or satellite. The base building took me a few days to grasp the basics of and I’m still struggling to understand the advanced stages of this game. I’m very hopeful that this game will keep improving. If you’ve got the time and patience this game can be fun and there’s nothing quite like it on the App Store from what I’ve seen.