Space Moonshiner

Quite an enjoyable time sink. The gameplay loop is fine: Collect resources to manufacture or trade, make money, complete the planet area, and then move to a different area or planet. The main goal (as far as I can tell) is to visit each area and find the hidden artifact. The only way to do this is by buying Scanner modules from the trader and dropping them across the terrain. There are different scanner "levels", each scanning progressively more land at once, and each can only be used 5 times. In theory, you can scan an entire planet with (I would guess) no more than 4 level 3 scanners... However, if you somehow manage to miss a small bit of land, this suddenly becomes incredibly tedious. I ended up using around 6 level 3 scanners on my last area before giving up; the hidden artifact is clearly somewhere my scanner isn't quite reaching. Back to the pros, each planet is slightly different, requiring different base designs (though the overall base-building mechanic is simplistic), off...

Early thoughts on early access- Space Moonshiner is a very cool sandbox. It has a lot going on for it. Base building, resource gathering (mining and otherwise), Bartering, exploration, combat with hostile aliens, environmental hazards (meteor strikes), indigenous peoples to be friendly with (or otherwise), multiple base locations on a planet, traveling to and exploring other planets and the list goes on... There is a lot going on here and it's still in early access, so there will be more to come. I haven't gotten too deep into the game, but I'm having a blast so far. It reminds me of playing games like Star Control back in the day. It takes a lot of great elements from different kinds of games and puts it all in one package. I think this game is going to be a real gem.

Fun little game so far. All the mechanics work well, a great platform to be expanded upon. Looking forward to seeing how it goes

I'm enjoying this game, hope the dev keeps going with it. Flying my ship pushes the old nostalgia button for the Lunar Lander console in the bowling alley near where I grew up, but there's also a simplified flight model (your ship doesn't rotate, all thrust is orthogonal) you can switch in and out of by hitting Tab. In addition to flying your ship around, you need to build a base to refine fuel for your ship and moonshine to sell to passing traders. While you're out prospecting & mining you have to deal with hostile alien creatures and alien villagers who you can trade with or exterminate and steal their artifacts for money. Once you have the money and resources you can expand your base and even travel to other planets to build and mine there. My one complaint is the UI is a little clunky in places, like using objects held by the pilot while outside of the ship. You have to open an inventory submenu to use a pilot-held object and if you need something quickly, like say a stake trap ...