QUICK INSTRUCTIONS:
To mine: Click Ore Tr.1 near the top of the screen. Then click the area you want to mine. Then press mine in the lower left side of the screen. After buying a second ore truck (under equipment), you can select "Ore Tr.1" or "Ore Tr.2" to command each truck. Helium 3 will be added to your counter at the top of the screen a few seconds after the truck returns to base.
Using Helium 3: You can do two things. One, you can spend the Helium 3 to complete a contract under the Contract tab. Two, you can convert the Helium 3 into credits by pressing the "Exchange" button between the two counters in the top right of your screen. Now that you have more credits, you can spend it on equipment or upgrades. Note that the upgrades tab has three tabbed pages.
Defenses: You start with one of the four defense units, "Penny." The other three can be bought through the equipment tab and each can be upgraded. Defenses expend energy while they are active. Your defenses have tabs to the right of your "Ore Tr." tabs. You can press these tabs to deactivate (to preserve energy) or reactivate your defenses. Defenses protect your trucks from meteors, or something like that. A red warning light will come from your base before a meteor rolls through the area.
Energy: The yellow bar in the middle is your energy: don't run out! Spend credits early on upgrades that conserve energy or give you more energy. You will sometimes have to buy batteries under the equipment tab, but once you get some upgrades, energy won't be as much of an issue.
Tips: You start with money, so use it on energy producing/conserving and upgrading your trucks. Buy the second truck immediately! Defenses are good, but you only need one or two good defense units for the whole game. Watch your "Contract days" in the lower left corner. You start losing reputation when it drops below 30. Also watch the "Day" counter at the top of the screen: every time it hits 30, it resets and day switches to night or night to day.
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OKAY! Now it's review time. The game has a solid concept, but I had to reset twice before I understood the controls and felt comfortable with the pace of the game. This game could be awesome in it was on a larger scale, but for now every contract feels the same and you end up hitting the same mining spots over and over. Something should cause change throughout the game, like rich fields popping up or multiple ores to mine for contracts. I felt the "Danger" level is a bit misleading. I would just add in the tips that you take more risk the farther from your defenses you go. You definitely need to show some stats on the different defenses so I can know what's worth buying/keeping active. The cheap "Needler" seems to do the job, so I ignored the rest throughout the game with no issues. I couldn't tell the difference between Truck 1 and 2. A different color would fix this. Overall, awesome concept, but it needs to be bigger, longer, and more varied. Keep it up--you're almost there :D
Things to fix: One of my trucks stopped, and I think it was because a meteor hit. That's cool, but nothing *tells* me it's broken, and I found no way to fix it. Please at least add a fix we can buy under the Equipment tab. Also, the defenses are listed in order as "Faithful, Bertha, Needler" in the equipment tab and at the tabs where you enable/disable. But the order on the two upgrade pages are "Bertha, Faithful, Needler." This confused me a little when I was making rapid purchases. Finally, please add a way to pause and start over. Thank you!
