Nimbatus - The Space Drone Constructor

Not really a programming game. Automation options are limited to logic gates. Components have limited automation options. For $5.00 it was fine but I wouldn't pay more than that.

There is not nearly enough automation in this game to justify why it was being being sold in the Steam Programming Fest. The automation is treated as an afterthought, only introduced in the "advanced" tutorial, and only one out of the seven or eight starter setups includes automation parts, and it's treated as a super-advanced optional mode that even locks your keyboard and forces you to automate. Why can't the regular starters also get automation parts? Because all the rest of the starter setups play exactly like a normal top-down space sim - fly around with inertia, shoot enemies, mine resources. Like Escape Velocity...but liner, without the open world.

Only briefly fun. There's very little to do once you've made a decent drone, and I don't like the way the drone pieces are connected with weird stringy goo.

I played it in "usual" style in the beginning and found it too repetitive after some time. But because I purchased it during Steam Programming Fest, I was curious what part of the game is related to programming, except a few logical components. Then I realized, there is a Programmer captain class, which disables any input for drone during the mission and you need to build the drone for completely for fully automated mission completion. This could get quite challenging at times, but for me it added that depth which I needed to complete the game at least once.

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Pros: - Building drones is fun. - Logic gates are fun. Cons: - The missions are repetitive. - The enemies are repetitive. - The maps are repetitive. - The grind is boring. Overall: I give this game about 7 out of 10. Note: It has so much unused potential. A proper storyline and less grind can push the score to 9/10.