The Diner at the End of the Galaxy: Free Appetiser

Pixel-art style graphics? ✔ A diner simulation game with alien customers and exotic food? ✔ Able to cook up a variety of sus-looking and interesting (wild) dishes that your customers may (or may not) love? ✔ Able to align with various different factions while watching them war against each other? ✔ Dreaming of bushbeans after cooking too many bushbean soups? ✔ In its early access stage, The Diner at the End of the Galaxy: Free Appetiser is fundamentally sound, and promises a relaxing and great time for those who are looking to be a virtual restaurateur in an intergalactic environment.

TL;DR The free limited beta left a good impression: charming pixel art and audio, but the UI and balance need work. Lots of potential — looking forward to release. What I liked: -Pleasant pixel art; the atmosphere works. -Audio fits the vibe. -Despite the rough edges, it’s possible to find your footing. What felt rough / needs work: -UI: too many clicks (e.g., triple confirmation when assigning a worker), clunky build menu. -Bogok hitboxes feel inaccurate. -Parts of the menus are unintuitive. -Not much decor — hard to make rooms look stylish. -Economy: once you hire enough waiters, money pours in; character stats and satisfying every customer don’t feel meaningful. -Content/progression: within the session I didn’t get to try the distiller room. Balance & economy -Money piles up fast and there’s barely anywhere to spend it (besides factions/rare expenses). -No money sinks or setbacks, so there’s little incentive to optimize. What I would like to see: -Automate Bogok meat harvesting so it’s a reliable ingredient rather than a random bonus. Feels like hitting a mobile game ad bonus on the screen. -Would love to see expansions in salvaging mechanic, cuz now it feels like an obligat…

Amazing

I've only played for about 40 minutes but, I do really enjoy this game! The pixel art, voice actors, scifi concept, and mechanics are really cool! The building mechanics feel similar to Prison Architect but I think with a 2.5D pixel art. Also, once again I flipping love the art style and the voice actors. I am wondering if you choose from the 3 pre-made factions and get to progress to different sections of the galaxy map or if you can create your own faction. I did have a few issues such as trying to get servers to give customers' their food (had to keep reassigning jobs so they would complete actions instead of just wandering which was outside of the employee breaks), as well as accidentally placing an object incorrectly and either not being able to access it because it was slightly behind another object (chair behind a table) or only being able to delete it instead of getting to move it to a new location. Idk if that's because there isn't an option for it in the game or if I just haven't found the correct button. Regardless, I can't wait for this game to come out in full as I do plan on purchasing it!!!

best game I've played in a while. I cant wait for the full release!