Stacks:Space!

"Stacks:Space!" is one of those cases where the developers picked a bunch of genres out of a hat to see if they could make a good game out of them or not (spoiler: They could not). The concept of buying booster itself is okay (although it may be seen as a gateway to some toxic monetisation), and the concept of building up a base with trading cards and buffing the stats etc all can work, but this needs a lot of fine tuning to make it work, and that lack of polish goes more broadly than just the flow of the cards and the gameplay. This feels a lot more like it's supposed to be in Early Access, and the card handling and gameplay itself is a little unpleasant. The same goes for the graphics and visual presentation too. Really one of those games that isn't quite there yet, despite the potential. And the way it is all put together comes across a bit dry, too, kinda like eating a whole packet of saltines without a drink. The game features really lacklustre 2D visuals (does the developer not know 3D graphics became mainstream in the mid-1990s?). Gamers don't spend thousands of dollars on gaming rigs to pretend they're mobile phones or Commodore 64s. The developer chose not to do the job of a real game developer and create meaningful bespoke levels, narrative based gameplay progression and so on. Instead, they decided that "Procgen IS content!" and lazily tried to use procgen algorithms to create infinite, samey, repetitive, soulless levels, because that's a lot less work. As a result of this poor decision, the game gets tired and repetitive almost immediately. Developers must learn that procgen is a terrible substitute for creating real content. It should not be used as "ez-mode" for content creation, as the developer tried to do here. It's free... now, but it wasn't before. The developer was charging $5 USD for this. Price barriers, especially on low quality products, can be a direct cause of failure. It's a nice gesture for the game to be given away for free, but it also tells us that the game wasn't good enough to succeed as a paid product. Even though this is "free", it failed to appeal to the 120 million+ gamers on Steam. SteamDB showed the game peaked at just a dozen or so concurrent players, and now there's basically nobody playing it. Even though it's free. This is a dismal public reception, but it's easy to see why gamers rejected it. Bearing in mind that free games don't add +1 to your game collector count, should you bother adding this to your library and downloading it? Not this time. This isn't worth downloading. While this won't cost you any money, you get what you pay for, and sometimes, even when the game is free, it's still not enough. [quote][url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/reviews]Developer Response![/url][/quote]The developer has weighed in to inform everyone they didn't read the [url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/reviews]Developer Usage Rules[/url] for Steam "partners", or they deliberately ignored the part where Valve says: [quote]Though it may be tempting, not every review needs to be responded to. A developer response will frequently draw more attention than the original statement, potentially turning a small issue into a much larger community discussion. It's also not a good idea to use this feature to refute customer opinions. Your direct attention can be seen as validation or a defensive attempt to silence your customers.[/quote] In a feat of perhaps the most dramatic irony of all, this "developer", who dumped a garbage failed product onto Steam so he could tell his imaginary girlfriend he's a developer, lost his crap because his garbage game was reviewed honestly. Why is it always Americans who lose their crap so badly and throw massive tantrums when they don't get handed participation trophies for spending $100 to dump trash on Steam Direct? Who knows. This whole "game" could have been made with an AI bot. But we know it wasn't... ChatGPT would do a better job. The developer bizarrely claimes the goal of a video game review is to get awards by, uh [i]checks notes[/i] "criticising free games". This is frankly stupid, smooth brained bullcrap from a failed developer. I've given positive reviews to wonderful free games due to high quality content and production value, check out "Mimpi Dreams" and Valve's "Counter-Strike" and "DOTA 2" (Which I positively reviewed) as examples of hundreds of positive reviews I've given to genuinely great gaming experiences. Why did the developer deliberately lie about an honest and factual review about a badly made, failed product? Oh yeah, The Main Character can't tolerate being forced to face the facts about his failure as a game developer and inability to get hired by any game development companies due to his incompetence. What a joke. Gamers, take a look at this fool, see how badly his game failed, and make up your own mind. Nothing in the developers pointless breach of Valve guidelines changes any of the objective facts of my review. My review stands unaltered. I cannot recommend this game to anyone.

Can Not believe it was free, Check it out.

在堆叠卡牌基建的内容上，添加了切换地图玩法。需要前往不同地点，收集主线物品并达成最后胜利。 太空模式比较新奇，都是新的物品新的合成。 村庄模式dddd。部分物品和数值很眼熟啊很眼熟。 操作不舒服，游戏还有可优化空间。方向键控制界面移动不跟手，E自动整理让卡牌一起紧密贴贴…… 不过好处是有三个时间流速选项，可选三倍速。 村庄主流程没玩完，因为后期出现bug了，出现合成进度条的卡牌无法分开。 还有一个bug，当一天结束跳出需要吃饭的时候，如果正好捏着卡牌，就会卡死，只能强退。 不过免费游玩，所以感兴趣或者消磨时间可入。

不错的小品级游戏，但相比原作还是差了不少，优化和卡牌平衡没做好，前期合成表出的不线性，经常不知道干什么，到后期很容易资源溢出，都没地方用，还有就是出卡机制不合理，应该提高没获得过的卡牌的爆率，而不是硬抽，两种模式都是通关了都没能拿到所有卡。合成表也设计的不太合理，通关了都好多东西不知道怎么做。还是原作好。

Pure gem. Perfect for an evening as its free. Id like to see more games like this <3

很有创意的一款游戏，就是金钱感觉到后面没什么用，还有就是能不能出自动归类物品的快捷键，鼠标点得我手都酸了，这些改进一下我觉得游玩时间会大大增加的

Stacks:Space! takes the familiar idea of card stacking and transforms it into a compact science-fiction management adventure built around exploration, crafting, survival, and colony development. Developed and published by Stacks:Engine, the game uses cards to represent practically everything in its world, including characters, resources, buildings, equipment, enemies, and locations. Its presentation may initially appear simple, but underneath that straightforward exterior is a surprisingly interconnected collection of systems that rewards experimentation and efficient planning. The central gameplay loop involves obtaining cards, discovering useful combinations, and stacking the correct resources together to produce new items. With hundreds of cards and roughly a hundred crafting recipes to uncover, experimentation becomes a major part of progression. Some items can be produced through alternative recipes, giving players additional flexibility when particular resources are scarce. Booster packs introduce new materials and opportunities, while successful crafting gradually turns a modest collection of cards into an increasingly sophisticated space settlement. Colony development provides much of the long-term satisfaction. Players can establish useful structures, manufacture drones and droids, organize production chains, and prepare astronauts for increasingly demanding tasks. Astronauts have Strength, Agility, Endurance, and Intelligence attributes, adding a modest character-development system to what might otherwise have been purely resource-based management. Improving and utilizing these characters effectively becomes increasingly important once exploration and hostile encounters enter the equation. The world extends beyond the main settlement through multiple locations associated with exploration, quests, trading, and other activities. Traveling outward creates a worthwhile reason to develop a productive home base rather than simply accumulating resources for their own sake. Boss encounters provide additional milestones and give the player larger objectives to prepare for. This combination of economic development and exploration creates a satisfying cycle where better production enables greater adventures, while successful expeditions can provide opportunities that further strengthen the colony. Combat fits directly into the card-based structure. Characters can engage enemies through melee or ranged attacks, and the distinction between the two styles adds some tactical consideration to encounters. Characters occupied with crafting will not automatically abandon their work to participate in battle, meaning poor preparation can leave important workers unavailable at the worst possible moment. Hostile creatures may also interfere with valuable resources rather than simply attacking characters, making invasions disruptive to both survival and production. The combat itself is relatively uncomplicated, but it works because it interacts with the broader management mechanics. Different scenarios improve replay value by changing starting circumstances, objectives, and other conditions. The introductory scenario also serves as a tutorial, helping newcomers understand the unusual mechanics without overwhelming them immediately. Daily Challenges provide shorter sessions with randomized objectives and restrictions, encouraging players to reconsider familiar strategies. These modes are particularly effective for players who enjoy optimizing systems because they prevent one successful production formula from becoming the answer to every situation. Modding is one of the game's most notable features. The integrated framework supports custom cards, crafting recipes, locations, scenarios, and broader gameplay modifications. Stacks:Village demonstrates this flexibility by shifting the underlying card system into a fantasy village setting with a substantial amount of additional content. This makes the game particularly interesting for players who enjoy community-created material or want to experiment with creating their own additions. Visually, Stacks:Space! prioritizes functionality rather than spectacle. Its 2D card-based presentation makes information relatively easy to understand and contributes to modest hardware demands. As settlements expand, however, the board can become crowded with characters, resources, production chains, structures, and hostile cards. Keeping everything organized becomes part of the challenge. Players expecting elaborate science-fiction environments or highly animated battles may find the presentation basic, but the restrained visual approach suits the game's system-driven design. On Steam Deck, Stacks:Space! does not currently have an official Valve compatibility rating, so its status should be considered Unknown or Unverified rather than officially Verified or Playable. Its lightweight technical requirements are encouraging, but the absence of an official rating means handheld players should not assume that controls, interface readability, and every feature will work perfectly without adjustment. Stacks:Space! succeeds by squeezing crafting, colony management, character progression, exploration, combat, bosses, scenarios, daily challenges, and modding into an approachable card-stacking framework. Individual mechanics are not as deep as those found in dedicated colony simulators or complex strategy games, yet their interaction creates a compelling progression system. Discovering recipes, improving production efficiency, strengthening astronauts, and preparing for expeditions provide a steady stream of objectives. Its simple appearance disguises an unusually ambitious collection of systems, making it a worthwhile choice for players who enjoy experimentation and resource optimization. Rating: 7/10