We Need More Steam!

Honestly... You can play better games online for free. It's not even very well made. I've played a ton of automation games, but the gameplay mechanic seems broken (electricity demand seems to rise geometrically, far faster than you can click) and the UI doesn't provide any real information. I refunded because after half an hour I was frustrated, bored and didn't see any variation on the maps except 'This one is a slightly different shape'. So, with no reason to continue... I didn't.

I'm giving a positive review because it's a $1 game and worth it for the taste but I'm frustrated with it. This isn't Factorio's design something that works but sucks and improve it. It's design something that works then fail and don't know why. I was sold with the video and images and price but as a player its frustrating. As a programmer it feels like something I would make and know the rules of and be great at because I made it and know the rules but no one else can play it well. It's punishing. The timer runs fast and you don't get the time you need to analyze the data it avails before you fail. If the timer shows up saying you don't have enough electricity needed you've already failed. Your first instinct the next run is to over spend and you get a timer for debt that is impossible to fix and you fail. (Yes, I did the tutorial and understand the -$20k rule, but when playing you don't feel like you have the time to even look at your debt or profits etc.) I know this balance is what the games is but I can't find the cadence or the maths to make it work. Add to that some RNG upgrades and your run to run comparisons are incomparable. I failed and failed and failed without much ability to reflect. Failing isn't bad design I know that, but it's so quick and you can't analyze what you've done to determine how to do better. There is no do better design other than random trying. I was spamming design ideas and failing over and over and over. It became a timing game instead of a design game, my score improved incrementally because I waited 2 more seconds before I built a second tank>boiler>turbine>etc. Why did this approach work this time you might ask, but I do not know. The best success I had was looking closer at the Steam store page images to see what design hints I could get. It helped me get a bigger score but IDK why.