Space Trader released! (screenshots included)

Hello there!
I tried the game and it was very interesting. I like the concept.

A couple of comments...

I would add a cancel button when dealing with a trader. I can buy, sell but can't exit as easily.

The quick jump between contacts is very nice but I don't know how it happens... They have portable teleporters? Perhaps you should tink of a way to explian this to the player to make sure you don't break the fourth wall.

The artwork feels uneven to me. The face are highly detailed and shaded while the clothes are simple and flat.

Personaly, I'd drop the sexism jokes, like the "Look, don't touch" reply with some, shall we say, attractive woman character.

I'd make the introduction to the gameplay a little easier on the player. We start off on the moon where we can buy some stuff and travel back on earth. Trouble is, we don't have money and we can't shoot something. we just wlak around and talk. I say you should create a "lobby" part when you start, before entering the moon. You could be in a sattelite station orbiting around the moon where you will be able to buy your weapons, a couple of items and then move on to the moon. But, just before you're about to catch your teleporter or flight, the base is attacked by pirates. You'd be helped by a couple of patrol units during the misison. The sattelite base is comonly attacked due to the merchandise it holds (weapons and items) and since it's not very crowded and patroled, it's an easy target.

I said sattelite station but it could be "remote moon base" or "moon hangar" or whatever you might imagine. Just give the player a bit of everything in the first 5-6 minutes to show him what the game can offer.

In the interface, I'd make the menu options at the top of the screen (travel, explore etc...) become bigger whan the mouse is over to clearly indicate which one we are selecting and to ease the reading.

In the action mission, I'd make the game a bit easier and remove the 3 chances. It would be more immersive this way. You culd ahve an emergency teleporting device that activates when you die/almost die/get knocked out. You'd loose everything you gained form the mission and the weapon you had in your hands at the time of death/almost detah/knock out. The player would be able to get it back by traveling back and restarting the mission where he left off (the misison wouldn't reset, just continue). I just find it very odd that we have 3 lives to do something like that. If you want to limit the time passed in the mission, add overall time limits. When the time is over, if the target hasn't been completed/eliminated, the mission is failed and the player cannot do it again. Dying makes you loose time. With a formula like that, you'll be able to create special items accessible in special missions that are very strict time-wise.

I'm still not sure what the goal of the game is. Try to make it as obvious as possible. if it's to trade, create special trade missions where you'll deal for better stuff. If it's shooting, send as as fast as posisble into the action. if it's both, you'll have to decide if it's a trading game with shooting or a shooter with trading. I think you should write down the heartbeat of your game and then make sure that the player can understand what it is right away within the first 2 or 3 minutes of play.

Saving slots would be nice, even in the demo...

Well, that's pretty much it. Interesting concept and it's looking very well!
Later!
Guert