Info about Moonshine Inc.:

Official game description:
_We love moonshin’. There ain’t nothin’ better than good booze. In Appalachia, we know it well. We’ve got moonshine in our blood - in the case of some old-timers, maybe even literally. We love to talk about likker, make it, drink it all day long - and we love to share it too! How 'bout that, my gaming friend?_
_What’s your alcohol of choice? Do you maybe know how to make it? The process is a complex one, but with our know-how, we can shed some light on it, if you’d like; a little bit of moonlight - moonshine! - to guide you through the processes of fermentation, distillation, and bottling. But that’s too much to write about here - just check out the .gif below to see how we went about it._
_Makin’ booze is pure fun, but if you’re makin’ money too - now that’s the way to live. However, for that, you need to be smart, manage your base right, and not piss off the boys in blue..._
We tried to capture the life of a moonshiner as realistically as possible. You’ll be managing workers who’ll be crafting and maintaining your equipment, you’ll be buying ingredients, unlocking technologies, planning deliveries and finances, making sure you remain as discreet as possible - and deciding whom to trust and with whom to work.
In our game, you take on the role of a young moonshiner. You will progress through main missions, perform side quests, and run into road events during deliveries - the life of a moonshiner is ever-exciting and full of surprises...
If you’ll be prospering, you’ll get the chance to create and manage bases in five different regions, each with its own, more and more challenging missions. From your hometown mountains, through the thicket of a forest and mud of a swamp, all the way to civilization to conquer the big city.
How the story will end depends purely on you - there’ll be a pesky agent who’ll want to work with you, and there’ll be a corrupt governor that you can join. But you can also ignore them. You’re a free man, after all.
_That’s how Moonshine Inc. came to be. Made for moonshiners, amateurs, dreamers, and newbies. Sit down, launch the game, enjoy crafting and running your business, and relax… after all, **ain't nothin’ illegal ‘til you get caught!**_
*   Sandbox mode with the choice of region, starting money, Police Alert on/off, speed of production and crafting, and discoverability of technologies and recipes
*   a faithful reflection of the moonshine craft - fermentation and distillation based on chemical formulas behaving as natural processes
*   a realistic recreation of an American moonshiner’s business, with all its challenges
*   a rich story - 3 possible successful endings or a “Game Over” if caught by the authorities
*   5 regions - running the base in the mountains, forest, swamps, town, and city, with linear progression
*   70+ recipes - 15+ moonshines, 15+ whiskies, 20 brandies, 20+ vodkas
*   50+ ingredients - sugars, fruits, vegetables, and grains
*   35+ apparatuses - 17 distillation stills, 8 fermentation tanks, 5 post-distillation tanks, 7 pre-fermentation apparatuses, and more
*   26 fermentation and distillation technologies
*   37 main quests + Police Quests, side quests, and road events
*   Original Soundtrack - get a Supporter Pack to download 19 tracks from the game’s OST

Release date: 1 Dec, 2022

Categories: Business Simulation, Management Simulation, Crafting, Resource Management, Single-player Story, Multiple Endings, Police Evasion Mechanics, Sandbox Creation


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Enjoyable Core Gameplay Loop (weight 0.81): Players consistently find the game fun and engaging, particularly enjoying the unique concept of moonshine production and the detailed simulation aspects. The game offers a relaxing yet addictive experience, especially when experimenting with recipes and managing the business.
- High Potential for Growth (weight 0.19): Many players see great potential in the game's concept and mechanics, believing it has all the right ingredients for future development. The innovative idea and interesting theme suggest a promising future for the title.
- Strong Narrative and Characters (weight 0.16): The game features an engaging story with intriguing, well-developed characters and a sympathetic family plot. The narrative is rich with twists and ethical dilemmas, contributing to an immersive experience.
- Beautiful Steampunk Noir Aesthetic (weight 0.11): The game is praised for its beautifully crafted steampunk world, atmospheric hand-painted backgrounds, and moody lighting. The soundtrack and sound design perfectly complement the visual style, creating a compelling and visually striking journey.
- Improved Localization Quality (weight 0.08): Recent updates have resolved issues with Japanese Kanji display and translation, making the game more accessible and enjoyable for Japanese-speaking players. This fix allows for unhindered gameplay regardless of language choice.
- Effective Recipe Management Tools (weight 0.07): Players appreciate streamlined processes like archiving previous recipes and the intuitive recipe planner. These features save time and enhance the enjoyment of experimenting with different moonshine creations.
- Responsive Developer Support (weight 0.05): The developers are highly active and responsive, particularly on their Discord server, providing immediate assistance with questions and bug reports. This dedication to community interaction is greatly appreciated by players.

Common complaints:
- Severe Bugs and Instability (weight 1): Players report numerous game-breaking bugs, including corrupted saves, crashes, stuck workers/vehicles, and unplayable sections, making the game frustrating and often unfinishable. This issue is prevalent across multiple platforms and significantly impacts the core gameplay experience.
- Lack of Content and Depth (weight 0.75): The game is criticized for its short length, limited replay value, and shallow gameplay mechanics. Many feel it lacks sufficient content, especially in later stages, and that core elements like strategy and resource management are barebones, leading to tedium.
- Confusing Mechanics and UI (weight 0.71): Players find many game mechanics poorly explained or implemented, leading to confusion. The user interface is often described as clunky, lacking essential information, and failing to expose game features clearly, making it difficult to understand how actions affect outcomes.
- Poor Localization Quality (weight 0.69): Multiple language versions suffer from significant translation issues, including missing text, incorrect translations, and font problems. This creates a language barrier that hinders immersion and understanding for non-English speaking players.
- Disappointing Simulation Aspects (weight 0.61): The game is perceived as more of a business or management simulation rather than a true moonshine simulator. Players feel it doesn't accurately replicate real brewing processes and lacks the depth expected from a simulation title.

Gameplay feedback:
- Business Management Simulation (weight 0.49): Beyond crafting, the game is a detailed management simulator where players oversee all aspects of a clandestine distillery. This includes hiring and managing workers, procuring materials, balancing production costs and quality, and handling sales and deliveries.
- Deep Alcohol Crafting System (weight 0.44): The core gameplay revolves around a comprehensive moonshine production system, including fermentation, distillation, and ingredient experimentation. Players manage various aspects like temperature, time, and ingredient ratios to create different types of alcoholic beverages, from basic moonshine to more complex spirits.
- Story and Mission Structure (weight 0.14): The game features a campaign with a simple story and various main and side quests. While the narrative is not the primary focus, missions guide player progression and unlock new areas and content.
- Police Evasion Mechanics (weight 0.12): A key element of the game involves managing the illegal nature of the moonshine business. Players must avoid police detection through careful planning of distillery operations, managing vigilance levels, and discreetly handling deliveries.
- Essential Tutorial & Sandbox (weight 0.08): The game includes a necessary tutorial that introduces basic mechanics, after which players are encouraged to experiment. A sandbox mode is also available for customized challenges and free-form play.
- Adjustable Game Speed (weight 0.07): Players can control the pace of the game with multiple time-speed options, including a maximum of 8x speed. This allows for faster progression, especially during less active periods.
- Occasional Production Bugs (weight 0.06): Some players reported issues where production processes, particularly fermentation, can get stuck. This can lead to equipment becoming unusable and workers being tied up, hindering progress.
- Production & Delivery Logistics (weight 0.05): The final stages of the business involve delivering finished products to customers. This includes managing truck deliveries, selecting appropriate vehicles, and planning routes.
- Balanced Complexity & Realism (weight 0.03): The game strikes a balance between realistic distillation mechanics and adjustments for enjoyable gameplay. It offers a good degree of complexity without being overly technical.
- Pacing and Progression (weight 0.03): The game generally offers a quick progression once players understand the core mechanics, with new content unlocking at a reasonable pace.
- Variable Difficulty (weight 0.02): Some players found the game to be relatively easy or laid-back, suggesting a potentially low overall challenge in certain aspects.

Performance notes:
- Performance issues persist (weight 0.13): Many players report significant frame rate drops and stuttering, even on high-end systems, particularly at higher resolutions or when managing base animations. While some note improvements, optimization remains a key concern for a smooth gameplay experience.
- No performance issues reported (weight 0.03): A small number of players experienced no performance problems, indicating that issues might not be universal or could be system-specific. This feedback is limited and less detailed.

Recommendations:
- Wait for sales and patches (weight 0.35): Many players advise against purchasing the game at full price due to its current state, recommending to wait for sales or significant patches and bug fixes. Some players even refunded the game or plan to return later.
- Niche appeal for specific players (weight 0.19): The game strongly appeals to a specific niche, particularly those interested in moonshine production, management simulations, or slower, story-driven mystery games. Players expecting a different experience, such as a 'drug dealer simulator meets brewmaster sim,' may be disappointed.
- Needs developer attention (weight 0.1): Players feel the game requires more development effort, specifically in terms of bug fixes, optimization, and potentially a sandbox mode. There's a call for improved game interaction and user experience design.
- Language support is crucial (weight 0.04): The game's enjoyment is significantly hampered for non-English speakers, with a strong request for more language translations, particularly Spanish.

Other player notes:
- Developer abandonment concerns (weight 0.1): Many players express strong concerns about the game's perceived abandonment by developers, citing a lack of updates, bug fixes, and communication over extended periods. This leads to a feeling that the game was released unfinished and will not see further improvements.
- Unique theme and mechanics (weight 0.06): Players appreciate the game's unique theme and interesting, albeit simple, mechanics. It stands out as a niche title, offering a distinct experience within its genre.
- Desire for more content (weight 0.06): Players are eager for more features, story plots, and a larger map with additional activities to enhance the game's depth and replayability. There's also a wish for a free mode.
- Good art style and playtime (weight 0.06): The game offers a decent amount of playtime (10-20 hours) and is praised for its pretty graphics and appealing art style, despite some finding the overall visual presentation plain.
- High resource consumption (weight 0.04): The game consumes a large amount of disk space and memory, which players feel is not justified by its visual presentation or graphics quality.
- Price point too high (weight 0.02): Some players feel that the original price of 20€ is too expensive for the amount of content and features currently offered in the game.
- Improve auto-save functionality (weight 0.02): The current auto-save option does not save frequently enough, leading players to rely on manual saving to prevent loss of progress.
- Missing historical context (weight 0.01): Players noted a lack of historical aspects, themed information, or explanations within the game, which could enrich the experience.
- Need for process notifications (weight 0.01): The game lacks specific notifications to inform players about the advancement of various processes, which could improve user experience.
- Archiving batches is key (weight 0.01): Archiving finished batches is a necessary step to unlock workers and equipment, indicating a core game mechanic.
- Unresolved discussion issues (weight 0.01): An issue has been open in discussions for nearly a month, highlighting a potential lack of developer engagement or resolution.

Emotions:
- Frustration (weight 0.26): Players experienced significant frustration due to numerous game-breaking bugs, performance issues like freezing and crashes, and corrupted save files. Other causes included poor localization, confusing UI, unexplained mechanics, and a general lack of depth or challenge in certain gameplay aspects.
- Disappointment (weight 0.21): Disappointment stemmed from the game's unpolished and buggy state, often feeling incomplete or rushed, especially for a full-price release. Players also expressed dissatisfaction with the perceived lack of developer support, slow patch rates, and underdeveloped features, which collectively prevented the game from reaching its full potential.
- Satisfaction (weight 0.17): Satisfaction was driven by the engaging core gameplay loop of alcohol making, an original theme, and an immersive story. Players appreciated developer responsiveness, bug fixes, and overall improvements that made the game enjoyable, addictive, and relaxing, offering good value for money.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.06): Players found enjoyment in the detailed management gameplay, particularly the process of balancing ingredients, discovering new recipes, and experimenting with moonshine creation. The chill and fun nature of the simulation, despite occasional grind, contributed to a positive experience.
- Hope (weight 0.05): Hope was primarily associated with the desire for future game improvements, including bug fixes, additional features, more dynamic content, and expanded language support. Players saw potential in the game and wished for continued developer effort to realize it.
- Excitement (weight 0.04): Excitement arose from the game's immersive storytelling, visual style, and the challenge of alcohol crafting combined with police pressure. Players were also excited by the game's overall potential and the anticipation of future updates and possibilities.
- Boredom (weight 0.03): Boredom was caused by the repetitive and slow nature of the production system, particularly the waiting periods and the constant need to adjust parameters. Players found the gameplay quickly became tedious, even with increased game speed.
- Joy (weight 0.03): Joy was experienced through the creative process of experimenting with recipes, effectively using creation tools, and successfully juggling quests while making money. The engaging business simulation and moonshine-making mechanics provided a fun and rewarding experience.
- Confusion (weight 0.03): Confusion arose from unclear game mechanics, a lack of structured guidance, and difficulty understanding if certain issues were bugs or intended features. Players also struggled with later missions and a poor introduction to the game.
- Surprise (weight 0.02): Surprise was linked to the game's unique premise and setting, which sometimes differed from initial expectations. Players were also pleasantly surprised when the game exceeded their expectations or offered unexpected exploration aspects.
- Curiosity (weight 0.01): Curiosity was sparked by the game's deep and detailed simulation mechanics, encouraging experimentation and discovery. The unique premise of becoming a professional distiller also fueled players' interest.
- Anger (weight 0.01): Anger was expressed due to poor optimization, a frustrating anti-human alert mechanism, and a strong feeling of being scammed. Players felt the game's price was too high given its perceived lack of content and repetitive quests.
- Desire (weight 0.01): Players expressed a desire for more freedom in recipe creation and additional replayability elements to enhance the long-term engagement of the game.
- Anticipation (weight 0.01): Anticipation was felt regarding future bug fixes, improved game mechanics, and the prospect of new language support, specifically a Spanish translation.
- Relaxation (weight 0.01): Relaxation was found in the game's laid-back nature and the ability to enjoy the sandbox mode without stress or worries, providing a calm gaming experience.
- Interest (weight 0): Interest was primarily driven by the game's unique and engaging core mechanisms, which captured players' attention.
- Relief (weight 0): Relief was experienced when specific issues were addressed, such as the Japanese translation being fixed, improving the overall playability for affected users.
- Indifference (weight 0): Indifference was noted when the game failed to create a strong sense of immersion, leading to a lack of emotional connection for some players.
- Mixed feelings (weight 0): Players experienced mixed feelings, enjoying the game's core concept and ideas but simultaneously being frustrated by its mechanics and execution.
- Caution (weight 0): Caution was expressed by players who recommended the game but felt compelled to include significant caveats due to its existing issues or limitations.}