Dirt Poor in Deep Space
DIRT POOR IN DEEP SPACE
A busted-hauler story about owing more than you’re worth.
You're a small-time spacer minding your own business in Graveyard Orbit, riding a ship held together with duct tape, prayer, and overdue invoices. One bad loan from a real friendly banker has you staring down a debt big enough to blot out the stars. The honest jobs are taken, the safe lanes are bought, and what's left for you lives in the cracks: backroom bar deals, unlogged cargo, and "totally legal" side work in the dark between systems.
Out here, the bar is your mission board, the radio chatter is your weather report, and every jump gate is just another toll booth you can’t quite afford.
An alternate host with better mobile support can be found here:
https://www.dirtpoorindeepspace.com
Development log
- Accessibility UpdateJan 11, 2026
- Beta 2 ReleasedJan 08, 2026
- Beta is Here!Jan 07, 2026
- Alpha5 and Future PlansJan 07, 2026
- Alpha4 ReleaseJan 06, 2026
- Alpha3 ReleaseJan 06, 2026
- Minor adjustments to presentation.Jan 06, 2026
Comments
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I like the idea of the game, the atmosphere is pretty cool, even for a text-based game. There’s definitely something there.
That being said, at the moment the game feels a bit too random, and the gameplay is more about rolling dice than making educated decisions.
The debt mechanic is a good idea, but the interest rate was so high that trying to pay anything back felt trivial. I made a 15K payment, but the interest rate was so insane that after a couple of turns my debt was even higher than before I made the payment. There also doesn’t seem to be any downside to just letting it balloon out of control, so paying it off just felt like throwing money away.
I also didn’t really understand the difference between the zones or what “rich,” “average,” or “poor” meant. I’m guessing it has to do with the prices of goods, but since fuel and traveling don’t cost anything, moving somewhere doesn’t feel like a strategic decision and more like something you do when you get bored. Since I also have no way of knowing what prices will be somewhere else, it removes all agency from the player.
Again, I like the idea of the game and I think you do have something here, it just needs some adjustments and balancing.
Good luck with everything. Cheers
There is a failure state at 100000 credits of debt. It is definitely possible to complete the game, but you must learn the payout and success rates, which is intended. There is a fixed piracy rate which becomes a major factor after debt has been paid and you can no longer dump wealth, also you are accruing interest every time you travel, so travel definitely has down sides. The wealth states dictate base prices which fluctuate in a range for each state, you may find that one "Rich" station will have better ore prices than another, but they should always be higher than "Poor."
I created the game as an open world gambling simulator and I feel that it serves that purpose quite well, while still necessitating an understanding of the underlying mechanics and rewarding experimentation.
Thank you for the review and I appreciate that you took the time to try it!
I did end up addressing the difficulty by making it easier for each route to complete the debt payoff. It should now be possible to complete the debt payoff in your first run, but it still is not easy and will require planning and upgrades.
The game does not end at the debt payoff though, but from that point on the dynamic shifts significantly, promoting the use of different methods without the punishing interest rate looming
Cool, I gave the game another shot. On my first run I was mostly doing mining which is probably not the most lucrative route. On this run, I tried playing the game more like the old drug war game (buying goods cheap and travelling to sell them high somewhere else).
The game is fun, maybe adding some more information for the player like rumour about prices of goods in a region or adding costs to travel could help with decision making a bit.
It's funny you say that, mining is the route I always run when I'm not play testing. As long as you buy the first and second upgrade it's pretty much a guaranteed path out of debt. It becomes basically useless after you pay off the debt though, because there's too much risk of pirate encounters. I will look into adding some more guidance as a sort of mandatory radio chatter in the early game, that's a good idea. I guess I could also consider adding a proper 1->2->3 intro that plays out over your first 3 days of play. I will look into it tomorrow!
Nice idea but between not being able to tell what upgrade prices are, a whacky economy and just not being sure what most things do - doesn't feel like you have much agency
Stumbled through it and cleared the debt off pretty quick, fun idea, just needs *more*
I am definitely still adjusting the economy, my initial debt was 50,000, but at that point the interest is higher than mission payouts. I can refactor most aspects of the economy with a single change, so I'm taking my time figuring out a debt amount that is oppressive but not impossible. I see what you mean about the upgrades, there was definitely pricing in the menu, but I must have reverted that accidentally. I will hotfix that immediately.
The best idea I have right now for agency is to offer 4 jobs in the bar, 1 for each category. I will also need to refactor the balance of mission payouts in that case.
Edit: hotfix implemented:
Most of the problem with economy isn't how oppressive or long lasting, it's how simple it is. Or how easy it could be for someone to get unlucky early on and have a vastly harder time paying it off (especially while they're learning the game)
Something very very basic to increase the complexity, which i'm not advocating for, merely discussing, would be to 'force' the player into a negative spin to begin with (debt grows faster than income), forced to save up and buy some sort of other equipment or long lasting debuff (reputation as a criminal) and only at this point their income outstrips the rate of growth
Hell, if the project goes a long way, it might even be valid to have a small basic explanation of how to pay off debts - saving up to get an income is good, but the more you pay off, the more take home income to pay it off you have also
I'm still balancing, but Alpha 3 is ready to post, I'm just tweaking the interest rate to force the player into buying upgrades to make more money to pay off the debt. I have decreased the rate of failure just a bit so now it's more about grinding to pay off chunks of debt rather than worrying about the repo man.
This was the easiest way I could implement your suggestion, but I still need to balance the economy around it:
Actually thought a mining rig was needed to start doing mining trips, looks good