PacketStorm

This is not a horrible game, but it is a stripped down game. I would give it a thumbs up if I had bought it for less than $2.00 USD.

The good:
* A relaxing fish tank to watch, with some gameplay elements thrown in.

The bad:
* No explanation as to how the gameplay elements work. Trial and error eventually let you figure out what's going on but...
* Because there's no way to delete your out-of-game profile, by the time you figure out how things work, it's too late to develop a meaningful play strategy because you're flush with bonuses that dilute any bad decisions you might make.
* There's also no way to quit the game beyond Alt-F4.

Suggestions:
* An explanation of what decisions you can make would be nice. My best guess at this point is that upgrading router speed allows packets to be routed quicker; upgrading TX boost allows packets to travel faster between routers; and upgraded Power Efficiency decreases overhead cost of your network.
* A graceful way to exit the program would be nice.
* A way to create, play, and delete player profiles would be nice.
* Having a way of increasing the number of packets than can be stored at a router would be nice. As it is, the packet storage is fixed at 2048 packets per routing point.
* Allowing in-game upgrades to be more meaningful would make for more interesting decisions. If a particular city is being hammered by network traffic, it feels like upgrades to that city's router have no real impact on the flow of traffic.
* Allowing the removal of a network line would make for additional decision making. If overhead gets too costly, there's no way to reduce it by shutting down light traffic nodes/lines.

Summary:
* This is a relaxing fish tank with light gameplay elements. I would recommend it once either the price is below $2.00 USD or more gameplay/polish is added to the game.

Can be described as Creeper world base building, except its mixed with pandemic without the virus, while also providing a simple but good version of upgrades across games.

The good:
- Rewarding sense of progression, both in terms of upgrades and in terms of discovering better routing strategies
- I like the atmosphere. Relaxing, just observing your masterpiece network doing its thing.
- Runs smoothly, small size download, loads fast, all of which is typical for ProjectorGames

The bad:
- Lack of in-game explanations. Impatient players will hate the game because of this.
- UI is too large and covers nearly 40% of the gameplay area. I feel like I have to zoom out a lot to see the area I want, and then I too far out for the view to be useful.
- My first reaction when starting the game was to click something. Turns out I upgraded something. Initial confusion might occur.
- When playing a scenario, the upgrades for each node feels expensive for the actual gain you get. I believe CPU Upgrades would be a neat tool to toss a relevant amount of money into to help power the throughput of my hub-nodes.

Other notes:
- I recommend you buy it, get over the UI and give it a proper chance. It's fun for atleast a few hours. Definitely worth the price!
- Reykjavik is actually Madagaskar

I recently played PacketStorm, a fun little game where you connect cities of the world to form a simulation of the internet, where tiny packets of data are being distributed for money.

You start out in Great Britain with slow hardware, enough to form a connection but not nearly capable to satisfy the demands of video streaming, game download or online backup services. So you spend your well-earned money on hardware upgrades, in order to earn even more money and expand your service to newer and bigger territories all over the world. Being successful also grants research points granting permanent upgrades that will last until the very end of the game.
Even though advanced mathematics and algorithms are the internal motor powering this game, none of it is needed to play it. If you understand the concept of bigger is better, you're ready to go!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1894412504

The experience felt short, albeit fun. The problems of clogged networks and 'customers' wanting more cities connected to their data centers can be solved in many different ways and kept me thinking about them hours and miles away from the game. This pulled me back into the game over and over again trying out new strategies to get those packets storming.