It’s hard to keep track of the demos available during Steam Next Fest. I wish Steam would email me about games on my wishlist getting demos, because Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop has been on my wishlist since August 2022. Would have been nice to hear of the demo.
I found it eventually. I don’t remember how, but I’m glad I did because it gave me a taste of what I’ve been looking forward to. A big taste. It pushed my chin back and made sure I had no choice but to guzzle it all down. I had other things to do that evening, but they got shunted aside for three hours of Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop. I don’t regret it.
The philosophy behind Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop is tactile mechanics. In a lot of games, the act of doing basically anything gets distilled down to be intuitive; almost too much. Some games will have you pick a lock with a dice roll or a progress bar, and others give you a mini-game where you jiggle the pins. Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop is all pin jiggling.
A lot of actions get boiled down in games to make things more intuitive or to even out the difficulty curve. Sometimes, it’s so the action just flows better. Other times, designing an entire mini-game around a simple action just isn’t within the game’s scope. However, good use of tactile mechanics will feel extremely satisfying, like when a horror game makes you jiggle pins while a killer is bearing down on you.
Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop has you playing as Wilbur, a hapless mechanic at an interstellar service station. Wilbur has had very little training, but both his life and his livelihood depend on him being able to repair all manner of problems.
Somebody lands with a problem, you flip open the panel, and then you discover that you haven’t seen this particular type of fuel module before. Panic creeps up your spine, and you try to soothe your bladder before pee can escape.
The goal is to complete enough jobs – and of high enough complexity – that you can pay your R.E.N.T. after a few days. However, before you have the chance to get into it, a hitman blows Wilbur’s head off. That’s not the end of the demo.
Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop borrows the “run” concept of the roguelite genre. If you can’t pay your rent by the end of the time period, you’re dead. A shadowy figure then greets you and sends you back to the beginning of the period to try again. Having Wilbur unceremoniously assassinated is the game’s way of introducing you to the concept. After that, however, you’re thrown into the deep end.
The central concept of Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop that I think is going to be make or break with some people is the way it doesn’t teach beyond the core mechanics. New modules keep showing up on visiting spacecraft, and if you haven’t seen them before, you need to bring up your grimoire and find the chapter that covers them. Then, you need to learn how to diagnose and address problems. Being faced with a new module and having to learn it can take up a lot of your day, meaning you won’t be able to finish many jobs and might come up short on rent. This is where the roguelite aspect plays well. It gives you both the opportunity and requirement to improve your skills.
That’s under “Frantic Fixing” difficulty, anyway. There’s also “Focused Fixing” which doesn’t have you on a time limit but only lets you complete three jobs a day with greater punishment for difficulty. I’m a writer, so I’m used to working under deadlines.
The important part of diagnosis and repair in Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop is that it actually feels like diagnosis and repair. Modules rarely break in just one way. Sometimes, you can see visible damage, and other times, you need to calibrate. The Grimoire is sometimes specific in its information, but more often, you need to try and interpret diagrams through trial and error. If you’re not careful, you may break components and need to replace them.
As you play, you gradually become better at these, learning certain modules inside out and backwards. Sometimes, when a new twist shows up, you already have some idea on how to approach it. Because Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop doesn’t hold your hand and respects you enough to assume that you’ll be able to figure things out on your own, it’s a rewarding and meaningful game. Sure, maybe replacing the oil pump on a spaceship isn’t going to easily translate into the real world, but I like games that make me feel smart when I’m not.
The day before rent is due, you get a whopper of a spaceship. It has multiple problems to address, some of which you might be seeing for the first time. This ensures that getting to the end of the day with enough money left in your pockets to pay rent will probably require a few runs.
If you pull it off, your reward is a ship that has multiple bombs to defuse. You’re not supposed to survive. That’s the end of the demo. You’ll be told this directly. It’s an appropriate way to end things.
Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop is planned for November 2024. I was already interested in the direction that Beard Envy had chosen, but the demo is beyond my hopes for execution. With its tactile gameplay that puts the onus on you to improve your skills and learn new ones, it’s among the most satisfying games I’ve played. When combined with a charmingly bizarre art style and darkly funny script, you wind up with the whole package. I’m not looking forward to the chilly weather, but November can’t come soon enough.
