Click on the power button at the bottom of the main computer window. Then hit the map button at the top of the screen and then progress the gold star quests (main quests). The game and options will open up from there.
With the next version I will restructure the introduction to the game to include a little tutorial. Once you get into the game progressing is easy, it's just those first couple of steps.
As far as variability with choices, it comes down to practicality of creating content for the game in future updates. If you have a decision early in the game that significantly changes the main story, then you have to have multiple versions for each piece of content following that. Have a large range of options then you have an incredibly high number of options for each piece of content downstream. Hence what this does is to effectively stop progress in development as you spend you time creating dozens of variations of the same image.
Being aware of this and wanting to give the player choices that effect the core result, I am creating side missions that end up with significantly different outcomes. Given that they are not on the main story line path, these decision do not immediately affect the main path in the short term. They will however have an effect on the main story line in the late game. As the main story progresses to conclusion it does afford me the opportunity to significantly branch the outcomes, however I always have to remain mindful that I do not put myself in a position where the player will only see a fraction of the content on a single play through.
With the next version there will also be an implementation of a crew relationship tracker, that will change how crew members react with each other and the Captain based upon their relationship score. This score will change based upon the players interactions with the crew, in relation to how much attention you pay to certain crew members. Additionally there will be development of the Gideon strip club, where you will be able to manage the club operations. This will include selecting which performers you prefer and on which stage you would like them to perform. With the knowledge I now have of RenPy I should be able to make it fairly dynamic (highly variable) without killing myself creating content. The is largely though the use of having the talent as imagebuttons in the navigation and also using transparent video. For those that have been paying attention, this was also done with the Kara pistol training, where the background changes dependent upon what you have in the hold at the time.
The game is still developing and I am tweaking based upon user feedback. Given that it's the first game I have created, I am still on the learning curve.
