Shifts shifts into high score mode

I still don’t much care for Shifts, a rather dry spaceship crew management game, sort of like FTL minus combat, exploration, and charm. But I have to commend the developers for adding a scoring system to give the brief expeditions some replayability. As of the latest update, as you play, you earn points, which are displayed at the top of the screen. Like some of Shifts’ other features, the score is undocumented. As near as I can tell, the best way to earn points is to settle planets, which is incidentally the overarching goal. Makes sense. But I can’t tell whether there’s an effective correlation between playing harder difficulty levels and getting more points. That sort of thing is important in a game with a score list.

And, yes, there is a score list. You’d never know this from the fact that it’s inaccessible from the main screen. Instead, you have to start a game and then check the menu you would normally use to quit the game or turn off the music. Ah, there’s your score screen.