This game has immense potential and is high on my radar for the future. However, the current state feels less like a functional alpha of a full game than a proof of concept and demo of ideas. There's no window for fun (as it currently stands), though there always feels like a promise of it. Everything is either way too easy or way too hard with no player options or creative wiggle room. In other words: It's not really Tower Defense from a strategic or creative point of view; it's more like a timed puzzle game with TD elements. Every wave, I feel like I either jumped the predetermined hurdles in the right order at the right time - and in no way feel "connected" to my setup or invested personally in it - or I didn't. When I didn't, I don't feel like it's my fault, either. Either way, I feel like the game set me up one way or the other, and I either decimate them or they decimate me, and it feels like I'm watching someone else's game because I didn't creatively set up my own TD system.
This is likely mostly a matter of tuning and creative latitude (e.g. more towers, more economic choices, upgrades, etc.) TD suffers when there's a predetermined "right answer" and "wrong answer;" that's not strategic, it's a puzzle. That can be fun, too, at least for some, but I don't think this game sets itself up for that.
More towers, tower upgrades, and the "wiggle room" allowance for creative solutions outside the campaign expectations would all go a long way. Longer levels that allow for real "city building" would also be great. Specific difficulty modifiers like "allow pause-building during waves" would also help for those of us with particular abilities.
Thanks for the feedback xodarap777! This is very much a prototype and not a vertical slice, so I wouldn't consider the core loop to be done at all.
A lot of what you're talking about is stuff we've been trying to figure out from day 1. We want the game to be more city-builder-like and we're still exploring the right mechanics and systems to get the experience we imagine.
As for the game feeling puzzley. That's just a consequence of having a high difficulty level. Which is something some players really love. It's tricky to balance, but I really wanna add some different ways to play the game.
I don't think we'll do pausing during waves, but I want more customisable difficulty in some form.