There is a knockback effect when the enemy hits the player, but when life reaches 0 he lays down for approximately .02 second before respawning down in that bottom corner.
A fade out/in would be cool. I'm not sure how to fade a game object, though. I think in order to make sure I can get all the remaining things I want to add finished I'll just slap a timer on it and throw a fade out in the polish pile for now.
I appreciate that you keep checking back in on my devlog, by the way.
I've taken a look at yours and I'm excited for it. Survival is among my favorite genres.