Thanks for all the feedback! Seriously!
1. You aren't the first person to bring up hitboxes for the player (and a wonky hitbox for the boss laser) so this is something I've already started working on. The hitbox itself in this demo is the size of the ships body which is my intention, but I'm already squeezing it inwards a bit to account for near-misses and the like. That should hopefully help things feel a little better in that regard.
2. So what I'm aiming for with weapons (ultimately) is the colored items swap loadouts, and the upgrade pickup upgrades everything one at a time. However - because the engine currently lacks the ability to define and track variables, It's not quite as intuitive and simple as I'd like it to be. We were told the variables update would be early this year and that's not quite happened yet so... I'm designing for that eventuality which I'm hoping will make the process much easier to understand. There's a good chance that will open up some easier options for me to visually display some differences on the ship so there's a better indication of what to expect from each weapon as well - but that's still a floating idea. To your point tho, yes - the basic shot is intended to be "fine" but not ideal. I may just need to reduce HP on a few other chonkier enemies.
3. The album sort of came first and it was very much composed as a tribute to Einhander, so this sliding into the territory of fan-game is extremely likely and - having come from the Sonic fangaming community years ago, I wouldn't be too upset by that. In my head-cannon this feels like the same physical locations but, perhaps a different point in time. Dunno. I think its drifting that way because of all the inspiration that went into the music the game is based on.
- I'll say this though, working on this is so much fun that when it's finished I'm definitely wanting to start a new project from scratch and do something that feels more original.
4. I think I've heard about this as well from some other SHMUP Creator devs, I need to poke and see if theres a solution or if we are just waiting for another update.
Thanks again! If you remember your highscore at the end I'd love to include it in the next build!