Hi Nova games, this is such a cute little game, I love the art style and the run animation of the player character! It did take me a little bit to work out what to do though, maybe a little bit of handholding right at the start (even on top of the pop up in the top left of the screen) to show the player exactly what to do would help out a bit?
Maybe something like giving the player 2 items that will merge and not letting them progress further (stop spawning the little guys that give items) until they have combined them.
Outside of this (and some sounds and other polish things which I'm sure you have a big todo list of already) I can see the full version of this being really fun!