Hello!
Firstly I want to compliment the art and animations, that is a tonne of work! The UI too was very well put together and clear. I thought the music was good if a bit monotonous after some time, perhaps some sections that varied it up a bit could help.
Gameplay-wise I had fun though I didn't feel like there was much in the way of tactics or meaningful choices I was making. Maybe I am missing something but I felt like the best option was basically just to flood units in as soon as I could. I liked that I had to change up the composition a bit to deal with the new enemy types that come but timing and running low on population didn't seem to be punished. Maybe with that kind of mechanic a sort of 'upkeep' based on the amount of population you have in reserve slowly replenishing your population with more reserves and replenishing more quickly, could give some more meaningful player skill expression? I unlocked all of the upgrades in the order that seemed reasonable and then that whole system ends which I thought was a bit disappointing as I liked the idea of the give-and-take of progressing through the options when there were negative effects as well as positive ones. If the game was expanded upon that I think would be a good design element to explore more, maybe try and at least make a set of options with negative and positive effects for each track that loops back onto itself so you cycle through them? I did like the idea of the king unit adding an active element to the combat space. Maybe if you wanted to lean into your narrative of sacrifice and loss of humanity the ability to press a button to kill one of your own units to heal the king could be interesting? These are all just suggestions if you intend to take any of these design concepts further in future. Overall though for the scope of this build I did have a fun time with it. Good Job!
Our team have submitted a runner that combines Tetris and precision platforming if you'd like to check it out (Link below). We always really appreciate feedback :)
I wish you the best with your projects!
https://itch.io/jam/feedback-quest-8-indiegames-x-indie-streamers/rate/3773442