Oh my, a whole million dollars in just two weeks! Off I go to play your game!
But first, thank you for the detailed review. Especially for noticing some of the rough edges of interspecies interaction. I already see many ways in which I could have made it feel juicier.
I have a suspicion that green biotes are laggy because of their procedurally animated tentacles and also because they have several particle effects attached to them to create their sort of amorphous and bubbly texture. I should probably look into it and try making them less polygon-intensive.
You are spot on to notice that there could have been much more done with the creepy dialog. I had a lot of ideas, but time was ticking, and in the end I had to go only with the most basic ones. In any case, I was interested in making the scientist's answer sound like interpretations of the player's actions, and that both grounded my imagination, but also limited it. I was also very focused on making the movement mechanic feel right, and thus had less time and energy on developing the story.
Anyway, thank you again for the review! Off I go to get my million!