An interesting concept, but a bit challenging haha. I really liked the visual style you adopted. A top-down camera view allows for many shooting games to be both fun and fluid, which is exactly what happened here.
One thing I found a bit odd at first, and something that could improve the overall aesthetic of the game, is adjusting the playerās sprite based on the mouse direction. Since we have a top-down camera view, this would give the feeling that the player is looking around, while also making the shooting direction more harmonious (which is not happening in this version, as we can look in one direction and shoot in the other).
Aesthetically, Iād say the enemies work very well for signaling danger. However, since they donāt have complex animations and are just skulls, I think it would be interesting to keep their original sprite angle, instead of having them constantly rotate to follow the player's direction. This way, the skull silhouette would be more recognizable and striking, as right now, their teeth give the illusion of tails when moving diagonally or horizontally.
The sounds work well, but something more upbeat and energetic would fit better for a game where action is the main focus. This doesn't really affect the gameplay experience, but it would be something to consider in future projects, as sound often plays a big role in overall immersion.
The upgrades in the game are interesting, though I feel they take a bit too long to appear. Also, the addition of just one extra shot didnāt seem like a very enticing upgrade haha. Enemies generally die with two shots, so it would be better if that was the bonus from picking up this upgrade.
This game has a lot of potential, and creating it in Python was quite a challenge (Iām not familiar with this language, so I assume you didnāt use a game engine).
Great job with what you had available—delivering something playable is already a big achievement, and it surely helped you learn a lot. I wish you success as a developer and good luck with the jam!