Overall - pretty nice little prototype, the skill tree seems nicely executed. I found the main laser weapon to be really unsatisfying to use, for being the primary mechanic of the game. Something about the combination of it being auto-fire, but also requiring a mouse over on an enemy only when it was charged took me a long time to understand. I enjoyed the fun of trying to catch the green stuff coming out of enemies mid-air, perhaps theres more to lean in with that (worth more points, more vfx, etc). I think the main game needs a little more put into it before I can evaluate the upgrade tree effectively. The weapon variety and mods are certainly neat, but with the waves being short, the enemies not really doing anything dangerous, I felt like I was just grinding along with no skill involved. One of my largest friction points was that I didn't realize I needed to click the center skill to get materials! Perhaps forcing the player to choose that option - by starting the skill tree with only one tile could avoid this for other players
I think the loading screen and general are some really nice pixel art. I'd be interested to see how the game feels with a little bit of sound!
- Understanding the Goal: Do you know what you're trying to accomplish?
- Getting more efficient at killing bugs, to make more resources, to buy more stuff, to kill more bugs
- Economy Balance: Do things feel reasonably priced, too cheap, or too expensive?
- It's really hard to say, as it took a while to even know that I had to upgrade the center square to earn materials. After using the cheat codes, it seemed like there weren't enough "wow" factor upgrades early enough in that would get me hooked. There were some cool ones later on, like multiple missiles and the laser piercing enemies, so maybe give the player a taste of that sooner?
- Upgrade Significance: Do specific upgrades feel good, overpowered, or worthless?
- Some of the early ones didn't seem too impactful. I wonder if it's worth reducing the overall number of upgrades and making them more significant, just depends on how long you expect players to get through the game
- Game Pacing: Does the game ever feel like a grind or was it over too fast?
- It felt like a grind almost the whole time. I believe it's from lack of variety and consequence in the game loop. Sound would probably help out a bunch