This was interesting to play. I share the same qualms about this as many of the other comments, so I won’t repeat what you already know. I can definitely see the vision for this game, it just needs some polishing and work with world mechanics:
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From the session I have played, there seems to be no way to combat the sanity draining. Because of this, I had to manage where I needed to go to get the most treasures. Unfortunately this takes away from typical dungeon-crawling aspects (where one would typically try to clear as much of the level as possible before progressing) a game like this would have. In my opinion, not being able to grab all the treasure and escape is a bit strange, although that might just be me.
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Adding more responsiveness to the world will help it feel more interactive and alive. So far there isn’t any sound effects besides footsteps and enemy sound. having a sound effect for when an enemy gets hit; when you mine crystals; when you open chests can help communicate to the player that they are actually doing something to the world – and sound effects are only one of the many ways to achieve that.
Overall, this game has a fairly solid foundation for something cool, it just needs polishing and improving some aspects such as how the player interacts with the world and the overarching objective.