Pretty fun space game. I did like it, though there’s a lot that could be improved.
I was able to beat the boss and warp out on my second try, but that was by cheesing the Dart’s homing Laser Fusillade.
The movement felt ok. I think it needs more feedback on what direction the ship is moving than just the red and blue dots. Like space dust or something like that. And more momentum so that it’s easier to circle enemies.
I didn’t discover turret mode until after I beat the game, but it doesn’t really help much since there’s no way to turn the ship while looking sideways. I suggest either changing WASD in turret mode to pitch and yaw, or make toggling off turret mode keep/lock the camera rotation so that the ship can fly while looking sideways.
The shooting works, but it wasn’t really satisfying. There’s a lack of feedback on whether your bullets are hitting or not with sound or particles except when they die. And targeting anything farther than close range is annoying due to the slow bullet speed and lack of targeting helpers like predicted target position or aim assist.
Ship rotation worked well and didn’t feel disorienting.
First bootup of the game took a bit of time and there was no loading screen so the game locked up for 30 seconds. It’d probably help to add multi-threading so that there’s at least some indication that the game is loading.
The boss is pretty cool. I like the arm attacks and the big laser. Though it’s hard to tell when I am receiving damage, since the audio cue is so muffled and quiet, and there’s no visual indicator (like a red vignette) other than the health bar off in the corner dropping. I wasn’t really able to tell if I was dodging the laser or if I was just taking very little damage from it when flying in a circle to dodge.
When using turret mode, the ship obscured my vision when trying to shoot at targets above me.
Boxes worked alright for getting upgrades, though the interaction distance seems a bit small. Since I couldn’t interact when flying by at full speed.
For ship abilities, the Dart warp felt good to use, though it was a little hard to judge the distance since its range is so long. The Laser Fusillade felt good to use after I figured out it was homing. Before that I was confused on why it was sometimes going backwards when the boss was in front of me. (The drones were around or behind me).
The Tank ramming speed kinda works as an escape tool, but because it locks turning, it doesn’t work as a ramming attack well if it’s supposed to do that. The laser is cool, but aiming it is really inconsistent against drones because the ship rotation smoothing doesn’t center on the camera quickly after turning.
Overall I liked the game and I see the potential, but it could use a lot of work to make it feel fun to play longer!