itch.io

Well, it's true that your game is more than just the section leading up to the mines. But, it's also true that it's hard for me to want more of something when it is underdeveloped at its core, and that was what I felt when I played your game. I have no doubt that the game would have piqued my interest if the main gameplay style was executed well. But instead of focusing quality into one area, you had to spread it thin to implement the grid-based battles as well. As a result, neither of those gamemodes are fun at their core, and this is the potential I was referring to, not the player's ability unlocks as the game progresses - I don't have a reason to want to get those, because if a game isn't fun at its core, the last thing I want to do is play more of it. If it's any consolation, I don't think it's necessarily your fault as a developer that it is like this. If you had more time to make it, or managed to scope down (which is its own skill), the core gameplay would probably rock my socks, even if it was just a prototype (hell, probably especially if it was a prototype, considering how important the concept of "minimum viable product" is to a game). One other nice thing I can say is that the art does look very good, it's mostly just the gameplay holding the game back for me.