Thank you for such generous words! I was honestly not confident about this project at all, so I'm glad that you enjoyed it. I think the ping effect can definitely be toned down outside of boss battles (it's actually part of the BGM). I'm also not happy about how long it takes to charge the laser, I think it can definitely be faster, plus maybe the ability to shoot a weaker projectile from a partial charge.
There wasn't actually that much more planned for my "ideal" vision of the game: mainly a few story cutscenes, a second boss, and the player character visually changing with each upgrade. I will definitely try to submit a more finished version of the game for the Super MVM!
(By the way, I'm really sorry I never got around to review you back for Super MVM 31! 😢 It was unfortunate that the vote period overlapped with the normal MVM, plus IRL stuff and me having a near breakdown while working on Magellan.)