I really liked this idea and the feel of everything. I do feel that it was difficult to get enough time and deal enough damage without a fire rate upgrade. The upgrade might be in the game, but I never lasted long enough to see it in my four plays.
My recommendations:
- Make sure that players can tell when they are hit. I knew when a ship was hit, but it wasn't always obvious when it was my ship or an enemy ship because the sound effects all sounded the same. Some visual feedback like a blinking ship might help.
- Increase the upgrade rate in the game. Especially for a short competition like this, it is good to get people going early and power them up with fun mechanics before they move on. Or, fudge the randomness on the upgrades to guarantee they get something more useful for early gameplay.
- I am sorry you didn't get to do music. But this type of game would really benefit from even some royalty free music.
I really enjoyed the game. I felt like the difficulty of the enemies rose faster than my power did, but I loved the design and idea.
Well done!