Very solid game! Made it to the end after the grind and then few tries for the actual run.
And obviously I first ran into that crystal on the end. If I would have only had one health I would have been pissed!
It was a bit too grindy. And it was kinda annoying how the best way to grind for money was pretty much just to repeat the first floor. The enemy difficulty and income increase ramped up too late to matter at all. The rats should have been like 2 bucks and then a higher chance of fiver or something (maybe would have needed a bit of a change to differentiate more from bats too). The slimes were some good cash but high chance of not dropping anything and not leaving a corpse made em not worth the time. The snakes then were a premium but so late in the game to not really need anything anymore and one wouldn't probably try to get out alive from such depth either.
None of the items really helped that much with the grind either. Well the matter converter thing and the light upgrade were a help but those two were also like the only required ones to bag a win too. The speed increase was not really that much to be worth the money. And obviously making each upgrade be a gradual purchase like for example the health being just one heart at a time instead of just doubling with one purchase would have given more choice and control to player and maybe even helped lengthen the game a bit.
The art and audio were nice! Some minor z-ordering issues with the shop floor but nothing major. The shopkeeper text could have used a darker background or drop shadow or something along those lines too. I was initially kinda feeling a lack of impact on the shovel hits but the pick upgrade then cranked it up nicely. I would have liked to see more oomph on the shovel too. The slight flash of the enemy sprite wasn't just enough feedback.
I can't believe I'm saying this but the weapon swing hitbox might have been even too generous. Well for sure the same was true when the tables were flipped. The snake spit hitboxes were just outrageous! And the fact that they quite ofter spawn camped right next to the floor entrance and shot at you immediately was not cool. Their shot range was a bit too aggressive as well. If you were not already running and they shot at you from outside your view, it was kinda impossible to dodge.
I like how you used single action button for everything. It had its downfalls too though. Enemy hits should have always taken the priority when fighting near the rope. And that annoying wait duration you had to do when the matter converter triggered before you could grab another corpse was annoying as hell.
Anyways, good job! 👍