Hey guys!
1. Does the character feel sluggish? Is it ok for the character to feel that way if there is the option to upgrade that later?
Yes, the character absolutely feels sluggish. It has nothing to do with the framerate of the animation as others have said, it just feels terrible to try to move the cat around. The animation needs to be fixed and you should be able to move a little faster. Only then should movement get better/smoother/faster. I will be honest the slow movement utterly took me out of the game.
2. Do you see the game becoming too difficult? If so how do you think we should balance it?
Yes and no. Tying into the movement speed, if that was fixed life would be much better. As it stands, the arena is much too large to move around that slowly with as many enemies spawning as you have. Another thing that would make me feel like the game could easily become too difficult is the lack of defined areas for both the enemies and the player. Usually in TD games, you will see some form of path (even if it is just a simple perimeter around the arena) that signals to the player that that area is where the enemies are coming from. Having that on the screen might help make the game a lot better, but will definitely keep it from being too difficult. I also had no idea what each of the sliders were supposed to really do for myself or the enemies even though I kept adjusting them, so I couldn't give you feedback on how that will help with your playtest. Having different abilities, especially the ability to upgrade towers and movement, will probably be the easiest way to balance the game. I do like the addition of the moveable, interactable cat, though. However, I can actually see the game becoming too easy when towers are super upgraded and the player can go around killing stray enemies that the towers cannot kill. There you might want to add more enemies, or enemies that can only be destroyed one particular way (like only the player can destroy them or only a tower can destroy them). That would be a decent way to balance that, but I can't think of anything else.
3. Are there too many enemies? How many unique enemies do you think there should be?
This is another yes and no. Because there was such poorly defined paths for the enemies to follow, I could not quite get where the enemies were coming from and going to until the end. What I really didn't understand was the incrementing "Count" that kept following me around, which I think was keeping track of the enemies that got through my defenses? Since I was so confused, I can't really speak on that. Unique enemies would make the game really, really interesting. I think it would also help to balance the game. I mentioned what I think those unique enemies should be earlier, so I will elaborate in saying that I like the idea of one or two variations of unique enemies would be best.
4. Tower/Turret side
Honestly, I cannot speak much to the turrets. I already found it easy enough to destroy all the enemies with my machine gun once I figured out how to use it. I only had my turrets down because I could. I would say look to other tower defense games for upgrades. Glue, multi-shot, quick fire, hyper rapid fire, constant laser fire, etc I guess. Otherwise, I was super confused at why I even had turrets that I could use in the first place.
5. Enemy Pathing and Improvements
Again, I don't have much because I was completely confused on the pathing. I feel like if I knew where the enemies were going and supposed to end up in the first place, and knew when it was game over for me, I would be able to give more ideas. What might be fun is to add an enemy that will randomly stop at a turret that is on the path and try to destroy it, making it imperative that the player go repair the turret. Just a thought I had while writing this that I felt could fit here.
6. The Kitter
To start, no. That kitter is not chonky enough. Not like "you cannot ever have enough chonk" level of chonk, but more along the lines of we definitely need more chonk. I cannot stress this enough. The next part of the question confuses me, and I do not have a real answer. I can see the player being able to improve the cat as they go to make it more fun, but I can't say anything more, I apologize. No, the cat's movement is not coherent. The animation for it definitely needs to be fixed and they need to move a bit faster. I understand how to move it, though, with WASD and I figured out how to get the kitter to shoot, though, so that is coherent.
7. Gold, Bosses, and Items
Definitely fix the issues before adding these things, but after you do, those are great ideas. All of them. Adding items that are presumably dropped by enemies randomly that the player can move toward and pick up that are then used for upgrades and the like would make the game pretty interactive. It may also help with balancing since you could work drops however you feel works. Bosses are expected and fun in games, and resource management helps game engagement immensely.
Other than the answers to your questions, though, I don't have more feedback. I think the concept is actually super innovative and fun, it just needs some more tweaks. Can't wait to see the final product!
Eric Hillmeyer