Overall a nice implementation of a solid design.
PROS:
- The music is nice to listen to and set a good mood for the game.
- The pixel art is well done and I especially appreciate the monster.
- Overall the hit boxes on the projectiles vs that of the player seemed forgiving so that's nice.
CRITIQUE:
- The difficulty doesn't feel like it has a nice escalation to it. The projectiles are all very fast from the beginning and it seems random the amount you're going to get or the direction they'll be coming from so you could have an extremely hard run or a complete lack of ammunition based on RNG. I'd recommend slowing the projectiles that spawn earlier in the game and speeding them up over time.
- Partly due to the fast-moving projectiles, but I'd often feel blind-sided by a large wave that spawned from the bottom of the screen and hit me before I had "reasonable time" to react. Doing some kind of previewing such as flashing a projectile sprite a couple of times at the point where it will spawn for a second or two before actually spawning it would go a long way to allowing for more player agency.
- If the dash is intended as an escape I'd recommend including some invincibility frames with it (as well as a half-second or so of invincibility after you've finished the dash. I accidentally managed to hit dodge to avoid one projectile coming at me, but dodged into two other projectiles at the end of my dash so I was unfortunately punished for my efforts to use the mechanic.