While I love the theme and concept I feel like the game lacks mechanical depth. On my first run after a couple of upgrades I can stay still and not be punished for it at all since the knives take care of everything. There's no real incentive to do anything really since as long as you collect blood every 10 minutes you can basically sit still. It reminds me a lot of idle games in that sense.
I'd recommend taking a look at what the identity of the game really is. Is it an arena shooter? Or should you treat it more like a hack n slash? Is it an idle game? How do we want the player to feel? Do we want them to fight inside of the horde of enemies or to fight at a distance using movement to avoid damage? From looking at the trailer it feels like you want the players to stay close to the enemies. If that's the case get rid of auto aim abilities, add mechanics that force the player to stay in the fight, maybe add a rage multiplier that grows the closer the enemies are. I'd recommend looking at Risk of Rain and Enter the Gungeon for inspiration.
Great demo though and thanks to all the developers involved.
https://maross3.itch.io/projectawesome
I appreciate it! All art is place holder so it looks a little.. rough around the edges. I did the characters and the fx were random free assets on my backup drive 😊