Hey, great work on this!
I’ve been playing on controller — just mentioning it in case others don’t realize it’s supported.
The enemy attacks were pretty clear to me. I felt like most of my deaths were when trying to squeeze in one more kill, or a silly mistake. It felt pretty challenging, died a lot, but didn't hit me as unfair at all.
It was fun to be scared of a new enemy, then learning to deal with it. The respawn mechanic helped a lot on that, kept me more engaged knowing i get to keep my progress but also have to try again the current "chapter".
(I couldn't keep breathing)
One thing I noticed is that there can be some downtime when the last enemy/enemies move out of reach and I can’t engage with them anymore. In those moments I kind of just wanted to move on. That said, I understand that changing this might affect more complex waves where enemies reposition, so I’m not sure what the best solution would be.
I really like the art, sound effects and visual effects feedback, feels polished already.
I hope you plan to publish on PICO-8 SPLORE, as it makes it easy to get on a handheld, for example, which i like to do myself, really recommend it!
Phew, such a long comment, words stack up faster than those shotgun bullets.
Keep it up!