itch.io

This is a really well made game. The mechanics are wonderfully intuitive but leave a lot of complexity open. 

I am at 18  kittens, 25 stars and 22 cryptids.  and I know there is more to do still. 

no, there is another way to broken warp.  what can be done with the third kitty?

I would recommend adding a bit more to the description on how to play, I nearly discounted the game as not having any working currency mechanic. 
For other who are confused: Click to shoot the laser, Point it with your mouse.
Shoot straight down to mine and gain currency. Shoot the meteors to defend your base, when your shield reaches 0 or lower you lose.

Also I would really appreciate a button to open the shop menu so I wouldn't have to drag my mouse up there and interrupt the defense or mining. 

The issue with a pre mission graphic is that a player is not likely to memorize that. But once they have had some time with the system they will have the knowledge built up to just know. Thus my thought for new game plus etc

I can understand the time pressure stressing efficiency over optimization. I don't think a timer is a bad mechanic. Just introduced too early.

This would be something that shows up during playtesting. which is always the hardest part of game dev. developers have gotten so used to the system they have forgotten how it feels for new player. So It is hard to keep that in mind. 

I like the game. But I hate the timer. 

Lets take level 6 as an example:

The intro. you are given 4 new mods that you have never owned before: red circle, red triangle, yellow star, dark blue star. Of those: yellow star and blue star you have never seen before. This level has a 60 second timer and 8 moves to win.

Start of the level: lets say turn 1 you want to move all 12 units. The animation of moving a unit takes by my timing a bit over a second. but lets round down to a second. that gives you 48 seconds to figure out all 12 moves and make the actual inputs. plus taking your three actions. Oh and you likely have to reread at least one of the modules available to you, because they are so new. Even the ones you have used you have only used for 5 levels, so you don't have them memorized yet. plus reading any enemy modules you don't know off the top of your head. and thinking about how that affects adjacent enemies.

Later turns you have to do all this again, plus strategize. Maybe you have less units but you have more decisions on how to react to each unique situation. 

In short: 60 seconds is not enough time.

By contrast if you already knew all the mods, and had played enough to have a general knowledge of what is good and bad moves, then 60 seconds would (likely) have been fine. But for someone new to the game, 60 seconds is not "challenging". it is silly. If you added the timer in a new game+ I would have no issues. I think that timers in later levels make sense. I think timers in levels that the user knows all the basics of and has a couple moves to make plans make sense. But not level 6. 

what is the effect of a timer in a game? timers make the player dumb. because they are rushed. they have to make fast decisions without thinking about the consequences. If your game need of strategy needs to make the player dumber to be challenging, than it is not a game of strategy.

3/5 stars good idea for a game. needs game balance, and play testers.

I want to like the game but without ever getting a run that might work I just cannot. I have not had more than 4 battles in a run and all my health places were gone. 

I struggle to predict what the enemies are going to do because too many are introduced too fast. I basically have to have my run die to figure out what kills me how. For all 28 different enemies. Nevermind the fact that some combos are basically impossible. Crystal and a skelly? no chance to do damage. 3 krabs? stunlock. 

What I would like to see:
A slower introduction. Levels with 1-2 stars, Tutorial on how enemies move and what cards are in their deck.
Predictability: Let me see what cards enemies have in their deck. That why I can make a strategy around what they are able to do. I think this is a good compromise over seeing an enemies hand. It will be important to be able to see the number to be drawn and number in discard. 
Visibility: let me see what all is in my characters deck, and when it is being reshuffled. so I can plan around what cards I should have soon. 

Windows version: I like the concept but completely unplayable due to a bug that causes placed tiles to visually rotate despite not programmatically updating. Causing mis-tiling and frustration.