Thank you so much for taking the time to play and write all of this, it honestly means a lot. Reading that the loop felt satisfying and that the upgrades felt impactful is exactly what I was aiming for, so I'm really glad it landed.
The clarity issue is something I want to fix, so if you don't mind me asking: which upgrades or mechanics were the confusing ones? Was it more about not knowing what a specific upgrade actually does numerically, or more about not understanding when/why you should buy it? And were there any items or menus in particular where you weren't sure what you were looking at? Any detail helps, even a rough "I had no idea what X was for", since I'm already planning to add tooltips and better descriptions in the next update and I'd rather prioritize the parts that actually confused real players.
And thanks for sharing ZAR, I'm definitely going to check it out and leave you my feedback once I've played it. Best of luck with the project, hope it goes great for you guys!