I loved all three Lacto's games and this one is the best one even as a demo. I wish you well in future and to get million sold copies on steam if it ever comes to it.
The grind TLDR: grind is possible and is easy, items like max potion and npc quests/trades to increase the max size are useful in early game but available in mid/late game (both unity demo and RPGM version of Lacto Escape: Expanded). I propose staging grind, making potions/trades temporary (up to next losing to overflow) and be able to go past current stage
The scenes TLDR: there are some one-time scenes. Making them resettable (i.e. by trading with secretary on floor 1 to buy more cake/pills/coins) or creating gallery world that remembers all playthroughs would be nice.
Other small issues:
UI/UX: demo gameplay can be keyboard only but inventory is mouse only right now
Gameplay/UX: jumping north-south or south-north is hard to do accuratly. Tiny shadow allows to aim but I have trouble seeing it most of the time.
Graphics/UX: single-tile (and probably double-tile) west-east passages are covered by southern wall tile. I.e. secret passage on floor 2 (jumping floor)
The grind long read. Yes. This is a part were nerd comes to porn games forums and talks about balance.
The grind is possible in early game on floor 1 via interactables and mid/late game on floor 2 via traps. On floor 1 this is not a problem because interactables are limited in use (except the plant but it gives only a small bust boost). Floor 2 is unlimited grind. Unlimited grind isn't something bad, it allows to grow max size in 10-15 minutes without waiting for slow growth. However it makes items and trades/quests that increase max size not worth the time to get. (Also ?bug? when losing to overflow max size is rounded down to tens which makes using one min max potion weird)
I see these options to deal with it (and the game will be great even if nothing is changed, just food for thought):
A) Slowing the grind (boring option). Add trap regions and protection periods to slow down the grind and/or move grindable rooms farther from endless milking machines. Trap regions cause all traps in one line to do effect once per recharge (i.e. rays already apply effect only once per row, make that for all traps). Protection periods shield Lacto from any traps for short amount of time when trap is encountered thus making grind slower. Moving the rooms is the easiest option I think: move very fast grindable rooms (traproom floor 2, balls) closer to the center
B) Making potions/trades grind-aware. What if potions and trades were temporary? They are mid/late game when grind is not an issue. So let them complement grind instead of competing with it. Potions/trades would add good size bonus (20 for min max potion? 50 for that milk trade?) but only for some time (timer, losing to a overflow, milking (my preference is losing)). Combined with option C this can make sizes more hard (and rewarding) to get
C) Staging grind. Right now in any of three games player can grind max max size in first couple of rooms. What if grind was dependant on conditions: milking in more powerful machine, getting more fairy magic, completing levels, etc. Right now demo is completable with 300-350 max size. Stages will make players to go deeper in game to achieve larger sizes while grind is still an option but spaced out in gameplay.
B+C) Staging grind with temporary modifiers. Lets assume that grind is staged with 300, 600, 900 and so on. Potions/trades would complement it allowing to go past current stage until losing to overflow. This will encourage players to play safely to retain buffs or collect potions and items for trade to pass hard rooms with ease.
The scenes long (actually not that long) read. Nerd is out, gooner is in.
I love small gimmicks and interactables traps and it isnt a problem to reexpirience gimmicks in first few rooms as new game allows easy access to them. Mid/late game interactions have no such luxury. Allowing to buy reset for interaction or having a gallery would greatly reduce pains to review interactions again.
I.e. on floor 1 (a.k.a. tutorial with secretary) secretary could sell cake, pills and coins. (also it would be nice to be able to take pills with you)
P.S. would love to discuss this but idk how often I will check this thread
P.P.S. Yay, my first post ever about BE games in ?7? years that I'm playing them (original Lacto Escape was my introduction to BE)