The whole game feels so well put together and cohesive! Everything feels like it had a place and reacts to the game world. The visuals are awesome, I love the retro style that feels like it fits perfectly into this kind of game.

The music and sound effects are on point too, music gets me hyped and the explosions are exactly what I'd expect from this type of art style.

As for challenge, I actually discovered not too late into my second run that the best strategy (or at least the one that got me consistently the farthest) was to just stand around next to the drill and not use the jetpack at all. Just aim for fuel and TNT, and that basically was enough to get a pretty high score. I wasn't even really sure what killed me on my last attempt, but overall it was s really fun game and I think you did a great job with it!

ran into a bug where an alarm sound effect did not end after the run was over, and then the alarms would stack. after 5 or so runs it was.... very annoying

ran into a bug where an alarm sound effect did not end after the run was over, and then the alarms would stack. after 5 or so runs it was.... very annoying

Overall, great job! Love the Downwell-like aesthetic, and the core idea is really neat! I do agree with some of the other commenters that the scoring is a little opaque, and that I wasn't sure if the game was actually ramping up in difficulty as I went on, or if I was slipping up, or if I was just getting unlucky in terms of the amount of fuel blocks and TNT that were spawning in. I managed 47k on one of my earlier playthroughs, but in later playthroughs often got only a fraction of that score without really feeling like I was approaching things any differently or playing any worse. I'd be curious to hear what the fuel/treasure spawn rates are like and how those are determined/change over time and stuff like that.

Another thing is that the alarm buzzer sound that played when I died never stopped, meaning if I wanted to play again I either had to power through the alarm noise blaring constantly, or restart the game entirely.

I'd love to see other enemies, or the ability to move the drilling platform somehow. I think either the ability to move the platform or maybe certain blocks/obstacles that force the platform to move could make things feel much more dynamic and evolving. 

- Visuals: Great! Crisp, accessible, feels like I know what info I have through a quick glance after the tutorial.

- Sound: Nice loop with the song, but I do think the sound effects clashed with the abrasive drum and guitar. May want to either lower the volume of effects or the music?

- Engagement: Loved it. Gave it a couple tries, I wasn't sure if it was getting more difficult over time or if I was slipping up. It does feel like there's not a lot of incentive to move away from the center - my highest score was when I just stood in place on top of the drill and focused on aiming rather than flying around. 

- Spectator Appeal: Think this would be a great game for a crowd! You have the tension between your health bar and hunting for resources on a timer. I would agree that maybe some iconography for the fuel squares could help people "read" quicker on what's happening. Without the tutorial, it's not really clear.

- Ease of learning: While the tutorial does give you a baseline understanding of what the player is looking at, I did feel a bit overwhelmed when I had to get moving. A smoother ramp up period might be helpful here, because everything is somewhat thrown at you at once. After I got the basics down, it was a nice balance of resource and health management.

Movement felt great, and the juice/feedback from shooting and breaking blocks felt pretty good. SFX/music was also strong!

The scoring system was a bit opaque, I wasn't sure what I should be doing exactly - like if shooting blocks gave me points or if I should just be trying to kill bugs or shoot TNT, needed more guidance there. Also the TNT seemed to kill me despite being pretty far away from it which was a bit of a buzzkill.

This, right here, is that good stuff. Im a big Mr. Driller fan, and this game scratches a similar itch. It took me all of 10 seconds to understand everything I needed to know about how to play, and the mayhem that ensues is so much fun! I really like the idea of the drill platform, only thing that was a little unclear is exactly WHAT made the platform move, but to be honest, there's so much to do while you're on the way down that it sorta didn't matter to me! The jetpack movement felt super polished and fun to try and master, and the enemies kept me on my toes at all times! You've got something special here dude! One last nitpick, the white was a taaad abbrasive. I think a "night mode" might be something to look into? But also I'm a big dumb stinky baby so maybe that's stupid. I dunno! What I DO know is that this is some great work!