First off, congrats on the demo!! I remember playing Fishtellations and really enjoying the concept. I was excited to see this demo announced! Controls are really intuitive and easy to pick up, the audio is really nice and polished, and I love the color palette and graphics as well.
Some feedback from my demo playthrough:
- Level Transition: After completing a level, having to manually connect the stars felt a bit like a chore. Could this process be automated while still showing the constellation forming? I liked seeing the lines form but I was usually sitting and waiting a moment before I realized I had to do it manually. It would make for a nice reward for completing the puzzle.
- Fish Momentum: The very low friction can lead to fish gaining too much momentum, making them difficult to catch again to correct their course. On level 2, for instance, my fish kept bouncing off each other and getting knocked out of the star repeatedly, which became frustrating.
- Top-Left Buttons: I noticed the R button no longer resets the level. Additionally, the top-left buttons could benefit from hover text—like whether the arrow is for resetting the level or exiting to the menu. Initially, I hesitated to click it, unsure if it would go back to the main menu. Typically I associate a more circular arrow with a "reset" and this looks more like a "back" type of arrow.
- Fish Knocking Out of Goal: After 4-5 levels, I found the mechanic of knocking fish out of their goal to be more of a hindrance than a fun challenge. The game feels best when it’s fast-paced and fluid, but this mechanic made me play more cautiously and slowed things down a lot.
- Mouse Wheel Sensitivity: Scrolling the mouse wheel feels overly sensitive, doing a natural scroll of my mouse is clicking it 5-10 times per scroll so i have to be super precise with my mouse just doing one tiny click. Perhaps a slight input delay so one mouse wheel direction does not input more than once per ~0.1 seconds to avoid double-inputs? (You could still rapidly alternate between up/down directions and not trigger the delay)