Hey, it's not a bother, I really appreciate comments! Thanks for testing the game and engaging with the development, it means a lot to me.
About the black screen issue, that's very weird, but upon research it does seem that Unity has some sort of problem with lighting in the version that I'm currently using, which, as you discovered, could cause errors when you don't have an up to date version of C++ installed. That's a nice catch by you, and I will promptly put up this information on the land page.
As for the caves, I agree. Truth is that even Alpha 1.1 didn't touch much on content or the gameplay loop per se. The reason being that, for now, the game is kind of steered in the wrong direction. My goal was never to make some sort of straight-up top-down Minecraft/Terraria-like game. I'm a big fan of immersion, narrative and big complex simulations (like CoQ, Kenshi, DF, TDoT, PZ), which those games arguably have none of, and sadly neither my game has at this moment. Flatlands is my first solo game, so I always just wanted to get a simple version published ASAP and do all the heavy lifting afterwards, because for me it's way easier to slowly change something that already exists, than to start big from the get-go. As of right now, I'm in the midst of a substantial rewrite of various core systems, so I can design much more complex behaviors for objects and creatures of the world in the future. In sum, my focus for future updates will probably be increasing the world in size, adding civilizations and NPCs you can interact with, and working on a more emergent, survival-focused gameplay. Many of the features that exist (even those I just added) will most likely be removed or completely overhauled with time.
Please, feel free to update this topic with more suggestions :)