Hey there! So glad to see you again this jam! :D
I love the simplicity of your game. I might be a little bit detail oriented so here's my breakdown on my thoughts in order as I played. The game is already playable without any bugs, so these are just minor things which may improve it, but you can disregard any feedback that doesn't match your intentions:
- - Game should show controls at the first screen (eg mouse to shoot, A/D to move)
- - Personally felt controls should have been W/S instead of A/D. It's more intuitive and easier to control. I'm guessing it was made this way because there is an upside down scene which would make W/S too confusing to adapt to in reverse, in which case maybe it is fine.
- - I think the game could've been a lot faster: 15 seconds to each problem, instead of 30 seconds. Especially given that it's quite difficult, restarting all over makes the gameplay feel slow, but ideally you want the gameplay loop to be ultra tight in a jam.
- - Spacing and proportions could be better adjusted: I think the planes were too big and movement felt limited - it's almost like there were 3 lanes, and sometimes you couldn't really avoid them.
- - To make the game more engaging, I think you could decrease the size of everything, so make it more 'zoomed out'. It also makes the game feel more dynamic, like I'm flying a plane rather than choosing middle, top, or bottom to park my plane at. This also lets you have more things to play with like enemy speed, enemy size, as all the enemies right now have roughly the same hitbox and speeds.
- - With the above change, it would also allow you to design the game for more things to spawn as time goes by. This would introduce not only a difficulty curve, but having more things on screen = more tense and action-packed. Although I understand it's not possible here as there is limited space and possibly time.
- - Score didn't really feel like an incentive to shoot for, as the coins don't do much, I was just more interested in surviving further as I was mainly curious what 'problems' the game would throw at me.
- - I think what could be done is make score give you extra lives. This solves 2 problems: Makes score useful AND makes it so you don't restart after just one careless mistake - making the game more forgiving.
However what I did like, were the timer and problems. I kept looking forward to the timer counting down to the next problem, which is tense and riveting.
The tagline is also very hooky and catchy: 'Every 30 seconds something wrong goes with the plane.' The game is sold in one brilliantly crafted sentence.
Glad you took part in this jam too and it's always good to see familiar faces! :D