It was SO MUCH WORK! I spent 33 hours of the 48 hour jam working (with some mild tea/coffee/snack breaks in between). I seriously appreciate your comments.
I agree. What I really wanted was to slowly introduce more characters (where you only start with 2 humans and 1 of the aliens) over the course of the game. That way the player would have had more time to learn the basics while the difficulty ramps up with the consumptive traits.