So, starting off on a strong point: game has no bugs, and is playable which is a good standard for jams. I could lose but I don't...think I can win? But that seems to be by design like old arcade style shmups (R-Type, Galaga, Ikaruga, etc.), so game accomplished!
- I found the movement...a little unenjoyable. The ship felt ungainly, which I think is because the speed was lerping instead of being immediately responsive. It made it feel like a big, heavy ship instead of the small fighter-craft it seemed like I was supposed to be. Coupled with the momentum being imparted from missile collisions, it made moving around feel not entirely like it was in control.
- I sort of reflexively avoided the first power-up for a couple waves, because I just assumed it was a weird enemy in the middle of the screen to spice things up. A minor effect to show it's beneficial, or some other solution, would probably go a decent way.
- Enemy variety was a little lacking. By about the third wave, it felt like I'd already gotten enough of a grasp of the game to not be at risk of dying, or really needing to think much. (Sidenote: eventually, I realized you can just cheese the game by sitting in a corner and shooting diagonally across the spawn line.)
- There's a bit of a weird bug where sometimes missiles would just get stuck at the bottom of the screen, and idle there forever, unless something rammed into them.
- I'm not sure if this was a bug or I don't understand how the gun was supposed to work but neither clicking nor scrolling the middle mouse seemed to do anything. It wasn't a detriment to gameplay, but worth mentioning if you plan to continue working on this.
Now, the good stuff!
- I think the concept of 'assembling' the ship is pretty great! Shmups are kind of a dead artform in general and most modern interpretations don't let you literally put together a larger ship like this.
- The firing arcs were very well-done. It being done on the player and enemies is really nice, and helped add some interest to movement.
- The feeling of progression was nicely done. Playing to mow-down waves and get the next shiny ship part was pretty fun.
EDIT: I actually forgot, but the SFX were really loud on my machine at first. I ended up cutting the volume to 10%.