Wow that's pretty fun ! The weapon is really interesting, even though the game is really hard I kept playing for a while ! I've not played a lot of games in this jam yet, but that's the most fun I've played so far !
As always, the more I find a game interesting, the more feedback I have to give, so here are the things I think could be improved :
- I think the control scheme is a bit too complicated. No need for both a run and slowdown keys, no one will use both ! Same for throw, I tried both left and right mouse button for a while and both seem interesting, but I never used both at the same time. So chose one and maybe add a control setting, but having both at once is overwhelming and confusing imo.
- I'm not sure there is a use for the state where the weapon is charged and ready to fire, as the charge itself is quick, and there is no movement penalty for holding it charged, I don't think there is a strategic advantage to wait for the last second to charge.
- I found it a bit clunky that the weapon can stop when it comes back, I'd expect it to come back immediately. It's interesting but I never found a use for it, and it often made me do some mistakes. Here is a proposal for a control scheme I would find easier to use : left click to throw and make the weapon come back immediately, and right click to call it back by increments. That way you know what you are doing.
- What's fun with your weapon is the fact that you can kill enemies when you call it back. I think you could put way more emphasis on that : increase the mobility of the player so he can place himself easily at the best spot (quicker reload of the dash for example ? I'd even remove the reload time, but I know I'm a bit extreme on that)
- Enemy projectiles are really fast, and enemies all gank the player at the same time, so it's really hard to survive after wave 3. What's interesting in bullet hells is that they are easy to dodge individually, there it feels like the best strategy is to kill enemies before they have time to shoot
I hope this feedback will be useful, keep up the good work !