The idea of the character getting older the lower the time is is really smart, so you dont have to watch the time all the time. There is not a lot of depth to it, but for a GameJam game thats fine. The sand hour mechanic flipping was also more interisting than a simple timer. However, there are often situations with no enemies, so maybe you could have slowed the movement of the enemies down and marked the range of the character better, but in tradeoff increase the damage of the enemies a bit to compensate.
Viewing post in Surviving Gears and Time jam comments
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Yes, I agree that it lacks depth. There were going to be secondary abilities based on age and would have cost time or flip charges: healing for the young man for time; damage reduction for the middle-aged man for time cost; screen wipe for the old man for a flip charge (though flip charge drops would not drop from enemies defeated in this manner).
Thanks about the comment about the hourglass and the man getting older on screen. I wanted the timer to have some additional impact on gameplay beyond a game over, so the idea of the character getting older with age came about. The man was originally intended to be a wizard, hence why he becomes stronger with age!
I agree that the lulls between waves is a bit noticable - the gear spawns are on a set timer. I wasn't able to test the balance between the gears and the player, and as there wasn't a method to replenish health, I lowered the damage of the gears and had a longer wave timer to give the player more breathing room. In hindsight, I should have programmed in something that shortens the time between waves when there are zero enemies on the field.
I wasn't able to wrap my head around how the boxcast method was working, so I didn't implement something that depicts the attacks' range for fear that it would be inaccurate (and the deadline was looming and I needed other mechanics).