This is super fun!!! The sound effects were a little deafening at first though :)
The action is well done, does create a good sense of urgency
that's correct actually, it's an "instant" attack like in Risk of Rain! So there's nothing that spawns and moves, just a raycast that shoots across the screen, then the sparks just spawn exactly where it was hit. You may want to play it full screen to see it. I'm not sure how many other games do it like that, so maybe people aren't too familiar with the mechanic.
Thanks for the criticism. The clunkiness of the actions and switching between them is something I tried to fix, but couldn't within the constraints of the game jam. The controls wouldn't be odd for anyone who had played Risk of Rain, which this game was modeled after. Dodging was meant to have a bit of weight - if you were able to successfully dodge, you'd get a "dodge" text that appears above the player, and if you have the dodge powerup, you get a nice little sound effect and an HP increase. So at least that part was intentional!
I really enjoyed this game! Did not really know what to think for the first couple of minutes, but fixing up the shack was definitely satisfying. The thunder clap scared me a little bit.
I think you did a really good job with the audio on this - it all seems to be tuned very well.
One small thing that I think could make a huge difference - if the shack level/heat level/food level were shown throughout the game, the player would have some idea of what they are headed towards.
Great job!