The enemy designs are really cool! I particularly like the enemies that launch chasing projectiles. Here are my thoughts, mostly quality-of-life matters:
- There needs to be a clearer indicator of when exactly you can use your special powers. I thought it was when the orb on the upper-left side fills up, but apparently this isn't enough to launch a new green turret (for example). Clear segments showing the number of available uses would be very helpful.
- When my ship explodes, I want to see it go down with a bang. It's very emotionally anticlimactic to see it basically just disappear. The high-score screen also shows too quickly after I lose my last life, I feel.
- When I level up, it would be nice to have some kind of notification text of the changes (more powerful shots, homing lasers launched when dashing, etc.), unless you intend for this to be discovered.
- I'd like an option to set the fire-main-weapon key to be a toggle so I don't have to keep holding it down.
- There should be clearer animations indicating whenever a power orb has been successfully picked up or disappears.
- Being able to unlock new color palettes as you continue to die would be a nice, standard incremental-arcade touch.
- Some enemy hitboxes don't line up, like the first giant two-eyes boss (shots pass through the sides of the eyes).
- It would be nice if the tutorial explained that your green deployed turrets are invulnerable.
- The tutorial should display whatever controls the player has set in the options. If a gamepad is not connected, it should show the keyboard alternatives.
- I don't think the game should force exclusive keys when reconfiguring the controls; it should only pop up a warning that overlapping controls have been assigned. For example, I personally like rRootage-style firing, in which you automatically slow down when firing (which is basically Z + Shift combined). Either that or add a slow-down-when-firing checkbox.