Questions:

1. It was clear the aim is to kill things and to build up your base but it was not clear if there is a larger goal beyond that
2. I think things are reasonably priced, maybe the biomass ones could be slightly cheaper. Though I do think some of the more utility upgrades should be easier to find, as it felt like slow going for a while.
3. Gattling gun started off feeling a bit weak but got better, mortar seemed fairly useless as it kept missing.
4. I would say it was closer to grind than fast, but I don’t think it was overly so.

Other Notes:

1. On the web build I started super zoomed in (possibly a me issue)
2. It took me a bit of time to realise that I had to manually gather the biomass
3. It took 3 rounds to get first upgrade - which I think is too long (though not sure if I would have managed if I had been picking them up)
4. Dawn seems to come very suddenly.- so hard to pick resources up!
5. Biomass that goes off screens I’m not sure if it’s collected automatically or not (i assume not, but then it’s not retrievable)
6. It was not clear I would lose the heavily upgraded gattling guns when I got the mortar
7. I was keen to get the auto biomass collection early but didn’t know where it was until late, as I left it to the last prestige option
8. Liked the mini lore info exposed in the tree that we were on an asteroid

Bugs:

• Had some enemies just disappear shortly after they entered the map
• Had a health bar but no enemy under it
• Had a very small cross hopper thing (might just be a new enemy type)

I enjoyed playing the game - well done!

Hey, I will drop my feedback below.

• Understanding the Goal: Do you know what you're trying to accomplish?
  • I think I have to kill insects for some kind of resource.

• Economy Balance: Do things feel reasonably priced, too cheap, or too expensive?
  • A little too expensive imo, I dislike that I can't purchase anything after a run sometimes.
• Upgrade Significance: Do specific upgrades feel good, overpowered, or worthless?
  • I think they feel good in general but they definitely need to show how much they are affecting my stats. It is very hard to make upgrade decision without that info, I'm just blindly guessing instead of choosing.
• Game Pacing: Does the game ever feel like a grind or was it over too fast?
  • It felt too grindy, I stopped playing after getting mineral conductive conversion upgrade because I had to do several runs for being able to purchase a single upgrade.

Bugs

• I couldn't follow the tutorial since I gathered only 44 resources and it asked me for 50 for an upgrade.
• Sometimes I shot the small bugs but they took no damage.

The style of the general and loading screen is really nice but the aliens look a bit out of place being scaled so much more than the rest of the sprites. I also hit the bug being unable to earn any resources. And the bottom of game was cut off for me, so i couldn't see most of the dome and laser. Hovering over enemies to get the autofire seems like a very unenjoyable way to interact with that mechanic so far and i feel like by far the biggest issue for me right now, and i think it would otherwise be quite a fun game.

Heyho! I think I must of hit a bug (excuse the pun lol) because my count in the corner just stopped going up on both runs I tried. I ended up using the cheats to check it out and some of the upgrades are really cool - seeing the little dudes running around collecting stuff is a nice touch. If someone hadn't played an incremental game before they may struggle to understand why the game seemingly just keeps ending - I think some sort of popup or countdown etc is needed. The research tree is really impressive in how extensive and varied it is. The laser needs juicing up as it is pretty unsatisfying at the moment - it kind of made me think of PVKK and that is super mega when it fires - I get they are different games (captain obvious over here) but the premise is similar. 

Overall - pretty nice little prototype, the skill tree seems nicely executed. I found the main laser weapon to be really unsatisfying to use, for being the primary mechanic of the game. Something about the combination of it being auto-fire, but also requiring a mouse over on an enemy only when it was charged took me a long time to understand. I enjoyed the fun of trying to catch the green stuff coming out of enemies mid-air, perhaps theres more to lean in with that (worth more points, more vfx, etc). I think the main game needs a little more put into it before I can evaluate the upgrade tree effectively. The weapon variety and mods are certainly neat, but with the waves being short, the enemies not really doing anything dangerous, I felt like I was just grinding along with no skill involved. One of my largest friction points was that I didn't realize I needed to click the center skill to get materials! Perhaps forcing the player to choose that option - by starting the skill tree with only one tile could avoid this for other players

I think the loading screen and general are some really nice pixel art. I'd be interested to see how the game feels with a little bit of sound!

• Understanding the Goal: Do you know what you're trying to accomplish?
  • Getting more efficient at killing bugs, to make more resources, to buy more stuff, to kill more bugs
• Economy Balance: Do things feel reasonably priced, too cheap, or too expensive?
  • It's really hard to say, as it took a while to even know that I had to upgrade the center square to earn materials. After using the cheat codes, it seemed like there weren't enough "wow" factor upgrades early enough in that would get me hooked. There were some cool ones later on, like multiple missiles and the laser piercing enemies, so maybe give the player a taste of that sooner?
• Upgrade Significance: Do specific upgrades feel good, overpowered, or worthless?
  • Some of the early ones didn't seem too impactful. I wonder if it's worth reducing the overall number of upgrades and making them more significant, just depends on how long you expect players to get through the game
• Game Pacing: Does the game ever feel like a grind or was it over too fast?
  • It felt like a grind almost the whole time. I believe it's from lack of variety and consequence in the game loop. Sound would probably help out a bunch

Hello! Please find my feedback and a recording of my play session below:

Understanding the Goal: Do you know what you're trying to accomplish?

- Unfortunately not, I thought the goal was to point the laser at the aliens but the game kept ending and I wasn't sure what I was doing wrong. At first I thought it was because one alien got through, but on subsequent tries none did and it still brought me back to the upgrade screen after only a minute of playing. 

Economy Balance: Do things feel reasonably priced, too cheap, or too expensive?

- I wasn't sure how to get any of the resources except for the green aliens one so it's hard to say.

Upgrade Significance: Do specific upgrades feel good, overpowered, or worthless?

- I used the cheats to unlock a bunch of stuff and yes a lot of the upgrades felt pretty good - I can definitely see the appeal of trying to max out the upgrade tree.

Game Pacing: Does the game ever feel like a grind or was it over too fast?

- It felt way too fast to me. To the point where I'm pretty sure I was doing something wrong but I really wasn't sure what it was.

What was the most frustrating moment in what you experienced?

- The game taking me back to the upgrades screen when I wasn't sure why. One other point that wasn't necessarily frustrating but was unclear: I didn't know we had to pick up the green blobs at bottom of the screen at first.

What was your favorite moment?

- I really enjoyed being able to upgrade things and see how that changed the game going back. 

Was there anything you wanted to do, but the game didn’t let you?

- I would have loved to have played more of the main game but again, it wasn't clear why I couldn't.

If you had a magic wand where you could change any part of the game, regardless of cost or complexity, what would you add/change/remove?

- I think just giving more feedback to the player on what certain things do/are would go a long way.

What would you say you were doing in the game?

- Stopping an alien threat while upgrading your base with the resources you get from killing aliens.

How would you describe the game to friends and family?

- Game where you run a alien killing faction and have to upgrade your base to get more cool power ups.

Hey, sorry to say, but i think the zoom is messed up and several important elements are missin. I cant see a base, i can see during prestige that there are some buttons on the right, but not whats on it. I have a crosshair, but clicking doesnt do anyhing, sometimes a laser comes from center bottom out of nowhere and i cant kill any enemy or get resources.
I think you need to upload a fix before this can be rated/tested.