Hey there! I tried Kord and I have some notes from  my playthrough:

Something I noticed is that in the very first mission you already have to do a lot, including having to juggle more than 3 instrument types. The slot number system was confusing at first and it feels like there's all these small rules and limitations that create a stack of things I can't do. Kord is not as intuitive as I was expecting but I think adjustments could make this work. 

I'm thinking it may be better to let the player do a few things before showing the objective and resance points, it felt like I was getting a bit overwhelmed at that point, like I don't think I even got to move any cards around and then I'm shown I can upgrade. I prefer having some context of what I'm doing before things that are congruent to that context are shown to me rather than being something I'd only understand AFTER everything is all laid out to me.

Gameplay feels like there should be this fun flow of switching cards around and slowly figuring out where everything will go, but each time I try a playthrough, I place a few cards down, and before I realize it I have all three modules set as different instruments, but my hand has multiple cards that can't go onto any of the modules because they're the wrong instrument and I dunno what to do with them, I can't draw too many more cards or I left a useful card below one that is the right suit but i can't do anything with it.

Maybe if you could stack 2 of the same card type (same instrument + suit) onto a module slot that could help alevate the restrictiveness, maybe it could power up that slot?. I couldn't get creative at all each time I tried to beat the first mission, and like others have said I just run out of slots/possible moves and get stuck.

If you attempt to beat the mission again after running out of time with the tutorial, when it tells you to buy an upgrade I think it's technically already upgraded and you can get stuck unless you press Esc (i think).

I'd see if limiting the amount of instruments and increasing the default hand size (5, maybe even 6) would help.

There's a cool game buried underneath the stacks of rules and restrictions but it's not coming through at the moment. I do look forward to seeing how Kord evolves!

I got this server side error on launch so it wouldn't load:
Unable to parse Build/MCSTU_AOR_Alpha_Jan29.framework.js.br! This can happen if build compression was enabled but web server hosting the content was misconfigured to not serve the file with HTTP Response Header "Content-Encoding: br" present. Check browser Console and Devtools Network tab to debug.

I like the concept of building melodies and songs from components while the gameplay systems are pointing in a different direction. And the overall high concept style currently works.

To answer your questions:

- Is this even fun? What elements are engaging and can be expanded on? What elements are annoying and need to go? -> During my play session I reached brick walls 3 times, with a full hand and absolutely nowhere to place the cards. This effectively killed my run all 3 times, leaving me with no option but to quit (at least it seemed that way, I may have missed something). This felt pretty bad, especially after the satisfaction of building up the planet defences.

- Is the time pressure right? Too stressful? Not enough? -> Didn't feel it at all, as my playthrough ended due to hand limitations instead of time pressure.

- Do the card placement rules feel clear? -> Not really. My understanding was that I could place anything anywhere to start with. But after making a decision that planet would need only that type (O/M etc) and that slot on other planets would need to be the same suit. This made sense to me, but I ran into limitations when I couldn't discard anything or had to stack meaning my hand would just fill up no matter what.

- Is hearing your final composition satisfying? -> It was nice, but didn't fully pop yet.

- UI/UX clarity -> Quite clear, but the card formatting of the casettes really threw me off initially. I think cards have a lot of baggage when I/people see them. So when I saw a "M" of hearts it became a bit confusing. Thinking "this card doesn't exist..." I'd say it could be worth changing the aesthetics of the casettes to be typed differently (i.e. colour coded instead of suited). It also felt bad to have to draw my own cards manually, as it was a bit tedious.

- Bug reports -> No bugs but my run was soft locked each time by a full inventory and seemingly no way to clear duplicate or deadweight cards. The main menu also felt a little strange as clicking "new game" didn't start a new game--it was the button next to it. haha.

Cool concept and nice spacey aesthetics.

Please give my game a go if you get the chance :)