This is a nifty game with a lot of potential, and I'm looking forward to the Steam release... but there's a few glaring issues that need to be ironed out on a QoL basis first.
- The Sweeper Drone not only makes all of the magnet upgrades pointless, it also destroys any benefit from other essence-drop upgrades that depend on the essence staying put. Either remove it entirely, or retool it.
- As noted in the first comment chain at the bottom... the game's initial play style suggests that it's a static tower defense. I was confused about it myself - a simple little tutorial popup at the start would have saved me a lot of time.
- Having the Upgrade screen automatically zoom out is inconvenient at best, and outright irritating at worst. Either make it a toggle we can control (so that those who like the feature can retain it), or set it to automatically zoom in so that the prices don't inexplicably vanish.
- The Boons are permanent investments without any explanation as to their mechanics - either we save our points and struggle, pick Boons that become obsolete or useless later, or get really, really lucky. And making us spend our level-up points to reroll is even worse. At least give us an option to respec, or make the rerolls function off of a different mechanic (even making a respec or reroll token a rare drop would be fine).
They're not dealbreakers, per se, but they do add layers of unwarranted frustration to what's otherwise shaping up to be an incredibly addicting and fun game. It's like listening to free Spotify - great gameplay, but the minor issues break up the flow.