I played this game for 1.4 hours which is the entire experience, there is no replay value in terms of unlocking new features or new difficulty modifiers (I missed 2 achievements, that is about it). It only took me 3 attempts, so the actual loop is roughly 40 minutes, for a total of 4 stages and 5 boss fights. For a $9-10 rogue-lite, this is not enough to justify the price, the closest relative I can compare it to is something like Spirits Abyss which had 20 times more complexity even prior to updates, so it's a little difficult to recommend this game - as of right now this game has 10 to 30 times less content to offer compared to similar titles. It still works as a casual platformer, so if you can just sandwich the game with more features to extend its life, it could be more* serviceable as a "rogue-lite".
The good thing is that you got the platforming down, I can't say that I had any big issues with the movement, although there is a very short delay before you can dash in the air, it caught me a few times because I can press jump+dash faster than it allows me to. It didn't look like the game had any settings, you mapped the ranged attack to the (Y) which is a little weird because I use the same finger to jump, maybe you could have it on multiple buttons instead, just so you have an alternative. Visually the game didn't look bad, although I didn't find the "rogue-lite" features all that interesting, you basically only have 2 events, the air tanks, and the arenas which only provide flat bonuses like damage, fire rate, and I think I got a second bullet from the shop. You might want to add more randomized events for "risk vs reward", perhaps something that trades life for oxygen, or a minishop that sells unique mods; the best game in this genre in my opinion is Spirits Abyss, and I am not saying you need to copy it, just see how that game does it, try to find some inspiration because your game is almost entirely empty of rogue-lite features.
Your playthrough is also time sensitive because there is an "oxygen" system, it's kinda annoying but not too difficult to keep up with it, and now that I think about it, it's actually not uncommon for a rogue-lite to have a timer, just thought I would give people a warning. The enemies were a little weird, you can kill most of them from the relative safety of your gun, which is not necessarily a bad thing, I just think you needed to mix a few more challenging elements, even the arenas are 95% risk-free if you paying attention.
[h1] Pros: [/h1]
(+) The platforming was fine, I didn't really have any issues with it.
(+) The stages didn't look bad, fair difficult but a bit on the easy side. I only liked the last 2 boss fights though, even though I killed them on the first try.
[h1] Feedback: [/h1]
(X) Needs more replay value, consider adding loop modifiers. For example, say you beat the game, then you can choose to replay it again but all of the enemies are 50% faster and fire more often, then if you beat it again, you can have twice as many enemies and 2 bosses during every encounter, something like that. You also want to reward completing these loops with something, maybe a color swap for the character, ideally with some perks, for example, you could add some time of locker for costumes.
(X) Needs more rogue-lite events. Say an average rogue-lite has 30 different events, your game has about 3 events (arena, oxygen tank, and chest), that is 3/30, so a little short of average. Not being rude, just being realistic, people expect these things in this genre.
(X) The upgrades were too "surface level". Pretty much generic passives, I think I saw a few small things like an extra projectile or immunity on the dash. What you really want to do is create some type of upgrade synergy, say one upgrade gives you a 5-bullet spread that deals only 30% per bullet, but another upgrade shoot all projectiles in a spinning circle. If you wanted to do something more basic, maybe if you hold a fire, you can shoot a bigger projectile that explodes on contact, there is a million things you can do with it, but having just passives is not the way to go.
(X) Creating some type of Hub progress. I know you have this little shop between the stages, but ideally, you want to start in a hub instead of a ship and have some type of unlock there, maybe saving different characters could unlock new starting weapons or perks.
(x) I also feel the game needs at least 1 more stage, much harder than other stages, the difficulty didn't ramp high enough to feel good about getting upgrades.
(X) I am not crazy on the game settings, people do get upset about these things though, at least something basic.
[b] Overall Thoughts: 5/10 [/b]
I think the gameplay is fine, if this was a cheap casual platformer I would have no problems with it, but you had to make it a rogue-lite with nearly no rogue-lite elements, literally 1/10 of what most indies will offer. I would say start with adding some type of post-game replay value like loop modifiers, add a bit more upgrade and event variety, maybe some type of hub progress, and if you do enough of that it would be decent. Not a bad game, just not much of a rogue-lite right now.
[code]Niche, obscure and underrated games: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/ [/code]
