The Star Gauntlet

As a veteran hobbyist beta tester of indie games, I've been mulling over what holds back this title from greatness. The sound effects are okay, the music is excellent, the graphics are well-thought-out... but how is it foiling itself?

I replayed this and am trying to think further about what prevents this game from becoming incredible. There is clearly a ton of potential for this sort of game to be a hit, but I think its design as an arcade game fundamentally harms its chances at FTL-level capability.

Using the second ship, I willingly died at level 21, loop 4, because by loop 2 I was so overpowered that I basically didn't even need any more power-ups to trash any enemy within seconds of its appearance on-screen. Even 3 drones were able to make mincemeat of most enemies. For balance, this kind of ship should make its weapon accuracy go terrible the more you move.

Short-term:

• Graphical Effects could go further:
  • It would be more emotionally satisfying for bosses to give a tremendous explosion that pushes away the player ship.
  • The double-damage critical-hit power-up shots could be colored a different color for visual feedback.
  • The shield-generating enemies in the later stages  (and your own ship, when you get a shield power-up) could see a more interesting shield collapse electrical fizzle than the graphic simply disappearing.
• Power-up balance is totally off:
  • The Overclock power-up should slightly debuff the strength of each individual projectile to compensate, and there should also be an overheating mechanic that forces cool-down to punish players who just keep spamming it. Once this is unlocked, then there could be a Heat Sink power-up to reduce the cool-down, which would then scale with more Overclocking.
  • The Cannon should also make each missile a bit weaker at higher launch rates. Increased range should also slightly weaken your shots, as well as the Radio's individual zaps.
• Enemies should scale with your power. I was disappointed to see that the only noticeable change was the final-stage green enemy with circulating smaller drones being literally the only one to change by adopting +1 drone per loop. There is so much more that could be done!
  
  • All enemies could incrementally move and shoot faster, especially the mines.
  • The Gauss sniper ship could charge faster, and maybe instead become a cruiser with multiple independent turrets per loop; it could fire off 2 or 3 shots in rapid succession instead of just 1.
  • The purple beam ships could extend their beams so that by loop 3 they could reach across the map.
  • There could be bullet-sponge enemies that require flanking to hit weak spots to defeat.
  • There could be enemy battleships with point-defense that shoot down some of your missiles. Or they could even launch chaff grenades that throw off their heat-seeking. That would be a sight to see!