Thoughts on Game Length
Firstly I'm really enjoying the game so far, it's so much fun and so many elements of it are really interestingly designed.
But I do have one specific criticism, and I wonder if other people will agree with it.
The way the game is set up atm the beginning of the runs are the hardest part by far, i've found that if I can survive past the first boss my chances of making it to the end are pretty high. The game is also quite difficult in terms of actually surviving to the end of the first boss. It can be a little frustrating when you die so often so early in the run, but that is par for the course with a game like this, and not something I have a problem with.
However, the point at which you actually begin to feel strong in the run is usually around the 3rd or 4th boss, at which point you only have a little time remaining in the run.
The net result of this is that you spend most of your time dying very early, and then when you finally make it work and manage to survive past that the run is over before you really have a chance to enjoy it.
I can understand the devs wanting not to make each run overly long, and around 20 minutes per run is pretty nice, but I think it would feel a lot better if they even added just one more segment and boss to each run. It wouldn't add a huge amount of time, and it would mean that when you get a run going you do have a bit of time to actually enjoy that.
I know there's endless mode, but I feel like before unlocking that the game would feel a lot better with this small amount of additional run time at the point where you've become a powerhouse.
Maybe other people will completely disagree with me though, let me know what you think.