This is a summary of feedback received on AGDG Demo Day 63. 
The Demo Day 63 submission primarily aimed to gather feedback on campaign mode difficulty and general impressions from the /vg/-agdg community. The demo entry provided critical feedback, boosting confidence in pursuing the campaign mode vision. It also encouraged inviting more players to try early, unfinished developer builds.

The initial feedback summary

Gameplay (Campaign mode): Players enjoy the fun, accessible gameplay with short levels and a no-lives system. The “push and pull” spread shot/focus beam is engaging, but the focus transition might need to be snappier. Difficulty varies; early levels feel too easy, level 16 too hard; an easier post-midboss level is suggested. The small player hitbox is hard to understand for new players. Modular boss damage is praised, but boss defeats lack rewarding score/pickups. A visual cue for non-shooting enemies could be added. Collectibles lack a clear purpose before the scoring & resource system is implemented.

Controls: Keyboard, PS5 controller, and Mayflash F101 work well, but older controllers fail, and d-pad use is uncomfortable without stick support. Bomb input is missing from tooltips and is non-functional due to the bomb not yet being implemented. The lock-on button (alt fire) naming can be misleading. Adding a focus button for menus and stick support is planned. 

Audio: The nostalgic soundtrack is a hit, but the ship explosion and collectible SFX need more impact. The enemy kill SFX bangs.

Visuals and UI: Polished sprite work shines. Collectibles can feel cluttered. Portals and player death smoke clash stylistically with everything else. The menu is clean but has a ~1s delay in transitions. Player missiles could be juiced up visually. Most of the in-game ui elements are missing. 

Bugs: Pause menu issues with mouse click grabbing focus from buttons and bullets not respecting the paused game entity mode. There are issues with post-respawn when not all bullets are removed from the payfield when the player dies (issue with the bullet system). Stage reset can also cause unwanted behaviour with certain SFXs. These are top priorities for fixes.

Next Steps: I’m focusing on bug fixes and working with SFX based on the feedback. The campaign mode difficulty curve will be adjusted, and the Stage 1 main boss will be added. Midboss will be iterated further on, at least adding side miniguns destroyable. Arcade mode will be implemented alongside the in-game ui. The scoring system, item resource system, and bomb mechanic will be added to the player. Considering adding ddp-style laser-damage-aura to focused shot. 

There will be the next development preview in the next AGDG demo day after the mentioned features, if not all, at least most of those are implemented. 

Thank you once more for playing the preview build. Special thanks to everyone who blessed me with valuable feedback!