hard game, and very unfair (not enough money, too many options to choose, and as such, difficult to combine the items), but interesting. your biggest sin is that you made a game that would be epic, but you limit it by being unnecessarily hard, making the gameplay session too short with not enough space or money to contain anything complex.
I've read your blogpost and you are thinking in a very incorrect direction - don't think about making it harder - you can always create HARD mode for that. Instead, think how the player can customize the gameplay to suit his/her own needs. It's always better to give options to players, instead of chosing for them. It also makes the game live longer, the more options they have.
also, there's not much you can do during battle, so the option of making it much faster all-the-time would be more than nice
another thing, shooters should shoot the best option, I hate when the archer shoots an already cursed enemy for fuck sake, I know I don't have to curse from the start, but then again, the sooner I curse someone, the better for me.
also, if you lose all hearts, you should have an option to replay the last battle, because like I said, it's too random and unfair, so it's all about luck
also, why the game doesn't autosave? sure, it's not long (unfortunately), but still... saving option would probably be good to try different purchases options without losing good lineup
The first time I've reached the king I thought that this was overkill. And even when I've beaten him, I still do.
QUICK RESTART is a must, because from the start you have to be extra efficient, and if you don't get what you need, there's no point in further playing.
Not sure what is the point of mandatory clicking on the witch every time new tier is unlocked.
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And how I won? Boy, it was SUCH A WEIRD WIN!
I almost closed the tab, because I had no hopes of winning, just was curious to see how it plays out.
first row: nurse lv2., pig butcher lv. 2, summoner lv. 2 - all with bone extra
second row: bard lv. 3, skull lv. 3 buffed to hell and back, charmer lv. 2, rat lv. 2 (that was earlier buffed with the granny that gives extra life) - all with bone extra
third row: assassin lv. 2, archer lv. 2, lizard shooter lv. 2 - all except archer with bone
+ curse book lv. 2 I used on third row knights with defence extra.
As can be seen, the bone extra is a must to make the characters survive simply longer and spam the attack on the enemy.
It certainly helped that I managed to lose only 2 hearts for most of waves, except the penultimate and the final, otherwise I would lose, because I won with only one heart left. I knew that I couldn't beat king's sons, but I wanted to minimize damage. for the final wave I sold two chapels (one lv. 2) and one archer lv. 1. I barely won, but I did it without the big skeleton guy.
ALSO, there is one fuck-up I really hate, if you upgrade the character, it's important which you use to fuse - if you put a character with an extra buff to a character with no extra, you will lose said buff. but if you put a character without a buff onto a character with a buff, you'll keep the buff. If you fuse characters, you shouldn't lose any extra buff, PERIOD. This should be fixed.