castle idler

Pros
++ Replacing waves with a killstreak feels very fresh for the tower defense genre.
+ The music is pleasant and fits well with the graphics, even if the enemies are simple recolours.
+ The prestige upgrades are well thought-out, not just "increase damage" or "enemies drop more gold".
So-Sos
~ The extra arrows upgrade only fires 1 arrow if it can only see 1 enemy when firing. It would be nice if all extra arrows were fired at the same enemy in that instance.
~ The split arrows prestige upgrade can bounce to enemies that are already dead (e.g. from an extra arrow from the same tower).
~ There's a weird visual bug with the price for population and arrow tower upgrades after prestiging. They're slightly offset to the left, rather than being in the centre. After being upgraded once, they jump to the centre, which is presumably where they should be from the start.
~ I don't really like the star mechanic, it feels like a plaster to make the game less of a slog to start with. I think if you started off with earning 1 gold for each enemy hit, you could get rid of it. I can understand keeping it though, because it gives the player something to do occasionally.
~ Seeing as there's a focus on record completion time, it would be nice to have a level select screen so you can retry levels easier.
Cons
- No targetting options. I get it's a very minimalist game, but it's still frustrating.
- If the tower menu button has a plot behind it, clicking on the menu button closes the tower menu and opens the above tower/plot menu. (e.g. In level 3, the bottom left plot and the plot just above it)
- The lack of any sort of boss is notable. It doesn't have to be a single large enemy, but it would be nice to have something for a bit more variety in gameplay.
- Only 2 tower types, which you can buy from the start. I was expecting to be able to unlock more tower types with prestige upgrades, so it was disappointing that wasn't the case.
Overall
For a minimalist TD incremental, the demo is a nice experience that you can finish fairly quickly. Looking at the Steam page, I can't see any evidence of content beyond the demo, so I'd be wary of looking to spend money on a full version until then. (Also the screenshots and gifs show wood instead of population, do they need to be updated?) Honestly, I'm a little concerned by the last key feature saying "(3 hours of playtime)". TDs in general are designed with much longer playtime than that and there is plenty here you could build on a lot more. I'd encourage you to re-think that "short experience" idea considering you're in the same space as The King is Watching, Plants vs. Zombies, Kingdom Rush...

hint for absolute domination: spam ice tower.
i completed the full game in only 8 minutes.

Really enjoy this, but as a mac user my heart sinks every time I see a Steam Wishlist. Don't get me wrong, I'd buy and play tons of these games on steam... but for me they work great in a browser as a demo, then when they are released I can no longer enjoy them (generally). Not asking for Mac specific steam games... just wish the browser would be the end platform for more of these games. I'd pay.

Wow posted the exact second I refreshed. Played through on itch the other day and enjoyed it. Only thing i would say is that some of the skills felt a bit under-powered, while others felt way too good (arrow poison). Also the scaling cuts off the very top of the screen if you don't expand the game. Looking forward to the full release!