Crystal Collector by Bloodbane

This is my entry for Ludum Dare 57 whose theme is Depths.
Collect crystals to win each level while surviving assault from depths creatures. However, you could earn more crystals by feeding them to sea flowers. Purchase upgrades if needed. Can you survive all levels?
Control scheme:
Numpad keys = Move around and aim weapon
X = Shoots Harpoons.
Z = Shoots Crystals that you've collected.
Enter = Confirm/Pause the game.
F8 = Take a screenshot.
Features:
Can move and shoot in 8 directions.
Farm crystals by feeding them to sea flowers.
Screenshots:

Enjoy this short yet fun collection game!
Ratings
| Overall | 623th | 3.29⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 582th | 3.161⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 673th | 2.871⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 372th | 3.803⭐ | 35🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 259th | 4.015⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 531th | 2.589⭐ | 30🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 509th | 3.452⭐ | 33🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 49🗳️ | 50🗨️ |
I like the overall idea of the mechanics of the game. It feels like there's generally a solid difficulty ramp.
Some aspects of the controls feel like they could maybe be adjusted? Having to move in the direction that you want to shoot the gem feels a little awkward sometimes. I could just be bad at games though - very possible :P
It didn't feel like there was enough of an incentive to shoot gems into the spawner. Because there's no time pressure and the homing enemies all collapse into each other - it's easier to just ride it out and collect the gems slowly. Adding some more kinds of pressure might help?
Amazing visuals.
Great music.
Good sound effects.
Overall, really solid game!
One change I think would be good for the game, is using the mouse to control the direction the projectiles are shot instead of the keyboard. I found it really difficult to move and shoot (which if that's the goal please ignore this feedback) which didn't feel satisfying to play. If you want to keep the difficulty of moving and shooting, I would suggest splitting up the movement and shooting keys. e.g. WSAD would control movement, and IKJL would fire projectiles. You could then use SHIFT or something to swap between shooting gems and harpoons. I think this would eliminate the frustration I felt trying to control the shooting while still keeping it somewhat challenging to control.
Nitpick: Your diagonal movement doesn't appear to be normalized so it goes faster than left/right/up/down.
And good job including a pause since a lot of games forget to include that.
For controls, the arrow keys don't seem to affect the direction of shooting. And when using the numpad it would be nice if the diagonals worked as well. Your ship also pauses movement when hit which I think should be avoided.
I ended up mostly letting enemies group up since it was hard to kill them that fast. I still shot gems into the collectors though.
Either way, good job!
- upset that the harpoon only shoots in one direction :(
Overall, a pretty interesting concept, and it was pretty fun to play.
Besides that, this entry feels very polished and the music track fits the theme perfectly :)