Hello again!
It's time for another update about current state of development.
Current build
Current build of the game was approved by Steam, so at this point there is virtually nothing that prevents me from releasing the game. That said, I still want to spend next couple of days on playtesting to find potential problems/crashes/bugs, so no release for now, but I am almost certain I will be able to provide specific release date by the end of this week. (which should be within next 2 weeks range anyway)
Controller support
There won't be controller support, but also there will be. What ?
First of all, I feel that this type of game is less than ideal to play with controller, so I didn't plan to add controller support of any sort. Second thing is technical aspect of adding controller support. In short, the game is made in Unity and it's default input solution makes it impossible to rebind keys during the game, so I had to wrap it with my custom solution which makes it possible to rebind keys, but was made without any controller support in mind, so it would be somewhat problematic to work around it right now.
However, this is where Steam Input comes into play, which makes it possible to control every game using controller. To test this feature, I dug up my 15+ years old 5$ controller manufactured by an unknown asian company (I personally dislike using anything but keyboard + mouse for gaming). After a bit of tinkering with controller settings in Steam big screen I was able to bind all keys used by game to controller buttons, which allowed me to successfully launch the game and even beat few waves of squares with it. I also made a somewhat usable default preset so controller is somewhat usable just out of the box.
TL;DR: No controller support built into the game, but it's possible to play the game using controller thanks to Steam Input
Why no early access ?
There are couple of reasons for releasing the game as a final product instead of as an early access title. First, I personally dislike it when games hide behind early access tag for months/years when they are feature rich and good enough to be treated as a fully released product. Second, I might continue expanding the game with content patches, but no guarantee there. Of course I will do my best to fix any bugs/problems that might show up after the release, but new content depends on game performance and player engagement. Third reason is just my overall feeling about whole idea of early access. Nowadays, it feels like early access tag is just a way to say "we want your money right now but our game is unfinished and bugged, so please don't mind that, it might get better some day", which doesn't sit right with me. When I buy a product, I get it in a state it is at this point of time, no matter if it's early access / beta / full release or whatever else, so slapping tag like that doesn't really matter for me.
Cinematic trailer
I thought about it and decided I won't be doing one. This is just a little game and time spent creating hype up video can be allocated to more useful things. Also I personally never watch cinematic trailers because they give me no information about the game whatsoever. I would rather watch a few minutes of gameplay to get a general idea what the game is about than 30 seconds of video to build up hype that tells me nothing. That said I plan to record another short gameplay video which includes first boss fight and upload it by the end of this week or early next week.