I liked your entry to the competition. It's simple, but it works very nicely, The only problem I faced is the one you pointed out, maybe you could make a life system, so at least it's not an instadeath.
I understand you probably spent more time on programming, but the art is very plain and boring some times, and I don't understand what I'm shooting at, I'm guessing they're ships, but some of them have indefined forms... You could use less enemies and improve the graphics, as the effect of the shooting is the same.
With that said, nice game!