RaconteurNick, you can ignore Krice. Having only two posts, you probably wouldn't know he's the resident troll.
However, I would spend some more time evaluating if ASCII is really the way you want to go. The trees look nice, but appear to be using that "ascii as pixels/lines" approach that is barely recognizable as ASCII. The rest looks mostly like placeholder art, so it doesn't seem that you are too far in to change directions.
Most ASCII games are not only hitting the nostalgia notes, but actually delivering a traditional roguelike experience as well. Cogmind is a great example.
Other games use ASCII as a theme, but stylize/polish the hell out of it, so they're no longer relying on hardcore players. Like Brut@l
If you're making a shmup game, you're not going to be getting a huge amount of interest from the hardcore audience (though actiony roguelites are certainly still discussed here). And if the game doesn't look absolutely amazing, the mainstream audience is going to be confused or apathetic.
Even trolls can bring up good points :-)
Thanks for your feedback! Yes, it's early along - the colors in that gif are pretty bland and the only actual final ASCII are the trees currently. We'll be loading the world with colorful details (grass, rocks, bushes, all of which will have color and not just be white, etc.) so this gif represents a very early snapshot of things just starting to come together!
Out of the scenarios you listed, ASCII is our theme and we're going to polish the hell out of this - the story is what drives our game rather than the gameplay, and that's the biggest hook besides a detailed ASCII world. It's almost like The Princess Bride, I kid you not -- the first time I read the script, I had chest pain from how much I was laughing. Can't wait to share more in that regard!
Appreciate you sharing all those games too, I'll be looking at those very closely!
The game name comes from the Cajun French term for a faith healer, though the game is not specifically about that -- we picked it to symbolize the healing after making a game that didn't perform as well as we hoped originally
Interesting. The title first had me thinking of a snackbar/deli ("traiteur" in Continental French) 
The gif looks … totally crazy, which is always a Good Thing™, I think. Jere may have some good points to consider, if you want to think strategically about which audience you're appealing to. Or you can just follow your vision and see where it takes you. For sure, if you were using pixel art instead, the gif would look like any old shmup. Anyway, best of luck.
As always,
Minotauros
You speak some French? Comment ca va?
Someone actually once asked me if our game was the indie spiritual successor to Cooking Mama, and I'll never forget that!
Building off of my answer to jere, we'll be following our path to make something really unique. Our company Raconteur Games is about telling different kinds of stories, and it's our biggest risk - we've gotten a much better response to this game so early in development as compared to our first game, which was actually a shmup! We've learned a lot and my #1 priority is going to players early to get feedback and talk with them.
Our goal is to mix some genuine strategy into our approach (because we gotta eat after all!), while also going with our vision of making really different kinds of games.
Appreciate your feedback!
