At first I couldn't really get into the game, as I was trying to play it on my laptop.
Well, the less I say about intel graphics cards the better.... >:/ (7fps, I mean COME ON!!)
But I gave it a shot on my main computer, and I find this game very nice!
I suggest trying to mess around with the crafting first, and focus mainly on wood at first.
I scouted out a nice big island, and built myself a house on it (Only made from wood at the mo', but I plan to make a nice brick house a bit further away).
Unfortunately, it looks like I need to travel quite far before I can get anything else.
It would be nice if in the final version, we could build a map which reveals itself as you explore.
I keep dying a lot at night as well. Zombies are easy to kill, but spiders are quite tough, and the skeletons are a nightmare!
(This is especially an issue since, when you die, you lose all of your stuff in your inventory!)
The game has a 3d mode as well, which is pretty awesome, (though it gave me a little headache after a while)...