No, this will remain this portion of the game. It's possible that there could be future updates, which is what happened with v4.0, but it won't give access to the full game.
When the full game releases, it will definitely be released on itch.io as well as Steam! You will be notified and sent your key on Kickstarter when the game launches.
2. Yes, as you unlock more friends and items, you will gain access to more and more areas.
3. I am aiming for the end of next year for release. The price will be $15, and my estimate at the moment is the game will feature 10 to 15 hours of gameplay. If I have time I will be able to add more content.
4. At the moment I'm not taking any puzzle ideas, and the only testing we are doing is internally and with alpha testers from the Kickstarter project.
I don't think any game jam should be set up as a popularity contest to begin with! I don't blame you at all and I don't think you cheated in any way, it was just a strange set up and a bit confusing for everyone. What you did was not against any rules. Luckily they have said that those voted scores won't be a factor in their final decisions, so anyone accusing you of "cheating" is just being silly at this point. If you are new to game dev, just keep in mind that there are a lot of overly competitive people that get really negative during game jams, just ignore them and keep doing what you love.
I found this to be really enjoyable! I loved the missions and upgrades, and I could see this being expanded out to a full game with even more missions, upgrades, and other areas to travel to with light speed jumps. It also had some nice juice going on when things explode. Great job!
The guy I responded to was claiming that the rules about judging (YYG and judges deciding the final winners) was not clear / not stated. I responded with the rule stating that from the original event post.
