I appreciate you! I struggled with the interaction system implementation for sure. I think I revisited it at least 3 times (sphere traces, line traces, overlaps) and with the time constraints I just had to settle on what worked best for playtesting in a minimal amount of time. As for the slow early game, I had a few more systems to integrate, but they didn't make the cut with the tight deadline (raking leaves, fertilizing etc), but I agree, I could have shortened/sped up the animations.
I actually play tested the game at 4X speed haha
I'm glad you enjoyed the boss fight. It was the first image that popped in my head when the theme was announced and I'm glad I could build to it :)