I’m really glad you ended up liking it. This is my first Post Jam and I’ve also learned that I realized I didn’t know to phrase my feedback request well but yours ended up addressing it. Totally agreement on the obstacles, I ran out of time to tune them properly so figured it’d be better to leave them out than accidentally have even bugs.
FWIW, there’s actually only one dead end, which is a secret inside the cave, all the others actually have some use (including the most of the cave). This is also part metroidvania month (which is also rating right now so no fixes for me) and from some comments there, I don’t think anyone has actually reached the real end, that secret message does make it feel the pinnacle.
Do you happen to have a guess as to how long it took you?