Thank you for leaving such an in-depth and kind comment. I have to admit that I'm impressed with your analysis. It's like you had access to my to-do list and knew exactly what I had to cut in order to get the game to a basic completed state in time (music, transitions between areas, multiple more characters and challenges).
Your mention of children's books is fascinating to me, partly because someone else said the same thing about the riverbed section, where you're scrolling down while surrounded by crows. That's not intentional, but I totally can see it. Something about that format of storytelling lends itself well to this kind of gameplay.
I've found people's responses--and especially yours--to this little game very encouraging: almost everyone says simply that they want to see more. That's an incredibly nice thing to hear, and tells me I'm on the right track. Thank you again.