Ciao Roboticy! Thanks for your feedback! We're delighted you enjoyed.
Agreed that the current iteration of the health and reset system is frustrating. It's a solid prototype and enough to capture that addictive "just one more try" feel a lot of players are expressing enjoyment for, but it needs more work. Which is great, because that's exactly what we're going to give it!
In the full version, the health system will probably be in bar form, allowing for more scalability with upgrades and greater failure lenience in the first area. Resets will still wipe some progress (as this is a core feature of roguelite design), but similar to what you're suggesting, not all progress. Another issue in the current iteration is that replays don't have a lot to distinguish themselves from one another, which is also core to a roguelite experience. Stuff like additional powers, stat modifiers, and other resources. So the runs feel too similar even with procedural levels. Finally, I think the overall difficulty is too high in general for a first-time player. Again, a consequence of jam time having only a handful of external playtesting sessions for design iteration. While those kinds of changes and systems were way beyond scope for a jam with everything else we wanted to deliver, we definitely hear you, and they will be a major focus moving forward.
Oh, so that I can update my bug tracker, could you let me know which bug stopped you from finishing?
Thanks for helping us make the game better!