Hey, glad you enjoyed it! The goal with the Shade was actually to trap and/or distract them any way you could. Definitely could work on making that more obvious. The soft lock is a known bug. We made a comment about it in the main itch page. You need to go to main menu and go through level select to get to that last area (which would be really cool if you'd be willing to hop back in just to see that last animation 🥺). I think what we are going to do is have like 2 difficulties. One that makes the puzzles a bit easier and brighter, and one that is harder and darker. The way it is now will likely be closer to the harder difficulty. We also plan on having around 20 levels.
My main problem with the shades was not understanding that, but moreso the execution of it. A lot of times, when you have distracted them, they would still block the path
In the 3rd (2nd non-tutorial level) level by the big elevator, when you would run to the right, to get to the distraction and the shade would follow you from the left for example, you were actually stuck as it was then blocking you. I eventually got past it by going left instead and going the elevator there up fast enough, where the shade then got stuck on it and then got pushed into the ground by the elevator and stuck there, no distraction needed.
In the 2nd (1st non-tutorial level) it was a bit tricky to jump over the shade at the end, as the corridor was so small.
It might just be a skill issue though
I did see the ending now too and I think it is pretty awesome actually haha. I still liked the game eitherway and as a first game you did a great job!