Thank you :)
The controls being as they are were one of the first bits of the design. We wanted something that naturally pulls you into loops.
We spent probably more time on the aesthetics than on gameplay. One of the authors wanted to write some Stellaris-y shaders so that guided our visuals.
The worm design was meant to kind of be as if the hyperlanes/wormholes came alive and also were lit up as glow in the dark bodypaint on the body of the worm.