Cool game. I saw in comments you said you want to go back and tweak compulsive mode later on. I definitely think it would be worth it, I think its a cool idea and am glad you left it in. With some tweaking I think it would be my favorite of the two modes. Maybe something that forces Bernie to run directly towards objects so you have to time jumps?
Played these with my 15 year old son, he said levels of increasing difficulty or some kind of obstacles or antagonist other than the clock would go a long way.
I appreciated the "And Bernie..." setup line in dialogue.
Viewing post in Try not to Make a Mess jam comments
Very true, the compulsive mode currently has a high probability of the character just getting stuck in a corner or to walls, so that's something that definitely needs to be improved. There's also a partial mechanic in the game that allows the player to pick up a weapon to do more damage (there's a single crate in the level that nobody seems to have realized that they can destroy), so that would probably also be interesting in compulsive mode. Making it such that the character has a more specific goal and also knows how to jump, rather than just randomly changing direction would likely make it more challenging.
And yes, adding a bit of actual level design would probably be fun and add variety. I also liked Zack's suggestion of adding specific goals/quests. Of course that all blows up the scope significantly and I wonder if adding all that complexity might actually make things worse. Won't really know until I try, so I guess that's what I'll do.
Thanks a lot for the feedback!