thank you so much! I can confirm that the damage you take actually is based on velocity (if I remember correctly you can even die in one hit if you're going fast enough), I think it isn't clear at all because there's no health bar or something of the sort.
If you're curious about the control scheme, I really just messed something up changing the angle of the velocity during turns. When I saw what atrocity I accidentaly created, I thought it was very funny and decided to flip my original idea around.
When the jam is officially over, I'd absolutely love to add new levels to this and to make it slightly less infuriating to play