I wanted to add my thoughts as someone who loved the game, rated it highly and tried to promote it. I want to share my detailed thoughts and ask for yours (respectfully).
I've seen you call this a "die/respawn basic unoriginal platformer" and I disagree. While some games were for sure just "die, respawn try again until you get it", there were others that put a spin on that - you need to die a certain way to enable yourself. And depending on how that was integrated I see that as a very good take on the THEME at the very least. This game in particular is not just a die die again until you get it. You NEED to die to solve the puzzles. And its not just walk in a line see a pile of spikes die so u make a platform so that next time you can use that to not die. There's so much more depth to the mechanics than that and I for one think that the CREATIVITY of not just the main mechanic but each and every level absolutely deserves a high rating. Have there been other games that have had a similar mechanic in the past? Sure. But does this make it any less creative? In my eyes - absolutely not! Making something your own is at the core of creativity. We are at a point in time where its pretty damn hard to make something truly new and not derivative of anything existing already. So for me the implementation and design of each level was unique and well thought out. I had a really good time playing every level and feeling proud that I figured out the solutions. And that is really important in making a good puzzle game - having the right level of difficulty that is not impossible but still challenging and rewarding for the player when they get there. So yeah dude I enjoyed the game a lot and I think it absolutely deserves its high ratings.
And I need to talk about the visuals too. Keep in mind the SOLO DEVELOPER AND TIME LIMIT. The art is cute imo and there's even ANIMATIONS (on not just the characters but environment too!) and PARTICLES. I for one am not expecting every game to have traditionally 'pretty' drawings. But the attention to visual details is huge in my book.
And yes the entire rating system is not great and leaves a lot to be desired. I personally operated under a 'I want as many people playing my game' policy not because I think more ratings = better ranking (it clearly doesn't), but because the idea of people playing and enjoying my game feels good. And towards the second half I was asking for feedback/thoughts how others would have tackled out concept. My later comments on other games I also shifted towards trying to give feedback and thoughts rather than just what parts I liked. It would've been nice if instead of a fully open everyone can choose to rate anyone deal we had a system where each individual was given a small pool of games to rate. But alas this isn't issue free either so 🤷♀️. And yes. sure. if there's less ratings but they are nicer then you would beat someone with more ratings which vary more. But what can we really do? every system is likely to have some flaw and someone complaining that its unfair in some way (and they might be right).
At the end of the day its a friendly jam. I have no prior experience so I don't know what the norm is but I'm expecting that we're all just here to learn and have fun. Its not that deep in my brain.
I hope this all makes sense.