Thanks so much for the detailed review! This was CyberSugar’s first Game Jam, and your honest criticism alongside the kind words really validates the effort we put in. We worked with an international team totaling seven people, plus three voice actors and a local musician we are friends with. The size of the team was a double-edged sword, but we are overall glad we participated.
To be honest, the last two-and-a-half days of development were all-nighters spent fighting a browser-breaking bug (that still persists). I was exhausted and wasn't sure if the stress was worth it, but seeing the final result and reading comments like this makes me realize how much we learned and the skills we gained. I actually checked out your entry via Git back in week ~2 or so, before the part after the satellite dish was even implemented. Playing the fleshed-out version now is a real treat!
Regarding your feedback on the gameplay, the Gearbox puzzle was actually the very first minigame I coded, while the Kitchen was the last. My understanding of GDScript evolved massively between the two, so the discrepancy in quality definitely reflects my learning curve. The "dollhouse view" of the lighthouse (as we called it internally) was a point of contention, but since our artist had already created the asset, we didn't want to waste it. We agreed the loop up and down can feel repetitive. We also played it safe for the HTML5 build with the loading screens, and as we play tested, we too realized how much time was sunk into waiting, but it was too late at that point. Luckily our artist made those animations to keep them somewhat entertaining.
The cooking minigame was a happy accident. We wanted to show Sutherland taking responsibility for his daughter, and since I have a personal passion for cooking, I took a leap of faith on that one. I definitely went a bit too hard on the complexity and it did need a more comprehensive tutorial, but I am so happy to hear it ended up being your favorite part once it clicked. The cooking minigame has received the most criticism by far, rightfully so. Finally, I'm glad you enjoyed the suspicious "American" character, our VA friend will be happy to hear that!