Thank you so much for such an incredibly detailed and thoughtful review! It is amazing to hear that the immersion and polish landed so well for you, especially considering the constraints of a game jam. We were an international team of seven developers plus voice actors and a musician, so I will be sure to share your kind words about the art, music, and voice acting with everyone. I am particularly glad you enjoyed the suspense of the Morse code minigame and the little details like the burning food dialogue.
We really appreciate the deep dive into the mechanics and user experience because this is exactly the kind of feedback that helps us grow. You are spot on regarding the loading screens, as we implemented them mainly to ensure stability on the browser version. Regarding the UI, we missed how much the clipboard on the left dominates the screen compared to the target phrase in the Morse code game. As for the controls, the difference between the gear and kitchen games actually reflects my own learning curve during the jam. The gear puzzle was the first thing I coded, while the kitchen was the last, hence the difference in interaction polish. The stair navigation was also a known friction point that we originally planned to fix via a toggle in an accessibility menu, but we simply ran out of time to implement it.
I have to take personal responsibility for the cooking minigame since I have a passion for cooking and may have made the systems a bit too complex without enough of a tutorial ramp. I am also sorry to hear about the crash and the lost progress. We didn't manage to squeeze in an autosave system in time, but it is definitely something a full version would need. Thank you again for the full marks and for taking the time to give us such constructive feedback!