Wow! Thank you for taking the time to write such a detailed review. Reviews like this make the whole game jam experience worth it :) Your criticism is all, of course, valid here. I hope you'll forgive me using your review as a diving board into some of my post-mortem thoughts.
I received a lot of feedback around the falling block and lantern mechanics, and I think the root issue with the game is that it doesn't quite know what type of game it wants to be: A methodical puzzle game, using the falling blocks to your advantage to navigate towards the exit--or a mad rush to the exit a la Spelunky. I think the game would be way more fun if I had pushed it more towards either direction, squatting in the middle as it is now, the mechanics fight with each other and leave a pretty tepid impression. The changes you describe would push it in more of the puzzle game direction, a direction that I agree this game desperately wants to be.
As for the decisions and circumstances that lead to the current state of the game... I think my initial vision was more in the Spelunky direction, and I never reexamined those initial decisions and assumptions. Or, to be honest, I ran up against the time limit pretty hard and didn't have time to do that thinking around what the game actually wanted to be. At the start of the final day before the deadline, I hadn't built any levels, didn't have the shop or lantern implemented, and essentially didn't have a game. That Sunday was spent in more or less in a state of panic haha
The lessons to take from this are pretty clear though. In my next jam, I need to spend more time on early prototyping and play testing instead of polish. Spend the time upfront to make sure I'm not polishing a turd. If I have particle effects and camera shake implemented before prototyping a single level, I've done something wrong haha
At the end of the day, to partially fix Gizmo I would:
- Remove level timers, increase lantern size
- Rework levels to be more puzzle-y
- Add a couple of tutorial levels to introduce players to block mechanics
...and some more comprehensive changes that I think would resolve Gizmo's identity crisis:
- Take a second look at upgrades. Possibly remove incremental upgrades in favor of tools that allow for new puzzle mechanics.
- Possibly remove ores/gems or find another purpose for them
Thank you so much again for playing my game and sharing your thoughts. I feel like I've learned a lot from my first jam, and I'm excited to make more games! Also a side note, I really enjoyed my time with _your_ game last night :)