Ooh, great job! I like games like this and had a fun time. The mechanic of taking words from the level and watching them disappear and enter your clipboard is really innovative and well executed here (with nice SFX to sell it as well). Fun visual style as well. I think playing a few levels like this with different word categories and increasing difficulty would make a nice full game.
The constructive feedback part:
- The clipboard takes up a lot of the view when it's open, getting in the way of picking words sometimes. I'm sure you're aware and might have tweaked it with more time.
- Slight confusion, not major: I solved the character with the yellow info box first, and knew it was correct based on the sound cues etc. But then after solving the character with the green box correctly, I felt a bit unsure for a second looking back at the yellow box. Green = correct, yellow = caution? Then realised that each character has a different colour. Just something to be aware of, with certain colours having such strong pre-built associations.
- I really loved the metaphorical layer of your theme interpretation, and that feeling of being in a strange place between what you do for a living and what you dream of doing is very relatable (especially for us hobbyist game devs!) That said, I think a few extra/larger windows showing the diner underwater would have really sold the more surface-level theme. I didn't notice the current underwater window background at first.
The game was so enjoyable! One of my favourites, I think, especially since I love the genre. You've worked well with the genre while introducing a new innovation of your own, so really well done!