I appreciate you noticing the normal mapping thing, our level designer thought it would be a good idea to make the cave look more damp, so I'm glad it came across well.
As for the ending, yeah I wasn't too keen on ending it like that but it ended up being rushed near the end of the jam and I wasn't sure how to properly end it. If I had started earlier I probably would've spent more time on the atmosphere and making a better ending.