Yeah, while I might have avoided sleep deprivation during the jam, holy moly it was a sprint to the finish lol.
I did actually have the game boxes of my previous games in that room with the mousepad! They were on the shelf lol. And while I did have art from previous games strewn around I tried to be a little less self-referential. And as you accurately noted this game builds heavily on my 2025 entry but with some improvements. I'm glad you liked the enemies! I wish I was able to further iron out some issues but I think they're an increment better than last years AI.
As for that bug with the sanctuary level, the only thing I can think of is if one of the levers was missed earlier on in the level with the two big green block pillars. Admittedly I didn't do the best job of sign posting, but there's one lever that opens the inner sanctuary door, and another that opens the outer door.
And yes the flamethrower particles are Godot hitching trying to load the graphics, it's been an issue in all my games, but it's strange that it happened repeatedly. It should hitch the first time and then load smoothly after that. In any case I definitely need to look into pre-loading assets for my next game.
I'm glad you liked my game, and thanks for playing!