SO COOL!!!
I never really thought about UI as a state machine, but that makes complete sense! I like to use Godot, which handles scene states via signals. I totally see a way I could start managing signals like a state machine.
I really like composition, so hearing you use components made me very happy. I still have a long way to go to have 15 years' worth of components, haha. I made a few non-UI components for this project, but I might make some UI ones for future projects. Godot 4.7 is around the corner, which will add some cool offset UI features. Maybe I'll wait for that before I start a project like that.
The game balance struggle is real, haha. I like your advice, though, as I ran into the problems you mentioned. I think my game would've benefited greatly from saving the minigame implementation until the end. I was certainly getting tired of my game by the end of the game jam, haha.
I really appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions! It's not every day you can gain some insight from someone who's been doing this for 15 years!!