Short and sweet! There’s some areas where I’m not sure if I did it correctly (or the intended way) as I spammed the jump and swap buttons a bit on a part I had some trouble with. Got through all the same, so maybe I accidentally figured it out. The pacing felt pretty good and, from your devlog, allowing me (the player) to choose when to progress a cutscene I think was a good call. I don’t think it is always necessary in every game, but areas where reading is involved I think it is a benefit. Especially with pixel style text, as it can look a little “muddy” compared to the day-to-day type that people read. Sometimes it can take a sec when first getting into a game to adjust to a style not often seen daily.
Looking at your questions,
- I thought the levels made sense and there was only one in the middle that gave me some trouble. I could see the path I needed to take but wasn’t sure on the timing. Not a bad thing though as I feel games like this typically have that expected “Challenge” to them. I thinks it’s ok to have that bit of friction to engage the player. Feels more rewarding when you solve the puzzle.
- Story seems pretty straight forward and tells more without trying to explain too much. I could be wrong but I felt that it was portrayed as more philosophical perspective. So just saying enough feels right.
- Can’t say any dialogue feels abrupt on my end. I have to press a button to continue on, so I think that kinda prevents issues there. From your devlog, it looks like this was a purposeful change so I’d say it was a good call.