I really appreciate the thorough feedback, very helpful.
Regarding the countdown, we would also have liked to integrate it better into the game’s core mechanic but unfortunately without the age regression button it led to players having to wait until they could proceed with the next part of the level if they were too quick. If we had lowered the time available at each age then it would have made levels much harder. We will have to figure out a good solution for this outside of the game jam’s 4-day time constraint.
I am glad you enjoyed the game regardless, I really enjoyed yours as well :)