I tried to think further about what bothered me about this game. I deleted my previous comment to provide better feedback:
It's always difficult to make a game fun where you deny visual feedback to the player. The first playthrough of a level is essentially random because the player has no information at all -- so it's not very interesting to play. I realized that I made a game with a similar concept before (Rob 'Em Blind). It has the same idea where you play a level in the dark with two key differences: The player has a very faint sliver of vision around them which reduces some frustrations, and the player can practice the level with full vision beforehand. Of course, I am not suggesting you should copy both those ideas -- your game is different after all. But perhaps it gives you some ideas on how to improve the feedback provided to the player. Perhaps, the lights are on at the beginning of the level and turn off after 0.5 seconds.
Of course, you could also add many auditory elements that the player can touch/graze to make sound like grass, windchimes, etc. This would help the player form more accurate auditory map of a level while using the metronome for a sense of time.
Viewing post in Down to Timing jam comments
Thank you for the constructive approach with your comment, I can't remember what your old comment said but appreciate you coming back to provide more insight. I do like your idea of a quick glimpse, something I considered actually "putting" a blindfold over the camera when the level started but it was a personal design pillar to iterate on each level slightly and be able to mess with the player as the layout changes unexpectedly (level 7 for example). I will mess around with the blindfolding idea post-jam!
As for sound, I was having a hard time finding sounds that went together and described nicely what they were portraying. Hopefully after the jam, I have more time to look/create sounds that work for the actions you mentioned. I also like the idea of giving level locations sound to help the player orient themselves, something that may benefit from a restyle from basic neon to a blindfolded ninja in grass with gongs etc. Something for me to think about.
Hope you enjoyed nonetheless! Thanks again!