Good thing the town packs themselves into buildings like its a clown car, the Count wouldn't make it past the first summer otherwise :P
I'm definitely a fan of giving the light a mechanical purpose, although the civilians were quite easy to corral even when spooked. Having a shop at the end gives secondary runs a much better feel of progression, and I'd have loved if the npcs got smarter/harder at the same time.
I did notice there is a spot in the bottom right ish where a lampost is close to a river end and the npcs got stuck quite frequently trying to path through it.
I'll be interested to see what you do post jam as you've noted, congrats on submitting. Rooting for you to get enough ratings to pass the median (13, right now)