I meant to convey that the consequences of getting hit in terms of progression in particular was unclear to me. In my case, I thought the penalty for getting hit was that many pop-ups would respawn, thereby costing me progress rather than depleting a separate health stat. And in the midst of the frantic gameplay, I couldn’t quite split my mind to figure out what the speed-up criteria of the glitches were, which may mean that part is not very intuitive to the player.
That said, I’m going into these games with just a quick glance over controls and descriptions, partly as a way to gauge how well the game communicates or “introduces itself” to the player. I like how some games are able to just get the player going from the first moment and teach you via gameplay (i.e. Bastion, Super Mario Bros., Megaman X, etc.), and so I look for that. IMO, the burden of educating he player should mostly lie with the designer, not the player. It’s a high bar, but I do feel that it’s something significant to look for when it comes to game design.
And yes, as mentioned, apart from the minor gripes, I felt like your game was pretty much everything it needed to be. It has a clear identity and focusses on being exactly that. Being a one-time experience is perfectly fine. Stellar Smooch and Grow Cube are both very nice games that are like that as well. For this game, I also think it’s better for it.
This is rather impressive for a first jam, and even more so for a first game. I think most of us don’t even manage to finish on our first attempt. Please stick with it. Great job!
P.S. Now, for the love of Mark Brown, please... Have your pop-ups back. I don’t want them.