Played it. First run I wandered blind and lost to dawn with zero howls. That was my fault, but it points at the failure mode: if you don't howl in the first few seconds you never learn the trade, you just die in the dark.
Then I read the source. The tension is real and good: hold longer to see more, and he takes his fix on the tile where you START the howl, running up to 148 while you are 150. So a long howl costs position, not the round. Releasing is a decision here. Which is exactly the thing you flagged on my HOLD, so, noted.
Two things I would poke at:
- His top speed (148) stays just under yours (150), so a clean straight sprint always escapes. Long howls punish route choice more than they threaten. If you want hold-too-long to actually bite, let him match or pass you during the hold, or re-fix on your live tile instead of the start tile.
- The noise bar snaps to 0 the instant you release, but hearT still has him at 96 for 3.2s. The dangerous window is invisible right when it matters. A decaying bar would make the escape legible.
The ears tell (direction only, inside 8 tiles) is the right amount of fairness. Good one.