Wow! Thanks so much for playing our game, and watching you play the game on the YouTube video brought a big smile. :) It was nice to see other lovely games in the jam we also enjoyed get screen time on stream!
We're glad the puzzles were easier for you to solve! That was definitely a game design aspect we were trying to make sure to clarify for the player. We were hoping to ramp up more challenge as the game progressed, but couldn't fit in as many levels before the jam ended unfortunately. :( Similarly the clunky movement is something we 100% agree with -- we ran out of time on that unfortunately and couldn't implement our solution on time. : (((
Yes, we love Baba is You and its programming-like/logic mechanics! We actually started with the game mechanic of Anagram games, and we thought taking the broader genre of Sokoban-esque games and Text-based games and combining it into something completely new that subverts expectations (e.g., breaking your environment, redefining what the purpose of objects around you are) in an open-ended manner using 26 letters.
We also thought about creating multiple solutions like you said (a real problem-solving feeling), though also ran out of time to open our scope that wide too. We implemented several multiple-solution levels, but decided to remove it due to time constraints to focus on our primary mechanic. Lots of things were hit hard due to time, but I think we all were anyway! It was clever of you to think of BIRD instead of BRIDGE. :)
I'm also happy you enjoyed the background music! The 50s vibe actually is spot-on, the chord progressions we used are classic Doo-wop chords straight from the fifties. :) Striking the balance between an overdominating melody (that distracts from the gameplay) versus a fitting ambient/background music was an interesting challenge -- feel free to check out this more melody-heavy composition I wrote, maybe it's catchier lol
And I saw a comment about the wiggly sprites! Yup the "art" is all MS Paint lol, I had to hand-draw everything multiple times (and don't get me started on the the bricks and all those squares & lines -- oh my! haha). We're a team of 2 students, and I can't say we're anywhere close to artists, maybe doodlers at best :) We've been speaking with a friend who's an artist to start working on better art for the future.
Thanks again for the feedback as we love to hear new ideas as we continue making future versions, and we really enjoyed playing your game! We hope you continue developing & growing your game as well. <3