Thanks so much for playing and the elaborate feedback! I want to address your points:
1) Indeed, I was going to implement it so that the boat gives the player the same speed it's currently going at for more realistic and easier maneuverability, but I saw many other issues coming up with that and I didn't have the time anymore to spend so much time on this, even though it really is one of the really important things, as you spend 99% of the game on the ship, so then I left it with the adjustment for the speed, which works kinda OK if you put the ship on its lowest speed
2) The dying in combat (i.e. seagulls drain all your health) and the ship sinking by taking too much damage both have the same outcome: You turn green ("Zombie" since you don't have a soul) and you're able to still complete the level - this is for one of the wild cards mainly where "Failure is just another path to victory". Only falling off the ship means certain death and you have to restart the level. However, in order to unlock the 7th and last level, all first six levels need to be completed without dying first. The character does point it out in level 1, but it should have been better explained
3) I did have an issue with the player's hitboxes, that at times other instances' hurtboxes wouldn't react to them if the hitbox is already inside it when the player hits, though I do seem to set the "deferred" value correctly for the hitboxes, but that's definitely something I need to look into. The player himself becomes invincible for a short period of time (while the player flashes), a state of invincibility, but this state could be a bit longer. Thanks for pointing that out!
4) While I developed the game, I intendedly placed most of the dialogues in the beginning of the level so that the player could easily reset the game to read through the dialogues again. I also didn't want the dialogues to show up somewhere where they would obstruct the player's view on important areas of the ship, but I agree I could have solved this better (with more time, same as everything hehe)
5) Gotcha! I was hoping that the icons would be self explanatory, but I agree that it would be better visible by changing the icon to one plank only each. Point taken
Thanks very much for playing and the feedback! Much appreciated