Thank you for liking the look and feel of our game. Very much appreciated!
Sorry to hear about your problems concerning gameplay.
We agree, it is not perfect. Well, who is? ;-) Things like using the pipe with the cave instead of the octopus would absolutely make sense. This game was created within two weeks, so we didn't have much time for testing and enhancing things. We may add this and other interactions once the voting phase for the game jam is over.
As to the other things you mentioned: We believe that it is usual adventure gameplay to look at everything, to collect everything and to talk to evereyone.
- Why talk to Lady Gwendolyn about the rhyme? - Well, as you have seen, she knew about it. Why shouldn't she, she once was a child probably. ;-)
- Looking at the square stone tells you it "looks different from the others". It is up to you to draw a conclusion from that.
- And sometimes you find out what to do with inventory items once the story progresses. Use the color grid with the poem pieces or the poem pieces with the temple panel - you will get some hints on what to do.