So I reached the room after the room with a bunch of carrots on the bottom and on the top. At that point I pushed "give up" by accident when I was trying to push "restart," and I wasn't sure if I wanted to try to re-do all the levels up to that point.
In any case, I have developed a single primary concern with this game: the mechanic where you can end up with too few boosts is very difficult to deal with as a player. In particular, the screen I gave up on by accident had this problem. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to use a boost or not. I had 7 whole boosts, plus one more from that screen, but I had no idea if I was going to need all 8 later or not.
And so what this means, is that every level I run into that gives me a boost, I have to make a choice. Is this boost intended to be used on this level? Or not? If it is not supposed to be used on the level, but I think it is, I will end up at some arbitrary point having to restart the game.
And on the flip side, if I run into a screen that I can't figure out how to get past, there's two possibilities: either I am missing something, in which case I should keep playing, or it is physically impossible for me to beat, in which case I am supposed to restart the game. And so, I have to make a judgement call--and if I end up back at that screen, having not figured out any way to get more boosts, I am probably going to be pretty frustrated.
Something that compounds this problem is that quite a bit of the platforming in the game is quite precise. In fact, I never figured out the correct strategy for the screen I died on. It seemed like I might be able to beat it with 0 boosts if I stood on a platform that was between an electrified thing and a spike, but I hadn't quite figured it out.
Now, in practice, I didn't really experience too many problems with this mechanic in the game. I only really had to restart at the very beginning of the game, when I couldn't beat the third screen. (I also had to restart immediately, as I used my two boosts on the very first screen and couldn't get past the first wall in the second...)
Nonetheless, I didn't find myself enjoying this mechanic too much as I played.
However, I do see some value in it. I can see the value in turning the use of each boost into a nerve-wracking judgement call--this matches the narrative extremely well. The player character is of course going to need to make a judgement call with every boost they receive, and so making the player experience reflect this is a very effective choice in terms of atmosphere and storytelling.
But, at the same time, I really don't want to push that "Give Up" button when I don't have to.
I've thought a bit about ways that this mechanic could be improved a bit, as I do think that the narrative value of it is potentially pretty significant.
I think the main thing that would help is some way for the player to learn, at least at some point, what number of boosts they would need on each screen, and when they had reached an impossible screen. And, of course, communicating very clearly that the player was going to have to do multiple runs, and that they were going to be able to learn these things.
This could even be turned into a pretty cool gameplay moment: when the player reaches a screen that is, currently, unbeatable, the game could let them try to beat it a couple times, and then laugh in their face and tell them that they screwed up. I think it could be a pretty jarring moment and could be pretty interesting.
In fact, the slow doom of losing to an impossible level seems like a really neat kind of experience that I don't think has been in very many games. I think it just needs to be communicated to the player, some how, that they are in fact doomed, so that they can feel it.
Anyways, hopefully some of this analysis is useful..... 😅