I like the premise and art style here. Having each level in a different setting with different tiles, background, NPCs, and monsters makes the game feel big and varied. The pixel art in use is simple, but visually appealing and consistent.
The controls don't quite work. I'd expect a game like this to be set up to allow one hand on movement and one hand for other controls, no matter what the specific controls are. Unfortunately there was no way I could arrange my hands to make that happen. I ended up using WASD with my pinky on Shift and my other hand tapping ?.
Repeatedly tapping Shift also triggers StickyKeys on Windows, but you'd be well within your rights to blame that one on Microsoft.
The audio style is not my thing, and I found it kind of grating at times, but I think it does okay at what it's supposed to be. I would really like to have music.
Unfortunately, the core gameplay just isn't compelling as it stands. The first level is okay, but the second level is frankly tedious. It's way too long a journey to repeat, especially since you can lose the clam, and clearing the birds is a chore. There needs to be something added to make these journeys more interesting. I don't have an answer for what that is.
I always find it difficult to rate prototypes and unfinished games. On one hand, it hardly feels fair to judge it by the standards of a complete game. On the other hand, there is only one rating scale for every game in the jam.
In addition to simply being incomplete, there are a few bugs. It's sometimes possible to jump and punch (which is critical to attack some enemies), but sometimes it doesn't work. Run seems to stay stuck on in some cases as well.
I think the best course of action would be to focus on making that second level really fun and interesting, then knocking out some of the bugs, and then applying all the lessons learned to future levels to round out the game.