This is all super great to hear! As a neurodivergent queer myself, it is always satisfying to hear people resonating with the vibes I was going with while writing! I am absolutely still intending to work on variant starts in the future, I've just been held up a bit due to real life events.
I also super appreciate the feedback! I'll clarify what I can here and then definitely go back in a future edit and clarify in the actual PDF (and also fix the typos, whoops).
1. I hadn't even though of diagonal cards but on mulling it over a bit I think I'm going to rule that they don't count as adjacent.
2. Originally I intended for it to only be 'the card's effect is activated once upon flipping it', but if it works then it can be a fun variant rule to trigger them any time you cross them!
3. As originally intended, you don't have to achieve both Goal Cards to win, but again that could be another fun variant rule to use! I really like the way you translated that in your game!
All-in-all, this was a completely un-playtested and un-beta'd game I made in like a week for a game jam and I'm so happy that every reaction I've gotten has been of general enjoyment!