Hey there, thanks for the nice comment! We've been thinking about making the fade slower, but thought it might make the game a bit easy ;) Maybe in the future, if we add more levels. ^^
As for the characters, you should check out elthen.itch.io, he made them and some of the other pixel art we used!
And I'll gladly let the guys know you enjoyed the catapult as much as we did :P
-Magyk