Thanks for the feedback!
It seems like there might be some problems with your browser or machine if there's a noticeable delay on the dash. It should be instantaneous and on the 6-7 or so systems we've tested on, there was no delay.
I'm not sure of your monitors specs but we did set our itch page to play in fullscreen by default, though it doesn't seem to be true fullscreen. I'd recommend hitting the fullscreen button in the bottom right of the WebGL player. It should fix all the cropping issues, though it seems like itch just may not scale properly to any monitors other than a 16x9.
The game eases you into the difficulty, and if you saw the two small blue skulls that would've put you at level 5 or so of 20. It gets much more difficult and fast paced as you go.
We chose to keep the tutorial a bit more lighthearted against the backdrop of the dark themes of the game. The point of waiting til after something bad happens on screen is so the player learns to associate the sounds and visuals of doing something wrong before they get into the actual game. There's no way to die in the tutorial so, this really cements good/bad actions while having a bit of fun with the player.
Also, the character is definitely kicking ;)
