I really want to like this, but in spite of the great feel and presentation, the fact that you literally lose all your stuff when you die is pretty much game-breaking.  I died on the first trap, and lost all my swords, and most importantly, my torch.  That makes it literally impossible to continue from the last save because I now have no gear and no light source.  Am I missing something here?

Hello, thanks for your feedback :)
As Yoshixi said, you can loot back your corpse, it is always possible in all demo traps. I may add a tutorial message to make it clear.
Also, there are a lot of other light sources than the torch, and the small candles near the bedrolls provide infinite candles :)