I 100 percent agree with you. Just completed the final product after playing the beta and it's way worse. The beta is the superior version, it's like all the fat is trimmed out and only the good stuff is left. The final product I wasn't even able to see the silhouette of the monster that chases you around in the locker room, I don't know if this is a bug or intentional, I saw the shadow of it but the model wasn't there at all. The ticket system is stupid, takes away from the atmosphere, the vaporwavesque music playing everywhere makes it less stressful and too upbeat. All the new areas are very boring and feel tacked on, they add nothing interesting and go nowhere. I do like that I can run though, I think that should exist and just be a option for people. I disliked the final release so much that I deleted it and i'm just keeping my beta copy. I'm really glad I own the beta copy and didn't buy this on steam cause the final release feels like everything you shouldn't do to update a game. Totally kills the creepy factor in every way.

While I usually have no issues with a hub world for the design, I feel like it was implemented in a pretty arbitrary way here. I mean, "ride down 5 elevators to activate final elevator" feels pretty weird. 

I have little against the sprinting, actually. I know the point is that you're in a strange place, taking in the sights and stuff, but depending on whether some areas are too big or small, it can be more or less useful. I still feel it's good to have it as an option tho. The jump definitely could use an improvement, and I don't find that idea of a climb to pull yourself up a ledge a bad idea either!

Something I am against is how the content of the beta was locked behind the biggest gate of tickets in the game, meaning it'll probably be the last of the 4 available rooms you'll explore... Despite the fact you entered the game through a pool area. What's more, it still feels like the most fleshed out area in the game, with the most commentary and panel puzzles of all areas. It also ends up making the Shadow Person feel like... a whole lotta nothing, at least in the context of this chapter. If they build up on it for the following chapters, then it's fine. I sometimes forget this isn't supposed to be a standalone game after all. I did like how they turned the progression in that area a bit more around it's head, but it still feels a little unpolished in some bits.

In fact, while I'm not against the idea of tickets and the capitalistic consumerism message it brings with it, it also feels somewhat unnecessary. I like how Anemoiapolis was supposed to be a place folks were supposed to live in, with currency and room for businesses and stuff, but at the same time, part of me wishes that was never clear at all. The purpose of Liminal Spaces is either purely ambiguous to us , or downright non-existent, and we'll never be sure of it. I always like to describe them as "AI generated rooms that try to replicate human spaces", and while the movies in the theater imply that as well, I feel like the attempt of creating a space for humans played a part as well. I'll respect it if that was the intention tho, this is merely my perspective on Liminal Spaces after all.

Speaking of the Movie Theatre, I didn't like how it ended. Felt a little too surrealist/weirdcore to me. Like, a white void in a cinema screen, with a bridge of giant tickets that lead to a floating elevator door? Now that feels like a dream, but a lot more separated from the somewhat realistic feels of liminal rooms in my opinion. 

Also the final area you visit is pretty lame. It's randomly generated, and you can very easily find an exit. It's short, has very little impact, and it's a big letdown, given how the game was leading up to it as "the mysterious fifth area that wasn't there before". The messages you get when you open the doors to "go to the next level" or "replay the intro" make it feel a little too video game-y, and the animations of the water in the bathroom taps just... stop when you clos the tap. It feels a bit unpolished, given how it's a very early area in the game.

At the end of the day, it feels like, instead of further expanding from the sizeable meal they had in the beta... they added a bunch of side dishes, and relegated the previous main dish to be yet another side dish, and one you usually eat late into the meal, despite being the most well cooked one. And then for desert, you get a brick, and the promise of another meal in the future, hopefully a better one too. 

Those rants aside, I feel like they could've kept the hub world, but instead of making the locks feel so arbitrary, and relegating the pools to be just another world (and a late one at that), they could've made the mall area you stumble into after leaving the pools the hub world itself, with each area you visit being another "store" in the area. Instead of tickets, you'd either just enter the area through the doors, find a way around to get inside it (like the In n' Out that's in the game), or you'd need to find a key to open the locked door. Maybe the way to leave the mall would be through a locked door that leads to maintenance tunnels, with you needing to look around to find a spare key for those. It's a lot more natural feeling than arbitrary paywalls for tickets or used elevators. 

And think about other areas they could have, like arcades, the aforementioned maintenance tunnels, somewhat more furnished office rooms, underground parking lots, storage warehouses Ikea-style, playrooms for kids, food courts, empty supermarket shelves and halls, maybe even flooded hallways and decayed versions of these rooms as well, with broken walls and ceiling lights, and electric wires falling from the ceiling. It's a few suggestions that I'm sure they're saving for the next chapters, but it remains to be seen if folks are willing to pay more for further chapters of this series.

The point in the game is not being creepy, but about liminal spaces. I believe not everybody understands the feeling of being in liminal spaces, and for this reason the game is not for everybody, which is ok, because there are millions of games for other topics, but less than five about liminal spaces. So, thanks a lot to the developer for taking the challenge of designing a game of a genre nobody else develops. Regarding the ticket system, I believe Andrew said he was going to release a version in which you could disable it, for a free ride to all the areas.

The old school linear approach would be ideal for this game.  I feel like the hub area was a last minute decision because I'm seeing all sorts of little remnants of that idea all over the older maps like the mall in the theatre area having more complex puzzles yet it's barely mid game and then it goes back to easy puzzles again.  The dialog comes up at really inconsistent times like it's totally silent in the area after the first locker room with nothing in the hub, nothing in the theatre and nothingin the conference room but then in the family resort he starts talking again.

My over all recommendation is similar to what people above me have stated.  Make it linear again with the hub world being a level with more darkness to it.  Maybe make some of the lights flicker and go out for dramatic effect.  One thing I wish for exploring mode in a linear version of this game would be the ability to go back through doors you just came from and go backwards too.

If the hub world is to stay maybe make it go through changes as you go through levels like maybe make lights start going out and the shadow guy show up a bit in the hub in later game and then make his presence a real threat in the last level.

First, I have to say that this game was awesome. Exactly what I was looking for.  I only wish it was longer. Really hope you continue with added chapters. However, I vehemently disagree with peoples desire for a linear approach. If I wanted that, I would just replay one of a thousand games that already did that. I felt like this approach gave a sense of reality. Coming to a central point only to get lost in a new maze felt more realistic than a "straight" path to an end. It gave a real feel to liminal spaces. Additionally, I feel like most of the "improvements" people are asking for are just their way of saying "make it easier so I can win". I loved the struggle of figuring it out for myself, and having to attempt some tasks a few times to get them just right to succeed. Also, liminal spaces are creepy enough in the imagination. Too much added creepy just becomes sappy. I think you're on the right path with what you have. Keep it up.