For once I can say everything you've mentioned was 100% intentional. The reason for the control scheme was because the game was made to be playable on 1 keyboard, I didnt want it to be spread out to much and risk people jabbing each other with their elbows or slamming their hands into each other. Admittedly the controls are a bit awkward but given my limited choice of options and that if I had anything other than WASD and the arrow keys for movement it would seriously confuse people I felt like this was the best option. Jumping was a thing because at the beginning we played around with the idea of having jumping attacks or maybe even multi leveled like most Smash Bro levels so I added it from the start. When that didnt end up happening I decided to just leave it in for 2 reasons. 1, I didnt feel like it took anything away from the game, only added something to it. And 2, I always find games where you cant jump very restricting and always makes me feel like the games missing something. And finally the reason you get launched away when your hit in the air is so whoever's attacking you can't spam attack you while your in the air and get in a bunch of free hits before you land and can do anything to fight back. Maybe it did launch the characters a bit far but I'd rather that then the opponent being able to juggle you in the air