Music and sfx person here. Thanks for the compliment ^^ - I'm trying to expand my ability to use music dynamically in games!
As for the difficulty - yes, there is a fine line there. We did discuss the payoff between challenge and reward a lot and decided it might not be as fun for everyone with the standard mechanics, so we added an "easy mode" option in the settings to play without the stamina restraint.
We have learned so much about the game/level design from watching people play the game and providing us with feedback. Game design is hard but extremely rewarding.
<3 thanks on behalf of the Hamsterwell team
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I agree. That we definitely knew upfront, this wasn't going to be a game for everyone. Another idea that we discussed to encourage less avid platformer players was to interject more story elements into the game. I myself am always driven by a greater sense of narrative and discovery, which I think we tried hinting at, but our team did not cover a role for writing and storyboarding. Perhaps for a later, updated version!