Wow thank you for the in-depth review! We were absolutely aware of some of your suggestions and had them on our to-do list (like idle animations) but had to prioritize other objectives before the end of the jam.
I know I was personally unsure about the collision mechanic with your trail of friends. But I believe our game designers wanted to keep that in as an added challenge mechanic. Like the game of Snake where you don't want to eat your own tail or something haha.
The Z-ordering was my Achille's heel. This is my second Jam and first time where I actually opened Unity as "just the artist", so it was a learning curve messing around with stuff. I only got my fingers on the environment, so I didn't even notice the issue with the characters!
If we ever continue to develop this game though, I'm keeping your feedback at the top of the list. Thank you so much for playing!