These are some of the most beautiful words I got to read, you really are an amazing writer(Your game has AAA writing potential), and you really made my day!
I do have a tendency to take up on projects that are a bit too big for my shoulders (The rotation system, the collisions and the physics in the engine etc). As I went deeper into the jam and started tweaking those things I realized I got myself into deep waters (literally hehe). But I think the main reason we do gamejams is to learn, and the second reason is to make connections.
I actually always wanted to make a game like this, ever since the days of playing around with "Garry's Mod" as a kid and also Half-Life's Gravity Gun. ( Hope you know what I'm talking about)
It's far from perfect and my Idea of the Lightning coming in from around the island was breaking down as I was making the game. My original intention was that the player will build a barricade and cover themselves 360. At this point the storm "Shooting" angle was parallel with the floor, but then I realized that if it's parallel with the floor then it's enough for the player to build a barricade in the height of the player and the height of the storm doesn't affect anymore.
Then it slowly mutated into being more height oriented or whatever it is now hahaha