The time loop strategy for these kinds of games (and the context of a jam) is one of the smartest moves you can make.
The game is gorgeous, maybe not 100% all artisanal, self made… but it’s well assembled to make a consistent game. Not everyone actually takes care of choosing, and adapting their bought assets in a way it makes sense. That’s something I really really value a lot.
Good audio/visual queues for the impending doom. A pretty solid interpretation of the theme that was both abstract enough to not be blatant, and concrete enough that I could understand it right away. That’s a balance not everyone can pull of in the first couple seconds of gameplay.
The puzzles…
I went through the 4-minute loop several times. I started making a mental map and figuring it out. The writing was a good balance between, again, abstraction and concreteness.
My problem is that the puzzles themselves strayed from that balance and I needed several playthroughs to kinda get them. Maaaaaaybe a bit more audio clues? That could be a good resource that’s already established, already consistent and in tune with the theme, and could help heaps to help you if you’re a bit lost.
And yeah I did clip. I love to try collisions and boundaries after the PTSD I had with my game. And… well, I did get out of bounds and had to restart. All of it at random. Sometimes on the rocks, sometimes on the edges of fences and walls. But collision is so hard to get right, that I can see where it can fail.
You have almost everything cooked up, it just needs more salt and pepper.