You were being too greedy :P. Goal is to figure out how much you are ready to risk; when is enough for you to come back up? I should've considered having a config that lets you keep inventory though (abit like in Minecraft).
I fully agree with the backtracking not being super entertaining. The entrance is the center of the map so it shouldn't ever be more than 3 rooms away. But there definitely should've been portal rooms near the edges to fast travel.
Controller system overall is quite nifty. I had to have a cyclic UI in parts because I didn't know what controllers to expect (you'll get a totally different experience on keyboard, Xbox, PS). I also had to make a custom UI system to support multi-controls...! Should definitely consider releasing this subsystem at one point.
Thank you for playing!