The cycle of tension in this is super interesting. Once you drop the totem, all tension goes away. Once you're holding the totem, boom, all the tension is back. I love that you can jump on top of the totem; I didn't even find that out until level 2. What if the totem didn't automatically return to your hands when you respawn, but you had to pick it up after you respawn instead? Idk if you entertained that idea during development, but it would allow players to engage the tension when they were ready, rather than forcing it on them when they die.
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funnily enough, if I remember correctly, having the totem be picked up automatically on respawn was a way to get you to not end up stuck in an endless death loop if you happened to drop it in a treacherous place, like, on top of spikes.
If you didn't pick it up it'd just keep respawning you on top of spikes, and while there was probably better solutions, the quickest one was to make it so you'd pick it up, so that two consecutive deaths would force a respawn to the beginning of the level.