Thank you for the thorough and praising review! To answer your complaints:
- we agree that steering is confusing! I think we've come to the conclusion that we like the mild confusion and that we'd do it roughly the same way again, but that we absolutely NEED two things: an undo button, and car models with more easily differentiable front and rear ends :P
- I think the connection of the game's "lore" to the theme is reasonably solid - the issue is that you don't really see much of that theme in-game. We wanted a little more storytelling but we were so behind just getting the core mechanics implemented that there was no chance in the end. xD
I suppose the majority of commenters have wanted simpler controls, so that's the zzzzzensible conclusion. You're very right that the puzzles should be the focus. We've toyed with the idea of using arrows on the ground that you choose from, or fixing the controls (but that might be similarly confusing, as you can move the camera). We'll keep at the drawing board!
This is our first ever "finished" game, so we're very tempted to make a full game out of it. Thank you for the very kind comments, it means a lot. :D