Man I just read your edit and it literally has me in tears right now. To think that my 1 week project impacted you in such a positive way makes me so full of joy that I can't even put it into words. Thank you for making my night.
I definitely went hard on the old school aesthetic as much as possible -- maybe too much at points like for the upgrade system -- but I wanted to just keep everything as simple as possible, yeah. I wasn't here to write a story for the jam or do anything too complex. I just wanted people to enjoy my game. And I'm so glad that you did and felt it necessary to expand on your comment. Seriously, thank you so much.