It's odd that, only now, has Itch.Io gotten around to notifying me of these last responses to my post... 3 months later.... >:[
I'm not too sure what your issue with "Pay what you want" is. On Thingiverse, they mention donating to the artist after each download. It's a polite way to mention that, if you enjoy somebody's hard work, it couldn't hurt to give them a dollar. You'd give more to that to a waitress, and they are already paid to bring you your food. You're getting a hell of alot more out of downloaded game. It seems wholly unreasonable to think a game maker deserves less. Have people's opinion of game makers really slipped so far, have people become SO ENTITLED to games, that you'd fault a game maker for even suggesting the possibility of donating a dollar for all of their hard work? Would predatory DLC make you feel better? Tell me you've never spent a dime on DLC. Hopefully, now, you can appreciate how upsetting your opening paragraph was.
As for the other constructive feedback, thanks!
The scoring system is an issue I couldn't resolve to my liking. I know it can be fixed, but for the life of me, I can't see why it doesn't work as intended. It would have been nice to work with somebody else on that one, somebody who could help iron out the bugs I couldn't make sense of. I think I do alot of brilliant things, but sometimes I just seem to have blinders on to obvious solutions. I'd love to work with somebody who's mind works on things from an entirely different angle... maybe somebody properly analytical, but who doesn't always excel at creative solutions. I need an Egon Spengler to my Raymond Stantz.
The Gems and the Monster, I don't think there's much that can be done there. The gems have both unique color and shape. The monster has to come up from behind the gems, snapping it's massive jaws, acting as both a distraction as well as very intense timer. In VR it feels all the more intense, massively looming and closing in. I can't see it coming in any different way. It has to come right at you, right behind the gems.
Music would be interesting, but sort of outside of my wheel well of knowledge. I ad-libbed some silly background music in Alien TSA. Well amusing in that scenario, it would seem in poor taste in this setting. The best I could do was wind-noise. I could add some wind chimes in the background, maybe? If I could find music, it would have to be subtle, so as not to take away from the tension. A few piano keys, maybe.