I loved A Short Hike so much. I recommended it to all my gamer friends. Said, "You have to play this game." This was like that experience, but in a game jam package. So very well done, thoughtfully crafted and enjoyable. From the delightful music and sound design, to how the story unravelled and gave you a sweet twist at the end. All the NPCs were charming and this felt like a little space I wanted to spend more time exploring. Superb work here!
The platforming aspects could be a little frustrating at times, but at least it was never too long to get back to where I began. I ran around the island about a dozen times trying to figure out how to progress after the berries. I almost stopped, but I wanted to see the conclusion so badly (especially with that excellent boss hat tease). I knew I needed to do something with the magnifying glass kid, you even had the additional prompt button, but I had no clue how to trigger it. Thank you for putting the minor spoiler in the description, but if the floating mirror looking prompt had just been the "E" button in a frame, I would have known I could interact with the character. At that point in the game my mind only retained WASD to move, space to jump and Q to pull out my camera.
My only other critique would be about the text box triggers. The dialogue would appear from a certain distance, but usually I was moving toward the character because they were all so well done I wanted to look at them, but almost every time I'd then have to back up again to get their conversation within viewing distance. If the dialogue box triggered even just a few steps earlier then I would have been able to read the info, then get a closer look, saving me from backing up and recomposing my view.
This was really a standout game for me. Thanks so much for sharing and I hope this is part of something bigger.