Thanks for the write-up!
Originally this was going to be more like basketball. So, like, any given time you had an X% chance to score if you take a shot minus X% from nearby defenders, etc. So I had that totally coded out before I realized, wow this isn't fun. So I ironed out the game rules with a friend on a checkers board.
Wish we could have had more narrative. That was a run-out-of-time issue. I don't think we leaned into the ridiculousness enough.
Totally agree on the camera angle. We used Final Fantasy Tactics as a camera angle base, but I think it doesn't work super well in a game where it's totally flat. Makes you realize how much those games used terrain verticality. Early on I was cursing that isometric decision, but we already had so many sprites. We tried things like making the tiles larger, but nothing really alleviated the issue. If I had a magic wand I would probably do a top-down view. Make it more tactical, or whatever.
I would have totally added a cursor "jump across holes" feature, but we added that stage literally on the last day, and I was scared to, ha..
The AI I think might be too cruel on newcomers. I thought about making it a little stupider on offense turn 1 level 1 because, as is, they will go absolutely ham and you basically have to make 0 mistakes on defense. The AI isn't quite as good when holes or lava are involved, though. I may have coded around the level 1 too much.