Thanks for playing. I consider this demo a great success because its goal was to test what works and what doesn't. I think one big mistake I made is trying to combine trial-and-error type games with games with large branching levels without implementing any compatibility between the two making it mandatory to replay sections over and over. Good thing I had the idea to hit the players with all the extremes before I went ahead with building the rest of the levels.
The spikes only take one life because they are coded to throw you out if you just roll in from the side. They only kill you if you jump into them which is why that first "puzzle" was a big suck.
I guess I'll add more logical clarity because what I wanted was for players to only fuck themselves over if they aren't paying attention, not to reset their progress for every mistake