You're very welcome, I'm glad you found my comment heartwarming!
Oh, yes, the atmosphere was incredible--it was a great reminder that you don't need a ton of polygons in order to be scary.
Ahh, so the flickering lights were just optimisation--that's great! It seemed like the lights were turning on just as I looked towards them (I only noticed it twice), almost as if the game was secretly coordinating activity in the town even when I wasn't looking, which made it feel more alive and inhabited--but it was also even more unnerving that the flickering would never happen when I went looking for it intentionally, which now makes sense since it was done for optimisation. So yeah, I definitely think it makes for a great unintended feature! :)
Yeah, your models being made and used effectively was great to see! I've honestly been avoiding 3D modelling for years since it was a bit daunting to me, and I always felt like it'd be hard to make something "good enough" for it to be worthwhile--but this was a good reminder that I shouldn't worry about that too much, because there are so many other factors that can determine a game's quality, no matter the polygon count. Maybe one of my future game jam games will finally have 3D models that I actually made myself!
I'm really happy your first game jam entry was one that you're proud of! :) Keep up the excellent work, and I hope to see more!