Thank you so much! I am glad that you enjoyed the game, and I really appreciate your detailed response to the work, it is wonderful to see the game evoke the kind of response that we were hoping it would.
And you are right - the obtuse puzzles are deliberate, and slowly untangling your path through them is the glimmer of hope that we were trying to articulate amidst the tedium and violence of detentions.
Also, I have been pondering how to make both sides of the labyrinth a bit more readable, the game in its original form was printed on paper with half the puzzle on the other side of the sheet, so that you would fold and unfold the maze as you solve it.
While this hasn't translated perfectly into videogame form, there is a small clue toggle-button in the menu that creates guide points, if one is completely stuck on a particular level.