"I thought the goal was to make a longest, but finishable level" - this is correct. Why do you believe the level you built is the longest or close to that? So much that you assume it is a bug that the game hasn't recognized it.
Viewing post in Veggie Quest: The Puzzle Game (early demo) jam comments
Ok, thanks! This is not a bug. In order to earn each carrot, you have to finish a level with more than X steps, where X is different for each level and each carrot. So no carrots means that the dungeon is too far from optimal even for the first carrot to be earned. I just need to come up with a way to make players realize this.
THIS CHANGED EVERYTHING. I thought "how can you do 22 on 25 tile map?" and then realized that the movement algorithm for the onion guy must be different than I thought! It was, and I managed to finish the level instantly after that. I think it would be cool (and would push me in the right direction) if next to the points I got was a points needed for another carrot.
Ok, but you still need to point to player that branches in the road in this puzzle are ok, and in fact encouraged. After first two levels I thought this game is gonna be a bit like 'cosmic express', where the objective is to make the road pass through all the points (with bonus points for making it longer in your case). For me, the "minimum points is 22" was enough to realize that I have totally change my way of thinking. That was cool, because this wasn't straightforward hint, but led me in the right direction.