I will start with the negative and move over to the positive:
I think instead of attack on the mouse, it would have been better to have it on a key and let the character Attack in the direction he is looking currently. The controls feel a bit sluggish, but thats okay because the platforming doesnt has to be that precise. The Game also has a lot of bugs sadly, which is normal for a GameJam Game, but in this case some stopped me from reaching the end (If you have more than 8 shells, you cant trade them in anymore and you have to talk with him before as well. I sadly needed to finish the game 3 times because of this). I also think the special item was not used that well. You are required to collect gears, but there is no reason for it to be gears, it could have been any other item as well.
Its very cool that you integrated actual characters to talk with. This game has a lot of charm, more than you would expect from a Game Jam. Sadly the timer forces you to rush and makes it hard to take time for the texts, maybe pausing the timer while talking would have helped a bit. The small sidequests and rooms add on to the charm of the game as well. Combining the time with your health was a really cool idea as well. Some other games in the jam (mine included) lean too much into other features to kill you, causing the time to feel unimportant. This however solves the problem and integrates the theme time into the game sucessfully.