Funnily enough, the idea first manifested in my brain as a puzzle platformer. It is very easy to show off mechanics in a platformer, and I've made a few in my time that did well, so that's where my head went. I thought the mechanics would be too tedious in a platformer, though, so I changed it to be more of a straight puzzle game. I was nervous about that because I had never done one before, but fortunately, it seems to have turned out okay.
Thank you for the kind words!