Thanks so much for playing and for the feedback! Its super valuable for me especially since this is my first game.
I absolutely wanted to have a Hud based tutorial, I just honestly didn't know how to make one and I was afraid of running out of time lol. Next time.
I felt like with an arcade game style like this, where there really only is 1 "level" there needed to be ways to make it challenging enough that it felt amazing when you got that "perfect" run. That was my thought process when I made some of those decisions. But I also totally see your point with it being a bit too punishing. Maybe just a time penalty could be better, or to your point, losing that piece of bread might be punishment enough.