That was super cool! I love exploration games, and this was a good one! I think I found the things to the east, north, and south, but couldn't find what was to the west. Lord knows I left enough corpses out in the desert trying. Just super impressive for a jam game! It was really cool leaving messages and seeing other players' messages. I appreciated that time stopped while you were writing as well, but I wish there had been a way to click out of or go backwards once you started writing.
I also wish there was a map that was revealed as you play. I know that conflicts with the death marker thing, but I often had no recollection of what led to some of my deaths, or they happened before I found various items, so they ended up confusing me and/or getting ignored. Other players' deaths were doubly confusing without context. Maybe if they had symbols on them to indicate what items/upgrades that player had before death?
Anyway, I had a lot of fun playing this. Really great work!