I'm glad you enjoyed it, thanks for playing!
There's a bunch of stuff I eyeballed for the word detection (like distance between tiles) which def causes some weird behaviour but I'm happy you still managed to spell some words out :)
Thanks for playing! Going in solo always makes it a challenge to pick what to focus on, I heavily relied on asset packs so I'd have more time to spend on the technical parts (the tile matching was surprisingly tricky). But I agree that once it was done, it comes across as a bit "asset-flippy". Lessons were learned :)
Don't be too hard on yourself! 72 hours is a very short window to create and release a game, but you had a vision and worked towards making the best thing you could. It seems you already took time to reflect and learn (the most important quality for anyone doing anything), so you'll grow and become better for it. Let this be a stepping stone toward greater things :)
Too ambitious and too little time? Nonsense! Scope creep gets to the best of us but entries like these give life to game jams! I loved it, there's a great deadpan humor to the whole game, from the dollar store peter griffin model to the low-but-playable framerate. I need this to be an honorable mention on stream because it would be hilarious to have Connor play it!!
Many fun little details and a real commitment to making this a full game with menu's, upgrades and achievements!
My one advice would be, with a game jam this short, is to cut a few of those extra's and put that time and energy in the gameplay loop. I think you had a good gameplay idea, but it could have used some of the polish you put in other parts of the game. But it's clear you put a lot of love in this project!