The item choice right at the start of the game, giving each player a very different experience (before they get their next item which is at least an hour away), is a very cool design that I haven't seen in any of these precision platformers before.
enjoyable mechanics; to answer your "Question of the day"
If you want to have "punishments"; I would try out a ranking system based on getting hit/keeping flower combo up (combo drops if you get hit or something, or if you take too long between picking the next flower).
Basically like in the game "Dustforce", no punishment for doing bad, but rewarded for being perfect.
Maybe getting S rank can unlock levels that you otherwise wouldn't have access to or something.
As someone who plays Zachtronics Solitaire almost every day, this game feels closer to Dicey Dungeons than a traditional solitaire game, and that's maybe for its own good.
One thing I have to say is that the shop feels very daunting for a new player, there's a lot to read and it's mostly numbers that you don't intuitively know the results of yet.
Finished most of the levels - the controls are a bit hard to use since most platformers of this type use a two-hand on keyboard format (arrow keys + z/x), maybe it was designed for controllers?
Either way, the double jump mechanic is slightly un-intuitive at the start but after getting used to it, the fast motion is satisfying and I can see potential when the art/juice is fleshed out more.
the double ball level seems almost impossible to me, not sure if it's meant to be beaten lol
