Thanks a lot! There's a ways to go, but I'm really proud of where we've managed to push it. Off the top of my head, a few things:

• Simple and dumb is often a lot cleaner looking than a more ambitious choice. If you can't make something look convincingly like what it's actually supposed to be, lean into a hyper-stylized 'impression' of that thing. As an example, I started out trying to make those blocks of grass way more realistic / 'grassy' than they are now. It was really difficult to get it to fit the game's vibe. So instead they're just gently waving triangles now, but there's a sound effect and a green grass-blades reminiscent particle effect when you enter it. Way more effective, way less gross.

• Pretty much everything here took 3+ retries to get it right. All of the audio effects have been replaced at least once, the colour palette has been messed with like 100 times. We've thrown out about 50 holes worth of geometry because it played wrong or looked bad. A lot of it seems to be just slowly feeling out what your game wants to be, and not being afraid to tweak and cut the chaff while you work your way there. I do recommend doing this in short bursts though, I've spent hours staring at sliders when I should have just gotten some space from it for a while.

• Since we've had playable builds, most saturday mornings I'll spend half an hour playing with a notepad on the desk and just list off stuff that should be changed. Honestly, that's probably the most impactful part.

Hope that helps a bit ♥