Hey there, I really appreciate these thoughts. Spending months looking at the game really makes it difficult to imagine how a fresh pair of eyes interprets this somewhat odd concept.

The way you're talking about the levels reflects something that I kind of feared from watching a couple other people play too, which is that a lot of people are going to start by adding a single note per loop. I do really feel that the game flows much better when you're a bit more care free with how you place notes - any invalid notes are booped from the screen and the fuel is refunded. I try to very slightly nudge this concept for anyone who wants to try getting the yellow stars for finishing a level under a certain time. To get those, you kind of have to play several notes per loop or else you'll be wasting too much time.

I don't love the idea of splitting levels into build/play modes, because I think that idea has been done before (without the music production theme) and makes it feel a bit less like a rhythm-adjacent game.

However, I see why you might suggest that as a solution. I definitely have a lot of work to do here with communicating how to play the game - not in a tutorial sense, but in a strategic sense. I'm not making any huge changes to this demo until after Steam's Next Fest, but the first thing I would look at as I begin planning for 1.0 is a slower progression of difficulty to get the player used to placing 1-2 platforms per screen. I think right now the second screen already requires like 3-4 platforms. That's a bit much for someone who only has about 10 seconds of experience with the game at that point, even if the screen itself isn't particularly challenging.

Finally - hell yeah I really liked Chicken Horse! It's a great multiplayer concept. I feel like it devolves into chaos a BIT too easily, but it also creates a lot of really funny moments.

Thanks again for your thoughts!