Oh wow this is an amazing review! Thank you so much!!
The monster does despawn after like 15 seconds btw, not sure how you didn't get o that point, maybe the game build has a glitch, but whenever I playtested it, the monster would despawn.
The thing here you have to sort the numbers by pitch is only hinted really crypticially in the note you get at the beggining of the game, I really like the idea of the machine having a sticky note, so far one of the best reccomendations I got and I completely agree, I will deffinetly do a little bit of work on it post jam.
The boat is the only outside asset that I used, and yes it looks out of place :/ and the animation jitters a little I think, I had post jam time to fix thease things but I was a lil lazy honestly :P
I never tought about why the machine would give you the handle... kind of nonsensical yeah, maybe should have made it so that the generator is visibly connected to the storage room door and it opens it upon completion, the door handle bit was very unecessary...
Thank you so much for this detailed and insightful review, and thank you for going thrugh so much trouble just to beat this tedious game, I will deffinetly tweak some things after the jam and take your advice into consideration.
Edit: I just playtested it and yes, the monster does dissapeer after a short duration of time, one player actually tought the game was impossible cause they forgot to use shift to run, maybe you did the same thing?