Thank you very much for playing and the feedback . You're absolutely right about the softlock issue and we did run into real limitations with the current physics system :D Part of our challenge is that we're intentionally letting the otters behave in slightly unpredictable, playful ways to keep them feeling alive & funny. Must pay attention to the cost of physics next time hehe.
About the gameplay depth, we're initially exploring more reaction-based mechanics on the top of the current pairing rules. For example, players might temporarily lose some companions by hitting the boundary if u r too fast as a troop, or even have their otters stolen by unconnected ones if some of them are pairing perfectly. These ideas are to rebalance the loop and recover from mistakes (or bugs haha), so you don't always stay in a certain puzzle state or have to reset the entire game if get stuck. We were also considering the infinite mode with score system we have now, which might push the replayability side of the game a little further.
Thanks again for the constructive feedback. Really appreciate it :)