Thanks for the indepth feedback Jabberwockist. All spot on - as our first game, we def suffered from overscoping and getting overwhelmed with other commitments, and did not leave ourselves enough time to get the game where we had wanted it at all. We learned a lot from this experience, very much on those three points you highlighted.
In our subsequent jam game, we left a whole day for polishing, adding instructions to play, and thinking about where a user's attention is. And probably more importantly spending the time to develop our game fully on paper before touching the code!
I really appreciate your time to provide this indepth feedback, it's very helpful.
If you're interested in seeing the lessons in action - we made this one off the back of the lessons here for Ludem Dare 47:
https://letterafterz.itch.io/merry-go-madness
Would love your take on that one, if you're happy to take a look.
Thanks again