This game definitely stood out the most for me in the bunch. I got nostalgic about my time doing a game design degree in uni and our lecturer took us to a small indie art museum where people were presenting really out-there stuff that challenged a lot of design norms and played with the idea of what is an experience and are games art.

This game has the most 'art' both literally and figuratively out of all of these, and I really loved experiencing this and I could tell that everyone's experience of it would be quite different.

I think you can lean even more into telling the player that this is not a typical game, and when things are confusing or don't make sense, what matters is that the player relaxes; there's no timers, no danger, nothing to oppose them except their own need for answers. But yeah maybe explain hope and inspiration a little more (i.e. hope can be thought of as 'money' to purchase creatures or 'upgrades', etc.)

I agree a little with the comment about art style not matching, but I personally think the textures are fine and it was just the colour that maybe needed to be aligned a little more so it didn't look like an alien island  ;) (unless that's what you were going for)

Ok, it is really hard for me to rate this game as it is like no other :D So first and foremost - congrats on completing this project! It's huge, especially if you take into account how much content you created! I ended my run with 12 trinkets collected :) Please find my 'review' below:

Music design

• Definitely the best executed part of the game. Creating music that does not bore the player during a long run is not an easy task and you made it work!
• Bonus points for making the music intensity reflect various events that happen during the playthrough. That was awesome experience :)
• SFX blips and pings are also pleasant.
  

Art

• Definitely unique, makes the game stand out. Art direction is a plus.
• I liked that textures scale with y-axis, creating this illusion of depth. Great idea, although the scale factor could be tuned as I felt the perspective is way too off.
• The biggest downside is that screen becomes cluttered. All elements lack clear distinction/separation and blend together too much. Screen becomes just a mix of similar colors 
• Also mixing a scale of textures is typically not a good idea (e.g.the 'grain' in the island's texture is much larger that the one of some plants. This makes it feel like these objects do not belong together). It's important to keep the art consistent style-wise (which you achieved) but also technical-wise (which I lacked here)

Narrative

• I definitely feel that there is a deep lore/story hidden in this island
• BUT I got lost in all the bits of information that were thrown at me. As a player I didn't feel like I was guided through the story well enough which made me not engaged in it as much I think I should be. 

Game design

• I liked all the popups that were guiding me to different parts of the UI. That's a good start.
• Introducing different upgrades one by one is also a good thing. I wasn't lost in options I had.
• But I was definitely lost in terms of 'what to do next'. 
• Things were 'just happening', I didn't feel like I was triggering certain events.
• Some 'barks' were like "try different options" while other "listen to the music". I don't know if these serve as a gameplay hint or just as something that highlights the mood.
• After I got 12 trinkets I had quite a long time where nothing was happening and I had no idea how I could improve my situation
• I think that what makes a game a game is that player action -> in-game consequence relation. I lacked that here. I could place more wanderers but they would still get trinkets at random. I used hope to create more things but I'm not sure if these serve a purpose other that decorative. I forgot what inspiration does at all.