I think the fact that the point counter is at the top left corner, with a little guy right above, makes it feel like there could be a whole row of them, having to manager multiple counters at once or something like that. Making it more front and center would make it more obvious it is core to the gameplay loop.
Other than that, a 3 line tutorial, even just on the title screen, would help a lot confirming what we assume the game works like as a player.