Thank you so much! I'm glad that you think the challenge is good design. Something that I learned throughout making this game was that I should have considered how demoralizing it might be to have to go back to a point that you've already figured out. This game is in a weird spot where it's a precision platformer, but it's also a puzzle game. So if you are taken way past a point you have "already solved", I could understand the discouragement. There's definitely a balance to it, and for your game To Nirvana, I think you found it with your generous checkpoints! In the post-patch update I have, I have placed some checkpoints that make the experience a lot more accessible, but still tough. Thank you for taking the time to play my entry! :)
I went through the same experience! In my first game, there were a few areas where, if you failed, you would be sent all the way back to the beginning. It was pretty rare, but when it happened, it was really frustrating. However, because of the way the map was built and because I wanted to preserve the original idea, I didn’t remove those dangerous areas, but I did improve others.
So, in this second game, avoiding excessive frustration was one of my main goals, although I feel like I may have added too many checkpoints in some places.
I’ll definitely check out that update to your game!