Thanks so much for playing and for such specific notes! Glad the shrug landed; he’s become my favourite little guy to animate.
All three ideas are going in right now: seals get a slow pulse plus an outline in the layer’s colour that drops once broken, the XP counter becomes a bar with the number inside and a flash when it fills, and a blast hit gets a couple of frames of hit-stop and a camera kick. You’re right that “OUCHIE!” alone undersells it.
No need to write the shader, I’ve got the pulse covered, but if you feel like sketching it anyway I’d love to compare approaches. I’ll post a before/after once the new build is up