TVS Sample Box

Steam Players:
It's a neat little package that shows you what this dev is all about. And I mean that in every sense of that expression. For me personally I didn't really click with this collection of prototypes. But given this is free and still made with heart, a unique atmosphere, and charm, if you're intrigued about any of the games or the dev's output this is a no brainer to try. Just be prepared for some jank. The game features some great extras as well including the developer sharing their timeline of work, some concept art, maps, and lore.
Dev:
It's very clear you have a really set idea and vision for things in terms of aesthetics, lore, atmosphere, design intent and philosophy, but the execution controls-wise does not match the intent. The timeline reads to me that you are an artist with a genuine interest to improve and deliver on your vision, so I offer this as a friendly critique.
It would be one thing if you were stating in your notes that the intention was for the games to feel unconventional to play as part of the experience or whatever messaging you mean, but while its clear you value making things more cryptic so players don't feel talked down to and enjoy the thrill of discovering how mechanics work, that's actually not the issue with these - though i cant speak for your other games.
By that I mean, I figured out very quickly how The Hermit's Premonition worked, and what you needed to do. And that IS a testament to your guidance and signposting that doesn't hit me over the head, but creates a space through level design that shows me what I can do and then lets me use the tools to solve the puzzle. That's awesome!
The issue is that whacking things with the stick feels bad. The collision and movement is slippery and off, which could potentially lead to accidentally pushing blocks the wrong way undoing your progress. When you swing the stick while moving left or right you seem to slide forward - which is generally a death sentence since the enemies provide no hit stun. So you get hit, are immobilized, and since you are sliding forward you can't get away and just get hit sequentially until you're dead.
Enemies can push the blocks as well even when grazing it, undoing its positioning and potentially ruining your solution as well, and finally imho at least, having to start all over, and having to REDO puzzles you already solved is very tedious. this isn't an action game where progression is gated by significant or difficult combat (minus the game feel i brought up) - the puzzles ARE the core element of the game, and puzzles like this are not a challenge once they've figured out. there's no mechanical complexity or way to "get better" at it, do it faster, or do it a different way. why make the player repeat that? it ends up feeling like you're wasting the player's time.
Anyways, all that to say is that, I think it's easy for some to look at your stuff and think its too cryptic or idiosyncratic, but at least in these cases that's not true, its more that frustration coming from a thousand tiny cuts. that's why i think it might be worth really doing a deep dive on how to make the 2d mechanics you're using feel better, so then the difficulty or puzzle solving can be balanced and set according to your intent and not because the player is wrestling with the controls. Conversely, because i know its not easy to figure this all out, maybe scale back on how difficult the games are in terms of enemy counts, placement, and scale up checkpoints, to account for the mechanics not being refined enough for the average player to pull off what the game asks.
There's also the option of scaling back on the more action and time based elements and make things more puzzle or turn based. That way your worldbuilding which is clearly a huge part of your art, can really shine and not get hung up on the physics feeling weird, etc. anyways I know this was long and nobody's reading this lol. but i think part of it was i really wanted to connect with at least one of your titles in this or among your demos currently - and then buy one of your games and really play it inside/out, but looks like it's not to be because i either die immediately not knowing what to do or i cant get the hang of the controls.
or it crashes... like this one did three times out of the four times i played it. (sorry)