Thanks for giving it a shot. And also special thanks for the detailed comments.
I always thought the heavy-parts are the actual game play itself, not the other fancier animation parts. If possible can you specify your CPU, memory and graphics card ? Also the game runs fastest in Chrome, have you tried ? I can put some more options to disable that animations, I'll put that on my list. It seems like an alpha-blending issue since all of those effects you mentioned uses lots of particles with alpha-blending. Most probably something to do with the graphics card.
When selecting the mage/faerie I first clicked on the image, then on the description next to it and only then on the name. Please make the clickable areas larger
=> Will do
The hints the mage/faerie gives interrupt the gameplay and don't take into account...
=> To be honest, I absolutely hate doing that tutorial system and it shows all over the place. You are right and also not the first one that's frustrated. I'll fix that somehow.
After solving a level, I can click on the gnomes to get their names, which is kind of cute, but ultimately useless
=> Original plan was to make the game more RPG-ish, to have stats and equipment and so on. Later I saw that it means another year of development so I cancelled. Names are still there though, just as something interesting and useless
I'm thinking to pop-up the names as a toolbar
So please add the progress buttons from the beginning on.
=> Yep. Either this, or I'll make the boxes open on their own after a short time delay.
If you click "Accept and Quit" the progress it not saved and you have to play again the level you just solved.
=> Oh, that's a bug. I'll fix. Thanks.
How do I quit a level, except closing the browser window?
=> If you hit the pause button on the upper-right, you'll see more buttons pop-up. There is a home button which takes you to the title screen and also a retry button that restarts the level.
If one lets grains fall down from far above, they form a small hill. Problem: The slope of this hill is too steep for the gnomes to walk up. This makes it very difficult to create a slope where the gnomes can walk up.
=> Uh, I didn't understand that one. The dropped grains (solid ones like sand, dirt), regardless of the height, always pile-up in a 45° angle and Gnomes can always walk on.
And finally, the first 5-6 levels are the straightforward tutorial levels. There are some really interesting puzzles ahead. If you like to play again, and can play, I'd really would like to have more comments from you