This is a solid first entry! you should be very proud. I think my main advice would be to do a deep dive into game design and after the jam really analyze your game and ask yourself what the design encourages. Some questions I think would be helpful to ask yourself are these:
- Why is the player playing?
- what motive do they have to progress?
- what are the trying to achieve and why?
- How does engaging with my core mechanics further the player's goals?
- is there a clear link between the mechanics and progressing?
- is engaging with the mechanics the most efficient way to progress?
These core questions will help you solidify for yourself the core of your game. I bring up these questions because as a player I felt there was a bit of a disconnect between the mechanics and the goals of the game. At the start I wasn't sure what the goal of the game was (later I discovered the portals on accident). I think this goal of finding a portal and leaving is really my main issue with my experience.
Essentially what you've created here is a scenario with fun mechanics where you power up your character again and again all for the purpose of leaving the powerups and fun mechanics behind. If your game is fun, leaving the game is a punishment, not a reward! Additionally the portals discourage engaging with your fun mechanics because it encourages the player to spend more time walking around searching for portals and more money on the portal upgrade.
I hope this makes sense and doesn't sound too harsh or nitpicky, I'm saying all this because I see a lot of potential with your mechanics and I think you've done a great job! I genuinely had a great time when I started ignoring the portals and gave myself the goal of powering up as much as possible. I think a simple change of the goal to better tether the mechanics and the goal would take this game up a couple notches. This is a great entry! Thanks for making it and best of luck on your future jams and games!