One more thought: Maybe there’s more subtlety to successful play than I’ve gleaned so far, but at the moment my series of score have been pretty erratic, my 2nd run being my best up until around my 10th. Playing a couple more times I’ve not come close to that 10th run — or even that 2nd — and that leaves me feeling like I’m not actually improving with further play, and that random elements might be a stronger determination of success, at least at this plateau, than any sense of skill. Chances are that just means I’m not skilled yet, but those erratically higher scores — especially coming so early on — make it hard to judge (and make me less likely to keep playing until I get more skilled).

I wonder what it might take to specifically design for that sense of early progression, for the satisfying feeling that you’re improving as you get a handle on things. One option, counter-intuitively enough, would be to make it significantly harder, to make early, lucky longer runs significantly less likely.