I liked it! You wanted feedback: I was a math major and it still took me a while to pull out 3D. IMO, crossing it with two toughies (unfamiliar foreign word 1A and lesser known proper name 7A) got you your high difficulty rating. I don't know anything really, but I would guess that most people just go by the clueing as opposed to continuously reanalyzing the grid as it gets filled in. I would love to see real research on solving techniques. My point being that if you're a very proficient solver, and I think that you are, it is easy to underestimate the difficulty of your own puzzles. I'm really looking forward to more of your work!
Thanks so much for the thoughtful feedback! Really helpful. (For my only completed full-size crossword I leaned heavily on test solver feedback to fix some serious grid problems, and never quite got to cleaning up cluing… definitely feeling the need for that on these too!)
I agree with Max... I usually underestimate the difficulty of my own puzzles because what you know may not be common knowledge to a general audience... the biggest advice is not to go too "name heavy"... if you use a tricky word in your grid, make sure the crossings are on the easier side... if you do use names, make sure they could be inferable... original cluing is more fun than standard clues but sometimes we do need the boring clues for solvers to get a foothold into the puzzle... congrats on your first mini - i had fun solving it :)
Thanks @oliogrids! My main inspiration was to publish something rather than staring so long at a blank 15 × 15 grid…
But the "seed" was 7A (which is also our daughter's name), with a bit of a yen for Spanglish. 1A was probably too out there, and the rest was overly obscure cluing.