Yeah the scoring is definitly inspired by Balatro, we thought it was an interesting idea to combine balatro-esque point system with something like an action game. I totally agree on the pacing its definitly the biggest problem we noticed during playtesting, if we update the game, finding a way to make early game more interesting is definitly one of the most important things.
Also the game is made in Gamemaker, making a full game in 4 days in c++ is way beyond my programming skills ( :