Thanks for the feedback! Rebalancing is definitely high on my list for a post-jam update.
As for enemy scaling, that’s actually in the game! There’s a wave multiplier that ramps up with each wave, increasing health and damage of animals, which also gets tweaked during candle events.
Regarding menu pausing: my original thought was that the break between waves would give players enough breathing room, but if it feels frustrating during active gameplay, I'm more than happy to look into adding proper menu pausing in a future patch!