Appreciate the detailed writeup, I kind of slapped it together in around a day so I didn't have that much time to playtest the game very much. I tried to balance the game and kind of spread it out throughout more time so the actual game would have more gameplay. I can't update the game on the jam anymore but I will update the game to make the progression feel better. I think the point of my game was to maintain building until you can unlock a research lab and when you unlock a research lab you can get research for the Time Factory, but to get to this point of the game, you must either sacrifice more of your precious time to build more buildings so you can unlock/reach the research building faster or play it slower and risk the timer running out and you losing your run. I really appreciate the feedback and hopefully you had some fun playing this game!