Thank you for your kind words! Rats are hard to kill but we were all raised in a deeply anti-rat area of the world (if you know you know)
We're working on a comeback mechanic right now actually and it should be in tomorrows hotfix once the jam is over! It'll make the game a lot less punishing for when you're doing bad and should create a good way to bring you back into the game. As for rewarding you when you're doing well, the game does cap you at a minute on your max timer to prevent it from getting tooooo easy!