The escape button was a mistake. I actually thought I had found some fatal bug after the submission period had ended when I pressed escape to close the crafting menu.
I felt very uninspired by the game. Frankly "portals" where enemies spawn were my cop-out. I think it fits the theme decently, but it's not very creative as its the kind of thing you'd see in many other, unrelated, games as well.
Thanks for playing, and for the review.