I played this maybe 15 years ago when it came on the free disk with PCgamer magazine and since them I have been looking for it. I could never remember the name until recently I found a screenshot of the game in a old back up drive labeled "The vacuum". I am glad I found the game again, because I remember enjoying replaying it to try and see everything.
it was the UK magazine, but aside from that I can't help you. I gave my disks away and I have looked through my mag collection trying to find the game in the past, there was no mention of your game. it was probably bunded in with a dozen other games and demos, so it was not written in the mag. It would have saved me 15 years of looking if they just put down the games on the disk, but unfortunately not.
While it never helped me, I do have a folder with games I never uninstalled from the free CDs, so maybe you can use them to find the issue your's was in. A demo for "armadillo run", a game called "Choke on my Groundhog, YOU BASTARD ROBOTS", "big building boom blues", "jelly car" (the first one, not "worlds"), "7 colors" and I am like 99% sure my copy of "progress quest" came from the time I was collecting PCgamer. They didn't help me, since I didn't remember the name of your game, but they might be more useful for you. Good luck!