Thanks for the feedback, dkomnen! A "press to upgrade now" mechanic could be cool! The leveling being a debuff is sort of the premise of the game (i.e. the curse). I agree that the pacing of the game is very bad in the sense that speed-decrease is big and can grind you to a halt quickly if you are not careful. Totally agree that the core mechanics should have been finetuned more. It is the first game I have made and did not spend any time getting player feedback, so that is definitely something I will prioritize in the next game jam. Thanks so much for playing!