Thanks so much for playing and reviewing! Even though it makes sense, I‘m kinda surprised that players are invested enough in the ‚gameplay‘ that the dialogue seems distracting. The idle game was a last-ditch attempt because I thought it was the lowest-effort minigame I could make (to no one‘s surprise it still took a lot of time) and feared that players wouldn‘t play it and be bored by the dialogue pauses. Ideally, the screen game would‘ve been more adventure-like similar to Hacknet or Stories Untold so I could have synced the story beats so you don’t feel like being pulled from the gameplay when looking away. Maybe even just pausing/slowing the idle game during the dialogue would‘ve been enough but doesn‘t feel right.
I actually find the idea of not letting the player play the ‚main‘ game interesting but it would‘ve needed a better integration and narrative to work. Gameplay is my biggest enemy still… I might need longer jams to participate in so I‘m not running around like a headless chicken