As Tarkovsky said in response to criticism his opening was too slow:
“The film [Stalker] needs to be slower and duller at the start so that the viewers who walked into the wrong theatre have time to leave before the main action starts.”
That said, we aren't Tarkovsky... so the team is implementing a skip button for a future update, among other fixes and tweaks.
Thanks very much for your kind feedback, we hope you play the post-jam version too!