To even be compared to a great piece of speculatice fiction is a huge compliment,I appreciate it. I actually didn't have it in mind when conceptualizing this, but on a quick reread, there are glaring similarities.
Funny story about the music is that, it was totally composed on feel, I just sat in front of my keyboard, frantically found a VST and EQ that sounded like it should in my head and devised something in like 20 minutes. Also, it turns out its impossible to play quarter notes on beat when you are freaking out that your jam submission is due today and you have 0 sounds in the game yet.
Thanks for raising those gameplay issues, I probably intend to make some area movement more obvious in the post jam 1.1 and with a web release.
Thanks for playing, I'm glad you connected with it in some way.