Glad it has released. Gave it a shot and realized why I put it down in the first place. It's a slog to play. 90% of the time I am just waiting around for research to complete.
Yeah your "nuggets" do research which is how you progress basically. Research though is just straight up time gated with no way to increase the rate. Most research items take 5-13 minutes. At most you can cut that down by half by increasing game speed by 2x. I have played the whole game up until this point on this speed and it still feels like I need a 3x or even a 4x.
I mean I get it - research takes time, but at least dress up a little with like "science points" or something rather than just a straight up time limit.