This wasn’t true in the past and we might simply be experiencing a historical anomaly right now

While our exact pacing might be slightly different from the pure extrapolation, human history has been a long, steady increase in the rate of invention. Access to education has meant that more people are making things, and then the next generations build on top of their work to make even bigger things.

She has a "version 2" as well! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLFbZlYWaKc

Yeah, I've tried those out before. It tends to make the game feel weird, if that makes sense? Like, everything is still expecting time to progress.

Really, I want a game like Stardew, but without the hard timeline baked in from the start.

Yep. I love planting things, harvesting them... I want Stardew Valley without the time management stuff.