I think this is trying to do interesting things with duration and the passage of time, but some of the mechanics are too tedious or cumbersome even for what they are trying to achieve. I appreciate the repetition and mundane, but at one point I nearly quit the demo because I had to whittle a piece of wood that was taking ages to complete. There was no specific correct pattern to follow or puzzle to solve, simply that I had to whittle enough from every side to pass a threshold for completion. But the UI for whittling made determining where I needed to whittle so cumbersome that it was pure trial and error in terms of carving every necessary section away to meet that threshold. I think if the game has any additional whittling sections, I'd probably give up then and there, no matter how compelling the story being told.