Issues and Questions

[d-albrecht]

Hey, awesome game! Out of curiosity I installed it and within days finished all the levels. I would like to see more levels now, but I get it if that wasn't the highest priority ;)

A few things that came up when playing:

• I think I found a small bug in the ball "shop" section. If you buy a ball that you haven't unlocked yet, you will return to the main menu immediately (which isn't ideal if I want to unlock several balls at the same time, but that only btw). If you then return to the ball shop again, then the just unlocked ball will still show the cost (in stars) instead of the "Select" text on the button. Going back and forth between the balls refreshes the text to correctly show "Select" and not the cost anymore.
• I small thing that I think could be improved: If moving blocks "swallow" the playing ball, I guess the game should just reset to the start of the current level instead of showing a level without a ball. Assuming that this can even occur, because ideally this "walk-through-walls"-like glitch shouldn't be present at all.
• When I checked this repo, I saw you giving hints to how to solve level 97 (which I was able to do on my own, probably/partially because I immediately saw the ball shop with the new design and tried other balls relatively early; and also because you slightly redesigned the level at the bottom). Part of this hint was mentioning balls that represent country flags. I don't see them in my game. Were they removed? If so, why? I would like more balls. Or were they just "rebranded" to the ones that are present right now? If so, what was the motivation?
• Adding on to the point "I would like more balls": I would really enjoy if choosing a ball would actually change the game more than it currently does. Perhaps spoiler-warning for everyone not that far into the game, but most of the time you want a ball with a high bounciness. Which means, max out the bounce-factor first and then select a ball as light-weighted as possible. Sure, there a specific levels that require/favor small balls (aka the orange ball, ball no.2), but these are the main two requirements/strategies for at least 100 of the currently 120 levels. So, having more options wouldn't really benefit the players significantly if the new balls can't bring something to the table that isn't possible already.
• Speaking of ball diversity, there are two balls in the cheaper half, that almost look the same. I would even go as far that they might be the same sprite. One of them is the starter ball, the other could be ball no. 4 or so. Perhaps change one of them to look somewhat different.
• Having mentioned the (previously) seemingly unbeatable level 97, I was able to finish all levels with 3 stars pretty easily, but I reached a dead end on levels 113 and 118. The former almost was a complete roadblock and I nearly wasn't able to even play the later levels at all. So, first of all, is there any strategy to these two? I already concluded for me that there are levels that just require the player to try dozens of times until one lucky shot is able to do the trick without any real strategy involved. But these two seem pretty much impossible to complete perfectly. As I hinted at before, I tried my two default strategies (bouncy and small), but both approaches don't help for either level. The other thing being, perhaps you want to include some way in the game, to skip levels that the player just isn't able to master at all. For example, you don't unlock a level by finishing the previous one, but if you are able to collect say 5 stars from the previous 3 levels or so. Or give the player both ways to unlock any level. Having a player stuck in a game where you can't pay whatever (in-game) currency (or watch an ad) for skipping a level can be problematic/frustrating.

Keep up the good work!

[dulvui]

Hey, thank you very much for finding the bugs and this impressive feedback!
Since this game is getting a lot of positive feedback, I'll prioritize my time on creating new levels and add more balls.

1. I will fix the bug with the shop with the next update.
2. You are right, the walls should actually not swallow the balls and it is an issue of how I designed some levels, where the moving blocks get too close together. I increased the physics calculations per second in some previous update, that solved the issue for many levels, but not all.
   So I'll need either to implement the solution you mentioned to reset the ball as soon it gets into an object, or rethink some levels.
3. You are right, I removed the balls with country flags, with ones that are available now. The motivation for this is that country flags can be political and offend people or start discussions I want to avoid. So I preferred more neutral balls with simple colors and patterns, since the countries are not mandatory for the game. I will add more balls as soon I will add new levels, because currently you can unlock all balls by completing 3 stars on all levels. So new levels are needed to have the stars to unlock the new levels.
4. You are right, I didn't invest much time in the design and logic of the balls. I will review all balls again and diversify them more.
5. Well, the best strategy for many levels is really only pure luck and a lot of patience :-) I just tried now and for level 113 if you hit the correct spot on the wall, the ball bounces upwards the right angle and hits both stars. For level 118 it is pure luck and the strategy is that the ball hits the first star and for the second one, the ball needs to land exactly on top of the second resizing box before it opens completely. So the ball reaches the second star and then falls into the box.
   I will surely not include ads or in game purchases in my game, because my goal is to create games free of ads, tracking and in game purchases. The point you mentioned with the 5 stars in the 3 previous levels sounds great, but would be difficult to communicate to the player in an easy and understandable way. I'm also afraid that being able to skip levels, would remove the thrill and fun of the game of finally being able to conclude a difficult levels after so many tries.

I will soon create separate issues for the points 1. 2. and 3. so you can track the progress.

Thank you very much again! Seeing people enjoying my games make me really happy :-)

[d-albrecht]

2. Resetting won't actually solve the core problem here but at least serve as an indication that the level failed to complete. Though, I'm not sure that this would be perfectly clear to each player (similarly to what you said to my idea with the 5 stars from 3 levels that this isn't the most obvious effect)
3. I mean it isn't really easy to come up with fundamentally different ideas here for the balls, so I get it. The only thing that came to my mind right now was, that one ball might get some more inertia after collecting a star (like some sort of energy boost) or if bouncing on a specific surface (if bouncing of a triangle for example). Other than that you are limited. For example having a ball with active booster rockets that would require additional user input while the ball is already moving would defeat the purpose of the game that you launch the ball and let it do its thing.
4. Thanks for encouraging me to continue trying! In the meantime I finished level 113 with a perfect score. No special strategy necessary. Just a bunch more repetitions until one lucky shot made it. Still for level 118 I wasn't able to touch the lower-right star even once so far. So I'm one star short of buying all the balls, so I would have to choose which one not to buy. ;( But as I said, you only need a few to play all levels, most of the balls don't really help you, if you already own the small and the bouncy ones. But that could be an idea for future levels, construct some that make use of / require a heavier ball with less bounce. For example while using moving elements that have a fix-point but otherwise can rotate freely that the ball might have to roll over or roll "through" (imagine a barrier that the ball is pushing upwards while rolling sideways). Then a heavier ball would have more energy to keep up its pace rolling up/through these elements. Just a quick idea.

Regarding the 5 stars in 3 levels idea: Does it have to be obvious in the end? I mean sure, I like to figure out how game elements work if they aren't explained, others might not. But being stuck with no option to continue and therefore getting frustrated at some point is way worse that out of no-where seeing an option to just try the next level without knowing why. Ultimately, you could just add some tutorial / explanatory texts in the game at some point. But I guess that is a time-consuming thing and won't help more experienced players anymore. So, is it worth your time? I can't answer that. I can just tell you that if I get stuck in some game and can't continue, I often decide to completely uninstall it and never try again. Which for you as the creator isn't desirable as well.

[dulvui]

Issue 1 is fixed in current update.
I will work on other issues for the next update

[dulvui]

Migrating now to Godot 4.1.2 that might solve issues with swallowed balls