Review time.
I think you had a good idea here for a game, but I think you made wrong design decision.
First of all, I think this would have worked as it is had it been part of something like Nintendo Labo 04 which is about Virtual Reality.
But as this one is on computer, I dont think the speed version was a very working choice. I think better had been to have this as some sort of relaxed slow paced game where you keep cracking things just to relax. I think this concept would work on something like that very well.
Anyway, I did enjoy playing it for that short while, but if this game had had 100 levels, Boy had this been boring repeating game, unless, once again, made into a relaxing game instead.
For the four levels it had, this was workable enough this speed version.
One thing that was problem with this game was the confusion. You can see from my video (which I will upload when it gets ready) how it took me somewhat long to figure out that that I can use left mouse to "move". I kep clicking on different places trying to get balls to do different things, also kept left mouse down and moved some direction etc.
It also didnt help that you had some sort of random factor there making balls bounce differently when they were thrown from same place, since for that reason it took me a while to realise that clicking when arrow is different place actually makes no difference.
Then I finally figure out I can use right mouse to move, but it still takes me quite long before I figure out I can actually keep right mouse button down at same time as repeatedly clicking left mouse. After that the game finally flows.
Second problem I encounter is with the upgrades, I didnt realise level 2 had already opened, until I had bought the second upgrade, and same thing with third upgrade, hence I thought upgrades was progress to next levels. It was only on level 3 that I noticed that level 4 opened before the upgrade.
This also made me miss the difference between those upgrades, I basically noticed only the difference between bombs and the rest, where the bombs were actually strange as being last upgrade, since they seemed to me as being worse of them all. Balls bounce giving chance for mutiple damage and reaching places it originally wasnt meant to, while Bombs, they just hit and explode having no chance of making any extra damage.
I missed what was difference between the middle ones compared to rest.
But it was good idea getting to choose your ammunition and level, I just unfortunately didnt realise it until bit too late to experiment with them more.
I also liked the levels. There was some variety, and especially the last one, the chest, while it was actually annoyingly hard to hit some of the pieces, I however saw the potential there, that it could be possible to make some interesting levels to this game format although you didnt really explore those possibilities much.
For example to use minigolf as an example, there is toften a track where you shoot straight up and try to get the ball to hit the edge in such way it makes 90 degrree angle to get to the whole, basically L-shaped track. This same could have been used in this game making you need to use spedccifically a ball instead of a bomb to be able to hit a piece like that.
I also liked teh symbolism, especially the first level where you broke the vase and it was golden from inside.
All in all, very good entry for hardmode, although I feel it was a mistake making this a speed game instead of a relaxed game. As relaxation game this could have even commercial potential.
But indeed, I did feel bit excited trying to break those things in time when I finally got hang of it all, so you didnt actually fail there, I just think relax version had been better, and this exciting speed version couldnt handle much more levels than it already has, unless you are able to figure out interesting twists to the levels.Also I felt it bit difficult moving to different positions using right mouse down and repeatedly hiting left mouse in that it felt like mouse was about to move out of mouse mat when moving, so it didnt feel good.
All in all, A very good entry for a hardmode. You got something very worthy in such a short time, and although I am complainning about the speed mode versus relaxed mode, even as a speed mode entry, this is still a great entry for a hardmode. Excellent result. Only slightly bigger complaint is confusion, but even that was only a matter of time to overcome, so not that big a deal, especially when it is hardmode on which you cant expect everything to get polished to the max.
