I'm very glad you seemed to enjoy it, even if it wasn't clear. I did not have time for tutorials or in game text, and I apologise for that. The bars on the top left were the ball's "emotions". The domination of one "emotion" over others would dictate responsiveness. If you dunked the ball in colored water (changing the color of the ball sparkles) would actually allow the arrows of the same basic color to push the ball in the of the arrows.
Thank you very much for playing!