Yes you are right. I have a design error in the game. I put a note on the game page to tell how to pass the first 60s.
Sorry for that. If you are willing to try again after reading it, I will be glad to have your feedback again. Thank you.
Viewing post in The Last Hour jam comments
I see you didn't collect enough time energy from diamonds to unlock the way.
In the game, when the player kills diamonds, they drop some time energy. This time energy is what reload the bars. Once the bars are reloaded, they retract and free the way. To reload the bars, you must be in their yellow circle and have enough time energy (bottom center of the screen).
The farer the bars are from 0 minute, the more energy they consume. And that is the problem of the first bar. It is too close from the 59minute's and the bar of 59 consume too more.
The safe area won't make you survive to the laser. It show where you should be to avoid wasting you energy on the 59minute bar.