Laballatory

Completely ignore the one guys negative review. I imagine that he works for IGN. To put it bluntly, I don't think this guy has an average IQ, and nothing he said is even remotely true. The "runs" are short, usually 5-10 seconds. There is RNG and the cost of the balls do increase, however, you unlock machines that remove the RNG issue and you should almost never have an issue being able to buy a surplus of 100 balls with a single run. I imagine most people playing this have a functioning frontal lobe, and can figure out which combinations work and which don't as you can see the numbers for each individual ball on how much you are earning from it in each direction. There is no outright winning formula, and you can win in a multitude of different ways. If the guy could critically think, I'd expect him to test which effects work best by swapping it out and checking earnings. I digress, do not get the wrong idea from the singular negative review on this game. It's obviously a great, short, indie game made from love and isn't supposed to be taken too seriously. If the devs end up reading this - I just wish the game was longer, and had different areas with different kinds of machines, etc. etc. because fundamentally I love the mashup of games and the incremental aspect. I think the creativity behind working builds is great, and the narrator chiming in is a great addition. I would like to see 5 separate rooms that were more puzzle themed relating to the balls and machines rather than just 5 doors that you have to pay to unlock. Maybe something like in the first room you only have the ability to get the balls, and you have a maximum of 10 slots and need to reach a certain earnings per run that open the next area that only has 5 slots but you have the upgrader for the balls to reach higher rarities. Except that since you only have 5 slots, you'll have to rely on making cohesive combinations that allow you to reach the new milestone. I also think that for the leaderboard it should have 3 sections: one for speedrunning completion, one for fewest balls used, one for most amount of money acquired from a single run.

[h1]META abuse[/h1] Game's main gimmick is rolling balls with various effects and manually synergizing them for bigger profits. The process is fun and evolving at first, but the buildings that were inaccessible in demo version were given too little time of my attention due to me dropping a few balls that gave me... basically end-game setup.[hr][/hr] Game can, and most likely [b]WILL[/b] end in less than/around 2 hours. Mostly depends on your early luck and how long it'll take to understand/adapt to the mechanics given (which it does clear, except "what [b]utility[/b] means" (its when [spoiler]ball's effect [b]copies/triggers[/b] next/previous/its other effect (blue/purple color effect)[/spoiler]). You're incentivized into buying more balls to [b]discover[/b] more effects: the further you progress - the better chances for rolling a higher [b]rarity[/b] ball [i](determines which[/i] [b][i]effects[/i][/b] [i]it can have/how[/i] [b][i]strong[/i][/b] [i]they are).[/i] Some machines allow you to fuse your ball's effects/rarities together [i](but you still have to roll a desired effect/rarity)[/i] and make your builds perform better and better without relying on constant ball RNG, [i]even though you'll sort of have to[/i], because there's only [b]2[/b] meta effects that will carry you to the end no matter what other balls will do: [spoiler]Add passes[/spoiler], [spoiler]add power per (full slots/each level X balls)[/spoiler] and to make them even stronger, [spoiler]copy next/previous effect[/spoiler]. If you get these and combine them properly, the game is essentially over and it can happen sooner than it would've been expected. [b]Progression, while good, ends too early in my opinion, hence probably the <2 hour finish time.[/b] From one side its probably good, so any bad build can still perform somewhat-on-par with progression, but on the other i still wanted more and thus im trying to get next number notation. I left some feedback on the demo so here's some for release: [list] [*]Leaderboards... [list] [*]I thought these are going to be "who pushed the money/cycle the furthest" category, not "least RNG used" (balls spawned) [*]Allowing players who grinded the demo for big cash to just buy last few doors, complete the game and get an "unbeatable" spot on the board is an interesting oversight xd [*]Dont really see a point of going for leaderboards in a game where your end-result is RNG based throughout [/list] [*]Mouse sensitivity slider starts at "maxed out" as default, i kinda expected it to be in the somewhat-middle, especially since "minimal" option disables it completely XD [*]Ballputer could use faster transitions [list] [*]On top, able to reset upgrades [b]at any time[/b] when at end-game. I know its meant to be randomized, effects are not that impactful/just QoL's, but only thing holding the player at the end is "pushing the limits", so give them a hand pls. [/list] [*]Utility description could use better explanation [*][spoiler]BallAMP PRO[/spoiler] still doesnt state that it only works with max lvl balls [*]Roomba still unrideable :( ⠀⠀(i wonder how many people it would annoy and how many happy if it WAS rideable xd) [/list] [hr][/hr]Despite its short timespan, the gameplay loop, """progression""" and the thrive to learn the balls to break the game with, was very satisfying. I'd [b]highly[/b] recommend it if you dont mind short but engaging games.

Love it! Easy to lose 1 or 2 hours. Would have loved to have seen more replay built into the game through a prestige system but still found myself having another go in my spare time trying to beat my best score.

Fun little mix of Balatro and Berry Bury Berry. Runtime is RNG-dependent, but with my playthrough I feel like it didn't overstay its welcome. Pretty good for a fiver!

If you like spreadsheets, you'll probably like this game. If you like watching paint dry, you'll probably like this game. The game needs better tooling. There is currently no means of determining how useful a ball is in the loop. Is this ball effective at its current position? Would it provide better value in a different spot? I hope you like spreadsheets. You need to track the data all on your own and do your own charting. The game offers a glimmer of strategy, but it's really just RNG. Did you get a good set of balls? Great, you can build a winning chain. Otherwise, you're spending more and more money hoping to get something better than what you've already got. It is entirely possible to end up in a no-win situation, where the cost of a ball is more than the money you get per run (because you only get 25% for selling a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ ball, but the price of new balls only ever goes up - a very questionable design choice, imo). I encountered a bug (several times!) where a ball would revert to its base values after being upgraded. So I had rare/epic balls at max level providing less value than uncommon balls of the same type. It's quite frustrating to spend time, money and balls to upgrade and have the balls become effectively useless. Finally, the game pauses if you alt-tab. So you can't start a run and then tab to chat with friends or do something more interesting. A run lasts about 30 seconds, so you can maybe look at your phone before needing to kick off another set. I guess the designer is expecting us to watch each ball as the triggers move from left to right and back again, rapidly noting down the values that each ball ticks. This is fun for about 20 minutes.

Its a pretty fun game. Personally I think the leader board should have a highest earnings section but i overall enjoyed the game.

Loved the new twist on "smol number bad, big number good" genre. Don't be a fool like me and spend the first hour of play time not using the clipboard lol. 10/10 game love the creativity.

Fun little game, worth full price at £4.59

Pretty solid. Worth the time it takes. The main incremental aspect is tricky and requires a bit of experimentation and thought to it. Short, but fun.

Sick game, lots of fun and definetly worth the price