Hello! This update brings several quality of life improvements, important fixes, and gameplay adjustments designed to make the game more comfortable, fair, and accessible, especially for players who get stuck on harder stages or play with a controller.

New Features

• Added Reflex Mode, a new mechanic that temporarily slows down gameplay to help with precision-based shots.

• Reflex Mode can be activated with the controller trigger and also with the right mouse button on PC.

• Reflex Mode now uses an energy bar: it drains while active and slowly recharges when not in use.

• As the player progresses through the game, the maximum capacity of the Reflex Mode bar increases.

• Added a visual Reflex Mode bar so players can clearly see it filling and draining.

• The Reflex Mode bar now has subtle animations and a small glow effect while recharging.

• Added different visual prompts for PC/mouse, Xbox/generic controllers, and PlayStation controllers.

Control Improvements

• Improved controller support on PC.

• PlayStation, Xbox, and generic controllers are now handled more consistently.

• Added direct fallback reading for gamepads and generic joysticks, reducing cases where a controller was connected but not properly detected.

• Improved automatic switching between mouse/keyboard and controller.

• Adjusted input behavior to reduce unwanted shots while navigating menus or returning to the main menu.

• Improved controller aiming comfort, especially in stages that require precise diagonal movement.

Ball Improvements

• The ball now keeps a more consistent and predictable speed.

• Removed the system that reduced ball speed after repeated failures or stage retries.

• Ball speed no longer changes in a hidden way, making gameplay behavior clearer.

• The selected ball skin is now applied more reliably in gameplay and HUD/UI elements.

• Improved skin support for both SpriteRenderer and UI images.

Stage Start And Retry Improvements

• The first time a player enters a stage, the visual stage-building sequence is still preserved.

• When restarting or replaying the same stage, the stage-building sequence is now faster.

• Players no longer have to wait as long before retrying a stage they have already seen.

• Reduced extra input lock time after stage resets.

• The game now better distinguishes between entering a stage for the first time and replaying the same stage.

Gameplay Fixes

• Fixed cases where hitting the pipe could count as both a success and a failure at the same time.

• Improved ball collision logic to prevent multiple colliders from processing results during the same shot.

• Adjusted internal and external pipe collider behavior.

• Fixed cases where the ball could trigger more than one result in a single attempt.

• Temporary objects now work correctly with Reflex Mode.

• Timed destruction now respects pause and gameplay slow motion.

Stage And Object Fixes

• Fixed issues related to ladybug behavior in specific stages.

• Adjusted cases where ladybugs could have missing or invalid movement positions.

• Improved moving objects and scenery objects during stage construction.

• Reviewed stages where some objects could start in unexpected positions.

• Adjusted collisions and resets to avoid inconsistent states after failure, success, or stage restart.

Interface Improvements

• Added a playtime counter to the pause menu.

• The counter now pauses correctly while the game is paused and resumes when gameplay continues.

• The pause timer text now blinks to visually indicate that time is stopped.

• Music volume is reduced while the game is paused.

• Improved visual elements related to the selected ball skin in the HUD.

• Added visual support for showing the correct prompts depending on the current input device.

Summary
This update focuses on making the game fairer, more comfortable, and more predictable without removing the challenge. The goal is to help players better understand what is happening, reduce unnecessary waiting during retries, and greatly improve the controller experience.

Thank you for playing and following the development!