It's a quite simple game concept, but executed well. Fun for a while, but after a few minutes, you've seen all there is to this game, so all there is is beating your high score.
A couple of tips for improvements:
– Art consistency. The main gameplay area is a smooth circle, with a smooth yellow disc and a red bar. But, all text resembles a large digital clock or a billboard display, not smooth at all. Then, the hearts are pixel art, and the speedometer is “smaller” pixel art.
You should ideally pick a certain art style, and stick with it throughout.
– Gameplay-wise, I think there should be a way to gradually recover hearts if you play well. Or other bonus (score) or reward if you hit the bar first-try before passing through because I think you want to encourage fast-paced gameplay and should reward players who take risks instead of waiting several cycles before popping. You could also subtract a point for passing, but a bonus reward feels nicer.
– The speedometer seems unnecessary; I can see how fast it is going. The only useful information is that I “maxed out” the speed, but that's also something you can tell rather quickly.
– Hard mode will forcibly reset your current game without confirmation. I feel you should only allow switching whilst your score is zero.
– Padding. “Pause”, “Hard mode”, “Pop dot” and “Change direction” are all differently-aligned
– You could probably shorten “Change direction” to “Reverse” so it doesn't have to be two lines.
– Shouldn't the loss of life reset the speed?
– As with any Newgrounds game with a high score, consider using Newground's built-in system for scoreboards.
https://github.com/PsychoGoldfishNG/NewgroundsIO-Unity/wiki
It's one thing to try to beat your own high score, it's far more motivational to try to beat a “global” high score.
Overall it's a nice little game; thanks.
Edit:
Thanks for your response!
That's a fair point about resetting the speed; you're right, it could encourage making a strategic mistake (or overall triple the baseline for a “good” score without bringing much new to the table).
About the leaderboards, I think I forgot there were any, because I started playing for a while, and then they only show up when you pause. I didn't pause. And since I saw no NG scoreboard/achievement tab under the game, I simply wanted to make you aware of that option in case you'd be interested in it.