The Growth Journey

This is a collection of interesting ideas that ultimately add up to a disappointing experience due to uneven level design and an obscure scoring system. The basic don't-touch-the-walls gameplay works well, although with a very sharp difficulty curve on the first two levels. The game says it supports lower resolution monitors, but the level designs basically unplayable at those smaller sizes due to the need to navigate gaps that are a tiny fraction of the screen size. Each pack of 10 levels gives you a score (generally ~4-7 points) per level upon completion, where it seems 4=ok, 5=good, 6=great and 7=flawless. However, you need 60 points to unlock the next level pack -- that is, you need 10x6 (great) to average A/- proficiency on every level. Getting stuck on mastering even one level (4) can entirely lock you out of the next pack unless you collect a batch of 7s to overcome it. I notice that at present only 3% of players actually made it to the next level pack. Another problem is that the level designs often require a balance of speed and growth -- most, but not all available grown combined with as much speed is possible. However, the algorithm for the optimal combination is not evident. If you get a "5" on a level, should you get bigger and go a little slower, or should you try for a bit smaller and faster? It isn't clear, so the player must repeat a level many times with slight variations on strategy, hoping that the final score will increase on one of the completions. Failing to achieve a goal is frustrating enough -- not knowing the goal at all is maddening.