Challenging skill game!

A great interpretation of pool games!

Pretty fun take on a pool game! It took me a few shots to understand how to progress, but sadly had to stop my run at depth 5 with 3 target balls remaining, because I couldn't place my ball after the roll. The game was stuck at the point after the die stops rolling, but before the barriers spawn in.

I enjoyed it, though! Good stuff :D

This game is mechanically fun and innovative! When I finished, I actually found myself playing again due to how engaging and interesting the mechanics were. Combining the chance of dice rolling with the mechanics of pool, with the idea of there being layers is really cool! The risk reward completely shifts throughout the game based on any given scenario you are in. The later levels felt less risky in a way because I knew I would simply go back a step, but at the same time, felt riskier if it had certain colors that I needed. Also gaining points for reaching a new surface is great, and helps to balance the RNG aspects of the game.

A couple of really small pieces of feedback, also because I genuinely think this game could be insanely good with just a teeny bit of polish (which I'm glad you spent so much of the time on the mechanics and working it all out because they are very simple, engaging, and fun). These are really for if you decide to keep working on the project at all:
-I would love to have a bit more sfx and some music. I know that's something that is hard to find time for in a jam this short, but for post jam, I think it could be really cool to see the music slightly shift each depth in.
-Would love some visual feedback when balls hit the edge or fall off, and seeing the score counter go up in some way. Something as simple as a counter pulsing in size and color when it changes could help a lot for the player to connect together what results in what going up. I ended up figuring it all out in the end, but visual pulsing and indicating would make that even faster to figure out and make the game feel super intuitive.
-I think it could be really cool to see how the environment around the dice could change as you go depths in. Maybe the surface of the dice could even change a bit as well.
-Click and drag could have been an approach for the pool shot mechanic, but I actually really liked the simple click, as it prevented my hands from otherwise cramping up from holding left click so much.

I really hope you work on this after the jam or consider it, because it's really fun and interesting!

EDIT: I got two bugs. One of them I rerolled to a new side and the charge arrow was rotated in a weird way. The other one I moved a depth in to a new dice, and the dice didn't recenter to the middle to let me progress and I got softlocked

Really good job with the physics and pool sounds. Knocking the balls around felt really good. It's fun. I found it maybe too easy to knock the balls off the edge, especially since the arrows stretch halfway across a dice face.

I really like the rolling of the dice before the level is started, it gives a sense of wanting to land on the correct number. Its a small touch but it adds a lot. The shooting is intuitive, and plays really well. Good job!

What a fun game !
It requires concentration and precision. The look is good and it's an original way to interpret the theme.
Good job !

One of the best innovative mechanics on this jam

Very cool and innovative mechanic, as well as good execution implementing it! Maybe a bit too easy once we understand how to play it, would have liked some more sense of progression in the gameplay, but that's an impressive job for a COMPO entry regardless, great job!

Neat! Interesting mechanics! Hitting and sinking the cue ball felt good! Nice job!

Awesome game. I am quite sure it is the best I saw so far just because it combines so many cool ideas quite seemless. Everything works well and it is super fun. Well done!

Very interesting game. The gameplay is fun and changes to traditional pool, such as having to get the cue ball itself into a hole, kept things fresh.

My favorite part was the transition between levels zooming into the hole in the die. Combined with the black background and giant die as a pool table, it added to a somewhat trippy and surreal vibe. Great work!

I found it a little unsure if I was meant to be aiming the coloured balls into the hole or off the edge. I wasn't able to get any coloured ones into the hole to see if it e.g. gave more score than knocking them off the edge, but since it's actually quite difficult, I wonder if it makes sense to reward people for doing that.

It did feel a bit like the arrow indicator was backwards from what I expected when taking my first shot, but once I figured out how it worked that went fine.

I wonder if there's more that could be done with the fact that the playing field is a dice.

I really wanted to be able to sink the balls into the hole as well instead of knocking them off the edges, took me a while to realize that was the goal instea.

Very cool concept and very polished! Congratulations!

Congrats on making a relaxing, interesting pool game. Adding slight color to replace the black background would be nice to look more complete. The way the sides of the dice have pool balls stuck to them is cute, it made me wonder if I could knock them off if I feel off of the edge slowly enough.

I also got bugged/stuck, mine was when I moved to level four. I had used a re-roll the previous level (not really understanding what it was for, I thought it would take me to a new side in that level but instead I ended up on the same side), and for the purple level, I rolled a six. Can't think of any other details to help debug.

I liked the concept, found it all very innovative and well polished, especially for a compo game, though as others have said, it lacked some oomph to make me want to progress or play again after the bug and reach the end. In terms of core gameplay loop it's quite good, though.

really creative use of mechanics, it's a very interesting take on the theme, loved how depth was used here and the twist on the game of pool. the dice once rolled and landed on a corner and it softlocked the game, but that's the only time I encountered a bug.

Well done! I was a bit lost because I couldn't find the 3-ball, so I had to go back and read the rules to understand that I had to go back up to the heights to find it. And I was able to finish. It's an interesting mix of dice and billiards!

Fantastic concept! The physics were great and the zooming between depths was really well implemented! Only the auditory space was a bit empty without any music or sound

Loved the game, it was especially satisfying to line up multiple hits off the die and then landing the cue ball into the hole in one go. I did encounter a weird slant on one of the die faces but a reroll deals with that real quick.

Very unique play on pool! Visual effects are fun, gameplay is satisfying once it all clicks.

Only thing for me is I struggled to tell the color difference between the 3 and 7 balls. Maybe that doesn't really matter too much with the way the game progresses with depths, but on one occasion I did knock off a ball thinking it was one and it ended up being the other.

Very cool game. Keep making stuff like this!

I love the concept, my only peeve is the color of the balls, people with sight issues might not be able to differentiate the colors, so I would make the balls have patterns to differentiate between the numbers. Other than that, pretty solid game.

Very creative combination of concepts. I found that even after the free hit is used up, I'm still able to make a shot.

Interesting combination of game elements. I was looking for the red 3 for ages though until I read the comment that you could only find it on the earlier depth. I don't think the game hinted that in any way, if you didn't pay close enough attention to the change of colors. Good entry though!