Thanks for playing the game! Extremely happy to know you went ahead and beat some of the author times!
If I had to time the release, that would have fit the theme better, but it also might have been annoying haha.
We had this initially, for the first day or so - but I felt it increased the barrier of entry a little too much for a game jam game. Even with increased leeway on what points of the throw would send it forward, I feel a lot of players would have tried to throw the ball while it was in front of them, instead of to the side as you swing it forward (even I forgot sometimes while working on it on the first day hahaha) - so I decided on making it always swing camera forward to get the ball rolling working in most player's hands from the get-go.
Def agree that it takes a little bit away from how relevant the spinning is to the theme, but I feel like it helps provide the fantasy of spin-throwing a heavy ball as a platforming mechanic right away to the player - which I felt was more important in a game jam setting.
If we were to expand on the game, def looking to revisit this mechanic in some way! I feel it adds a lot to the physicality and fantasy of the idea.
The physics felt a little off, and the platforming sections without the ball were a little boring. It could use some polish.
Yeah 100%! We got quite a bit of feedback on the base movement abilities, we had a lot more ideas for it but couldn't quite fit it in for the jam, so we jumped into game making after making a semi decent kit for both the base movement and the ball throwing - so there is a lot of jank in there.