I think I also know what happened during the "ball was stuck moving slow" issue, it seems to be related to the tutorial. It slows the game down to introduce the controls, but for some reason I didn't see the text instructing what the button prompt is for.
I have an idea to make it more obvious and I'll look into why the text didn't show.
Engines make development quick and simple, but give you all these weird spokes sticking out making the strangest edge cases.