Ohhh wait I just realized, I kinda can't read lol. I thought your message said "The comparison with Balatro is not my favorite." not "in favor" welp. Its late, brain shutting down. But nah this is done very well.
Sorry, is it a bad comparsion? I feel like Balatro has like satisfying movement of things (at least for me idk) and that's why I compared it to this. Cause I feel there is a lot of polish and just well done interaction with the cards here.
Really awesome game, the visuals and audio design are fantastic. I also love the design of the levels and how they changed. I'm really curious where you take this. I'll definitely have to follow. I did run into a couple of small issues, the big ones just being timers on the power-ups being super short, as well as the game crashing in the end, as I was on the final level. But that's about it in terms of bugs. As I've seen some here mention, a hover tool tip or small explanation on which upgrades do what would be nice. I think a hover info would make the most sense. Since you're getting new upgrades every level, it would also make sense for a pop-up to show when you first reach it, or something of the kind, could at least be interesting to try and see how it works out. I think my main issues are 1, going from one level to the next, and 2, the scaling of prices. Going from level to level feels like fully resetting, it feels like not much changes besides visuals. I think something like just the balls or buckets having more value or a multiplier of some sort would make it feel like there is more progression. I also think the upgrades scale a little fast. Like, I struggled to get the auto drop anywhere close to the point where it would feel efficient (oh, also for that upgrade idea, drop amount upgrade, changes how many balls are dropped each time). I also think the auto drop really being the most effective feels a little strange. Mostly since in most idle games you start with maybe a little more manual things, but then you get a lot of ton of automatic stuff. Ok, sorry, this is a little bit of a yap fest. Hopefully I gave some decent feedback lol. But yeah, great game, good work.
the art style is so cute