Factory Balls

* STRONG RECOMMENDATION - Clever and intuitive logical puzzle game *
Great little game, definitely worth the small price. I've never played it before, so no 'nostalgia value' tinging this review - just really happy to have discovered the game.
Basically : each level starts out with a plain white ball, and a picture of the end-look goal. You are supplied with a variety of tools, paints, stencils etc, that you have to choose from, and use in correct sequence, to get desired end.
No time limits, move limits or penalties for failed tries. Thanks a lot for that devs - much appreciated !
Fun, intuitive, clever, logical, satisfying :-)
Easy to understand the rules. Various mechanisms introduced one-by-one and clear to understand how they work. Lots of short levels, so easy to dip in and out of the game. Ramps up smoothly from easy to complex for the various mechanisms.
I especially enjoyed the grass-and-seeds varieties. And the diagonal+horizontal belts patterns really gave my brain a workout. Loved this.
The game saves completed level progression on exit.
Achievements worked fine.
The individual level packs are all on the same difficulty curve, i.e. each one starts fairly easy and ramps up, but level pack B isn't harder than level pack A.
PRACTICAL TIP: It has no explicit 'exit' or 'quit' which can be confusing. To exit, you have to have it set to Windowed (the four-arrow icon in Settings), and click the X in upper right corner. Or a hard quit via the Steam overlay, as a last resort.

I remember playing Bart Bonte's games back in school. The Factory Balls series is a classic and I have much nostalgia for it! Unfortunately, it seems that I had rose tinted glasses, as though I remember very fond times with this series, I had a few little problems with this collection. When I was younger, each design was a head scratcher and I found genuine challenge in working out the order of operations for each ball. Nowadays, it was much easier to recognize the patterns and how to layer them on top of each other in a formulaic order to each tool and paint bucket, and the puzzle became less "how to I make this pattern?!" and more "how do i make this pattern without having to click the same 6 tools 100 times...?" In my opinion, a puzzle should not last long after having the "Eureka!" moment, as overstaying its welcome by forcing you through a long process after having already solved the puzzle in your head 20 steps ago isn't an interesting puzzle, just a
boring one. Not to say that I breezed through every puzzle, there were a few that genuinely did make me sit and figure out how to produce the design shown (mainly the ones involving grass and flowers) which I did enjoy, but only a handful. For the most part, I was just missing the original factory balls games, which usually had a much larger variety of tools at your disposal and more unique ball designs, as well as a fail state in which you would run out of balls if you messed up too much (which to my knowledge only existed in the first game, but I digress). On top of this, the fact that you had to click next between each level (whereas in the old games it would move on automatically), and the fact that the menus outside of levels had to animate every single time you clicked through them, just made the whole game feel very tedious, and by the end of it, it felt like a large slog and I wish that I had only played maybe one level pack a day instead of binging them all at once like I did. I might not have gotten tired of the formula by that point if I had done so. The spin off of this game which was based on the extra level pack from this collection, Boo, which I have also played and beaten, was even worse in this regard, as it only ever gave you the same 4-5 tools and the same 5 colors, which meant that you could make any pattern you wanted just by following a simple set of steps. In both Boo and this factory balls collection, the patterns were novel at first but quickly became formulaic after a time, and by the end, they felt less and less like puzzles, and more and more like long math equations (not particularly complex ones, mind you, just long ones). Still, if you pace yourself and use it more like a set of brain teasers instead of a large puzzle game, I feel it would be more enjoyable than how I had experienced it myself. It would probably work better as a mobile game if I'm being honest; solve a few puzzles while waiting for the bus or something, put it down, then pick it back up later when bored. Good game overall, thought quite a bit tedious.

I used to play these back in the game sites! It was a fun experience then, and it's still fun now! Although admittedly, due to my experience in puzzle games after all this time, it's a bit easier than what I felt back then, but that's quite expected.
Nonetheless, a full recommendation still from me!

This game is great! It's a pretty tricky puzzle game, about essentially covering the spots on a ball you don't want to paint, and then dipping it into a paint bucked. It sounds simple, but this game continued from its flash roots for a reason. Some of the puzzles make it pretty tricky to figure out what combination of stencils paint a specific area, and you really benefit from screwing around and painting what you think might work, since you're hardly ever more than a few dips from where you were before. My favorite puzzles are the ones regarding seeds, it requires an interesting way of thinking to water everything the needed amount! My only complaint is that you have to remove and add stencils in a specific order, but that's far from a dealbreaker, it only takes half a second more, and doesn't really get in the way. Overall, this is a really fun and nostalgic puzzle game!

3 hours of puzzling bliss. I might be late to review but this game really re-imagines the Factory Balls flash series, and bring it to its core best elements. An endearing and interesting puzzle game empowering design analysis and logical thinking. It features a simple gameplay loop, each level bringing intriguing ball designs and you attempt to imitate with the present tools and colors, the balls get more and more intricate as you progress encouraging order and strategy.
While a well thought-out game in its own, I do have some itches. It can get a bit repetitive upon packs D and E, though the emptiness is filled with the interesting ball designs and it overall generally being a time-waster game. And this is a personal issue; there are multiple times where it can be hard to see what color is intended for use. I can't make out blue or purple in the game's lighting. I'm a bit colorblind, so it snatches some of the enjoyment. I suggest adding a zoom-in feature to the image, or maybe re-texture the colors for a colorblind mode.
I highly recommend this game if you're a fan of puzzles! and ones with fun designs, analysis, and logical thinking.

I loved this game as a kid. I found this game while looking up the original flash games. Soo worth picking this one up. It's a good game to play while listening to videos.

A very fun game to play. But you need a few extra friends to help read out an official guide if you wanna go for 100% like I did.