Factory Balls

Factory Balls Walkthrough

A casual puzzle / brain game from Bart Bonte - Factory Balls has one of the most appealing casual game play design implementations I have ever seen. Perhaps it's because of the elegance of the core concept, which forces you to think out of the box. Or maybe, it is all because of the simple awesomeness of creating ball-folks that come with rabbit ears. Well, no matter what, Factory Balls, while short, is a GREAT game that showcases the clear-cut design as well as quirky sensibility that you will find in a lot of Bart's work.

The Goal In Factory Balls: Just like the other ball brain games in the series, the goal is to make, with the use of different tools and gadgets, the finished product that is needed for each and every level. You will see the "finished product" at the bottom part of the game screen. It can be a polka-dotted yellow ball, a ball with stripes, and those are just to name a few.

From there, you will have a rotating cog that is filled with plain white balls as well as a collection of gadgets and gizmos that, when implemented in the correct order, will turn the plain white ball to match the finished product or goal design. Now, you won't get any instructions or hints as to which step comes first and what to do next after that. You need to solve the problems through logic as well as trial and error. Through this, you will discover how of each tool is properly used.

Of all the cognitive skills required to come out on top in this brain game, visual processing and logic stands out. You will deal with images - images of the ball, the color of the paint you need to use, etc. With these images, you need to visualize what tool does what... and after discovering that, think which order would lead to the goal design. A LOT of thinking is required to beat the levels in Factory Balls. It's not called a brain game for no good reason.

A QUICK Example: Now, I now the description I gave above of how the goal is played is a bit abstract. And you are not going to get even a tiny bit of instruction on how the game is played. So here's a quick example in words. When you get to the sixth level, you, the player, need to create an orange-colored ball that has a pair black "eyes" and an orange nose. I know it's easier shown that described BUT this is the best that I can manage under the circumstances.

One of the gizmos in that level paints the whole ball orange; another gadget paints the ball jet-black; one of the tools creates a nose and the fourth one place "sunglasses" on the ball so that the covered eyes remain black while the rest of the ball is painted orange. So what's the order you need to go through to achieve the goal design? That, my friend, is the goal of each and every challenge.

The game showcases 14 levels of increasing difficulty. Also, it will all be over if you mess up too many times and you run out of plain white balls to use. BUT that hardly matters. Winning or losing, however, isn't really the point in my opinion. Play this game and have fun getting your logical thinking and visual processing the workout it needs!