The main difference with Balloon Ghost is that your main objective is to not let the balloon touch the ground. Instead of guiding the playable character from one end of the level to the other, the player is tasked with controlling the balloon through the actual playable character. 

This means that there is constantly something to do. The player must be mindful of where the balloon is, where it's going to be, and where to position Ghosty so that he can hit the balloon in the right direction. While doing this, the player must also watch out for both the balloon and Ghosty - if either one of them hits a trap or falls out of bounds, the level must be retried. Simple platforming sections that would be easy in a normal 2D platformer become much more difficult when it's the balloon that has to make it across gaps safely.

But even with that, I wanted to give the player something to do besides hitting the balloon all day. Platformers have always had some kind of token to collect, so I wanted to give Balloon Ghost something along those lines.

I finally figured out how to implement it. In keeping with the ghost theme, cloud theme, mono color theme, and cute theme, I decided star-shaped sleeping clouds would be the best way to handle this. When awoken from their slumber by either Ghosty or the balloon, they will fly away skyward joyously. I'm happy with how it all turned out.

A big reason I wanted a collectible in the levels is that they are an easy way to give a game some replay value. If the player hasn't collected everything in a level and enjoyed the game enough to want to replay it, it gives them something to do the second time around. Collectibles also give players a better experience on the first playthrough, as well; environments feel more alive and exciting when there are things to do besides just the task at hand.

Adding the tokens to Balloon Ghost has been a huge improvement to the gameplay. I'm not done with the game yet, but I'm more excited than ever to wrap it up and release it.