I added a practice mode after players kept getting stuck, here’s what I learned

Hey everyone 👋

I’ve been building a small iOS game called GapShot and recently got some consistent feedback: players were getting stuck around level 7–8 and found it frustrating to restart every time.

So I decided to try something simple , a practice mode where you can jump into later levels and work on your timing without resetting your progress.

Here’s how it looks (level 12):

A couple of interesting things I’ve noticed so far:

* People don’t necessarily want the game to be easier — they want a way to improve

* Frustration wasn’t coming from difficulty, but from repetition

* Small changes like this can completely change how the game feels

I’m still not sure if this improves long-term engagement or removes too much challenge, so I’m curious how others think about this.

Have you dealt with similar issues in skill-based products?