LudumData

Snowball's Chance by MasterOfNaN

[raw]
made by MasterOfNaN for LD32 (JAM)
As the last child drifts off to sleep, you awake from your frosty slumber, for another night of... wait, what's this? A hat? A RED hat? That wasn't there every other night, and nor was this bonfire. There's nobody around, perhaps you could just pick up and try the hat on - what's the worst that could happen?

Besides - say a hoard of possessed snowmen with burning stick arms started running towards you - you could always make a snowball out of... yourself, and hurl it at their heads to knock them off!

Instructions:
Throwing snowballs can make heads roll, but also makes you smaller.
Fires make you melt. Moving over fresh snow makes you grow.
Picking up hats earns you (style) points.
Make it through the night, for a survival bonus.

Controls:
WASD - move
Mouse - look
Left-click / spacebar - throw snowball
Esc / Q - pause menu

Also supports a range of controllers. Right trigger throws.

We hope you enjoy it - let us know your thoughts, here and on twitter - @MasterOfNaN and @mdstweet

Colin and Matthew
Web https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3237113/SnowmanWeb720/SnowmanWeb720.html
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-32/?action=preview&uid=50499

Ratings

Coolness 68% 3
Overall(Jam) 3.46 308
Audio(Jam) 2.90 464
Fun(Jam) 3.32 312
Graphics(Jam) 3.86 229
Humor(Jam) 2.79 549
Innovation(Jam) 3.70 147
Mood(Jam) 3.36 306
Theme(Jam) 3.84 166

Feedback

ekkiiiii
21. Apr 2015 路 14:32 UTC
Very nice mechanics. Love the shaders and the overall look.
馃帳 MasterOfNaN
21. Apr 2015 路 15:33 UTC
Thanks very much!
Xanderzoo
21. Apr 2015 路 17:22 UTC
Looks great, but it's a little hard to control.
dray
21. Apr 2015 路 17:29 UTC
Cool game, using all of our snow should kill us i think to have a real problem when spamming it. love all the details on the snow path and rolling body and the sound is great.
illuware
21. Apr 2015 路 17:32 UTC
Cool idea. Nice touch increasing the specular on a small ball, making it seem wetter.
馃帳 MasterOfNaN
21. Apr 2015 路 18:26 UTC
Thanks very much for the feedback folks, keep it coming!
Cstudios
21. Apr 2015 路 19:02 UTC
The shaders are amazing. How the snow gets rolled inside you. So awesome! When i realized that i can shoot down the heads of the enemy snowman, it was awesome. Nice work!
arhpositive
21. Apr 2015 路 20:07 UTC
Had some performance issues with the game on my laptop. I'll try later on my desktop. No rating for now. :)
OrangeSpikyGames
21. Apr 2015 路 20:07 UTC
These is really nice and simple, it looks great and you created a cool mood. I love the snow effects! Great job.
rplnt
21. Apr 2015 路 20:07 UTC
Great idea and very nice execution. The level could use some work so it's not only backing away. Also AI for enemies. Definitely work on this more, it has potential.
馃帳 MasterOfNaN
21. Apr 2015 路 20:16 UTC
@rplnt Definitely. We did what we could across the board within the time limit, but we'd definitely like to do more with the AI and general flow of the level. The hat collection bonus is our main feature to encourage more varied movement and risk-taking at the moment. Thanks for the feedback!
Tasteslikefuture
21. Apr 2015 路 23:14 UTC
The mechanics were awesome! Very novel idea. Looked great as well. Super job!
diiq
21. Apr 2015 路 23:14 UTC
Haha, I also noticed we had very similar names :D

Very nice work on yours -- much more suitable for the theme. I love the way the snowman gets 'wetter' as it melts. As others noted, there's a lot of backing away -- would be nice to have some baffles to hide behind now and again.
Simon
22. Apr 2015 路 12:38 UTC
I loved it. It's very strange. Almost creepy. And this feels just right, the mechanic is so obvious but at the same time so different that what we are used to :)
bernardery
22. Apr 2015 路 12:59 UTC
Best LD32 game I've played so far. Great job!
eott
22. Apr 2015 路 18:13 UTC
I really like the mechanic of moving to grow big. I would have liked a bigger and more varied level, but given the time constraint it's better than nothing. Nice game!
ianburnette
23. Apr 2015 路 01:08 UTC
Woohoo! Survived the night! A lot of really excellent design decisions. Enemies carrying fire and shrinking (and thus becoming harder to kill), the snowball/size relationship, and the snow and the ground getting rolled up - I especially like this last one. Besides the excellent shader work, it really challenges you to try different routes around the level and the feeling of anxiety increases.
馃帳 MasterOfNaN
23. Apr 2015 路 12:00 UTC
Wow, thanks again for the very supportive and constructive comments!
novadream
23. Apr 2015 路 23:01 UTC
Excellent mechanics and theme! :D
I really loved the way you had to keep moving in order to accumulate a limited resource (which is wonderfully familiar to anyone from a snowy region).
SuperPokeunicorn
23. Apr 2015 路 23:02 UTC
The idea of using what is essentially your health as ammo and then having to go collect more health is a very interesting idea and it worked really well. The only real problem is that the frame rate is slow and the controls are slippery. The actual mechanics of the game, however, are very neat indeed.
HotBoxGames
27. Apr 2015 路 12:32 UTC
I scored 10,000 :D

Nice concept, I liked the snowman size mechanic with rolling on the snow and firing, made me not spam shoot everything. I found it too easy to strafe around the perimeter of the map - suggest perhaps setting varied spawn locations for enemies or having them drop fire onto the ground for longer to close off paths.

Overall good job and I'd like to see this game a bit more fleshed out in a post-compo version! :D
diegomachado
28. Apr 2015 路 15:14 UTC
That's a nice and clever concept! This sound ambiance set some great mood too.
arhpositive
28. Apr 2015 路 16:45 UTC
Finally played it. Solid game with a fantastic idea. It felt quite hard at first but it gets easier when you familiarize yourself with the movement. Collecting hats is hard with all the enemies around, though.
馃帳 MasterOfNaN
28. Apr 2015 路 20:29 UTC
Thanks very much for the continued feedback - we really appreciate it!
kevdev
29. Apr 2015 路 15:41 UTC
Great game!
mystakin
03. May 2015 路 19:32 UTC
Really cool game mechanics. Impressed by the effect of the snow coming off the ground and sticking to the snowman. Cool game. :)