Snowman Slide by Zanzlanz

[raw]
made by Zanzlanz for LD31 (JAM)
Hi!
Today, you're a snowman, sliding through each level to get to the magical portal. :3

I totally didn't think I was going to do Ludum Dare this weekend, as I had a ton of other obligations. But I ended up making a neat puzzle generator that I decided to make into a game! It's far from finished, but I did my best to cover that up ;)

I made everything in the time I had available, except for the text renderer and key listener that I copied from an older project to save time.

It generates random levels each time you start a new game. See how well you can do!

The controls go from using a mouse, to using the keyboard. I didn't have time to make it all match ;)
In the game, use the arrow keys of WASD to "slide" the snowman. You have to get to the magical portal (haha, it's the best I could do) in order to progress. Get the coins for extra points.
R to reset, M to mute, and hold escape to exit.

I'll have more information for you later. Thanks so much for playing!

Edit1: Finally got rid of the ads. I just had to edit the NG api to disable ads here. No way would I want to have ads on the Ludum Dare site.

Ratings

Coolness 44% 1605
Overall(Jam) 3.67 165
Audio(Jam) 3.59 140
Fun(Jam) 3.77 79
Graphics(Jam) 3.33 472
Humor(Jam) 2.88 353
Innovation(Jam) 3.06 484
Mood(Jam) 3.32 303
Theme(Jam) 3.09 844

Feedback

gana0
09. Dec 2014 · 00:51 UTC
Loved the main music loop! The game was really fun as well. I felt a little misled by the coins at first. It seemed to me like they should be all attainable without having to purposely backtrack or go in circles. The graphic for the level select is really cool too.
🎤 Zanzlanz
09. Dec 2014 · 01:42 UTC
Thanks gana0! :)
I don't want the coins to lead you directly to the end - I want them to be an added challenge. That being said, a compromise would be pretty neat... I'm not sure how to go about that though :\
danidre14
09. Dec 2014 · 04:49 UTC
Really cool game! Especially the music, and the summed-up score at the end. If only I knew how to do that, I could have added it in my game. But, oh well!
I got stuck on level 7, because the only way to get to that box, led you to a water block! XD

Now, as always, time to sum up your score:
5 all! :3 :P
danidre14
09. Dec 2014 · 04:50 UTC
Never mind, I figured it out! XD
🎤 Zanzlanz
09. Dec 2014 · 13:39 UTC
Thank you so much Danidre! That's the first time I ever made a score thing like that - I'm so happy that it worked out :] (I think it's a little buggy, but it's the best I had time for, haha). It's all about timing - you just need a variable to stop the game, keep track of time, and add up the score as time goes by. It feels hackish, but it works!

Glad you figured out your level :) I should make a thing that warns you when you're stuck and should reset.
Zwergesel
11. Dec 2014 · 15:54 UTC
Well made game, although I think that the multiple levels don't really fit the theme.
badlydrawnrod
11. Dec 2014 · 21:49 UTC
This game does exactly what it says on the tin.
🎤 Zanzlanz
11. Dec 2014 · 22:01 UTC
Thanks @Zwergesel! :) True, the entire game isn't visible at once, haha, but in terms of game design, I'd never want randomly generated levels of varying difficulty on one screen... especially for mobile. XD Instead, I interpreted the theme to be representing the levels... and snowmen. :D
CodeNMore
11. Dec 2014 · 22:07 UTC
I had fun with this! Some more polishing and it would be a hard, fun game! (Hard for me, anyways!)
Ossi
11. Dec 2014 · 22:31 UTC
Very cool! I like the sliding mechanic and the levels weren't too easy or too hard. The graphics look nice and the music loop is catchy and doesn't get annoying. The stats on the right side of how you did is a really nice touch. Overall a really good game!
Saturnyn
12. Dec 2014 · 13:23 UTC
Nice work, clean UI, good level design, very well done !
igoramendola
12. Dec 2014 · 22:21 UTC
I won!! ☃
Challenging level design, catchy music and has a snowman!!
An excellent combination. Well done ^^
🎤 Zanzlanz
13. Dec 2014 · 02:57 UTC
Thanks, fellow devs! I appreciate the feedback.

I'm really glad to hear the music didn't get annoying to you, @Ossi! Usually I get a few hours to make the music, but this time I had like 7 minutes. But I'm really glad you like it (:

I love how you guys liked the level design :D I'm wondering if you guys knew that the levels are generated randomly each time you make a new game? It makes the experience much more interesting, if you ask me :3

Also, I'd like to mention that I play and rate the games of everyone who comments here. :]
bukt
13. Dec 2014 · 03:04 UTC
Like the graphics.
Kotucz
14. Dec 2014 · 17:21 UTC
Such game! Much levels! I liked it..
I have tried similar mechanic in my game :-)
Great that you managed to create the level generator - it is a challenge to do in one weekend...
rjhelms
14. Dec 2014 · 17:22 UTC
Great job! This is an awesome take on a puzzle game - I'm really impressed that you were able to do random level generation and still keep a reasonable difficulty progression.
Hellequin
14. Dec 2014 · 17:23 UTC
Love the music! Really interesting concept! Well done
01101101
14. Dec 2014 · 17:28 UTC
Nice game! Cool post about your level generation too :)
pvtroswold
14. Dec 2014 · 17:46 UTC
Great random puzzles! One of the big ones got me though. Either it's impossible or I'm just not seeing it. Oh well good job :)
🎤 Zanzlanz
14. Dec 2014 · 18:00 UTC
Thanks again for the comments, you awesome devs! (All your games are really neat and cute and fun - I'm rating all of yours <3)

@Kotucz, yes you did! Your level design is really nice! I love how your first level looks almost exactly like how mine generates the first level(s). :D And yeah, most of the time I was fiddling with the generator to make it work perfectly, haha. :D That's why my UI and stuff could use a bit of love ;)

@rjhelms Thank you! Honestly I wouldn't have done this Ludum Dare if the level difficulty wasn't so quantifiable! I was surprised how things just... worked out!

@01101101 Thanks for looking at the post! I hope it encourages people to try level generation some time :D

@pvtroswold Ohh don't give up, haha! I can confidently say that it is possible ;D My room mate and I played one level and it took us almost 10 minutes to figure out a puzzle. xD It felt so good when we found the solution! Thank you!
klianc09
14. Dec 2014 · 18:06 UTC
Great job, I'm also impressed by your random level generator. Works really well!
Also I could listen to that music loop forever.
ViKing Games
14. Dec 2014 · 18:27 UTC
I've always loved these ice puzzles in games, so a randomly generated version is awesome. The graphics and music fit well, but I feel like the theme was used very loosely. Maybe you could have the level zoom out, and the blocks shift to new positions?
Grindstorm
14. Dec 2014 · 18:32 UTC
Love this game! But you programmed the levels so they only had one solution, because the end level collider only works from one side and that's quite a downside, because I made several levels and then went into the end level and nothing happened :( besides that is a nice game.
alabebop
14. Dec 2014 · 18:45 UTC
Amazingly mature game! Got addicted playing :-)
🎤 Zanzlanz
14. Dec 2014 · 18:55 UTC
@klianc09 I'm really glad you like the music! I'll develop it further for the actual release :D

@ViKing Games Thanks for the review! The theme was interpreted more based on the game play, not so much the aesthetics ;) I was more interested in the snowman theme anyway, haha! Cool idea though!!

@Grindstorm I think I know what you're talking about. The goal is to land on the end, not to pass through it :) That might be where you're getting stuck. Thanks!

@alabebop :D Thanks, I did my very best to make it look polished in the last few hours!
GFM
14. Dec 2014 · 19:02 UTC
Nice level generator. :)
The only issue I found is that the water kind of forces a path on you, making some of the levels less difficult than it seems to be. The game did, nonetheless, get more difficult as I got farther, though... Got stuck at last one. XD
🎤 Zanzlanz
14. Dec 2014 · 19:17 UTC
Yes! You're right @GFM, I've noticed that too. I'll probably lessen the chance of water appearing on most levels. :]
igoramendola
15. Dec 2014 · 02:22 UTC
I didn't mention on my previous comment, but I had read about the random level generation. That's pretty cool. This is the kind of game that I like to play on my phone and would be nice to see it as an Android app :D
🎤 Zanzlanz
15. Dec 2014 · 03:00 UTC
@igoramendola Oh cool! Thanks for reading about it! Those posts got way more <3 than I imagined :O

And I'm working on the mobile port right now! https://vine.co/v/O6YnzpPbTMp This might be my first mobile app!!
igoramendola
15. Dec 2014 · 07:36 UTC
Nice!! I just saw it on twitter xD
Wir
15. Dec 2014 · 08:24 UTC
<3 the random generation!
Kain.Oborin
16. Dec 2014 · 09:33 UTC
I'm not big on the Christmas themed games but I actually enjoyed this one a bit, the puzzle factor got me thinking, while it didn't appear to be terribly difficult from what I played, it was a nice change from the kind of games I usually play. Thank you for the experience.
Si1ver
22. Dec 2014 · 15:28 UTC
Awesome game! I've played for hours
🎤 Zanzlanz
22. Dec 2014 · 18:58 UTC
Thanks, commenters!

@Si1ver HOURS? Holy cow XD :D