Santa's Slip Up by Johnsensei

[raw]
made by Johnsensei for Ludum Dare 53 (JAM)

Meant for mobile but you can play on a computer by clicking and dragging with a mouse.

Santa was in such a rush to deliver this year’s Christmas presents that he forgot to tie his magical sack! Now he’s flying around all crazy not even noticing that presents are falling out and off the sleigh. As the helpful elf Alabaster Snowball, you ride on Rudolph just behind Santa’s sleigh catching the falling presents. Catch as many presents as you can to save the Christmas delivery.

Drag Alabaster around the screen to catch presents.

Made for Ludlum Dare 53.

Creative Team

John Gale - Unity Engineer

Nicholas Rankin - Music/SFX

Screenshots-Group-4096.png

Art assets from Open Game Art.

Santa’s sleigh and Reindeer Fun Gi Development https://opengameart.org/content/santa-and-reindeer Alabaster (elf) "[LPC] Santa" by bluecarrot16, Johannes Sjölund (wulax), Stephen Challener (Redshrike), Nila122, and Matthew Krohn (makrohn). Commissioned by Sander Franken (castelonia). https://opengameart.org/content/lpc-santa Presents x 4 Eliza Wyatt, Lanea Zimmerman (Sharm) https://opengameart.org/content/lpc-revised-christmas-pack Background objects Most of the objects LPC Winter Tiles by Demetrius (https://opengameart.org/content/lpc-winter-tiles). Obstacles Mountain 1: https://opengameart.org/content/natural-resource-deposits-and-mines-unknown-horizons-2d 2: Spring/Spring Enterprises https://opengameart.org/content/mountain-1

Ratings

Overall 1013th 3.113⭐ 42🧑‍⚖️
Fun 980th 2.975⭐ 42🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 1202th 2.256⭐ 41🧑‍⚖️
Theme 944th 3.462⭐ 41🧑‍⚖️
Audio 423th 3.461⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Humor 794th 2.737⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Mood 836th 3.25⭐ 42🧑‍⚖️
Given 46🗳️ 85🗨️

Feedback

🎤 Johnsensei
02. May 2023 · 01:59 UTC
If I do ship this as a mobile game to the app stores I'll be adding: more levels, enemies, items, amke it a bit more of a challenge, and we'll see what else.
NuiN
02. May 2023 · 05:03 UTC
Too early for christmas, i enjoyed slamming rudolph into mountains though
Nail
02. May 2023 · 09:22 UTC
It would be an engaging game if there were some music or sound elements so that players would feel more like they engaged
🎤 Johnsensei
03. May 2023 · 00:28 UTC
@nail there is sound and music. Did you play it on a phone? I've many a time wondered why there wasn't sound from a game on my phone just to realize it was in vibrate/manner mode.
Fluburbio
03. May 2023 · 01:42 UTC
I played on my Ipad, and got Peace on Earth with only 3 misses! However, all those misses were unavoidable because Santa dropped them directly next to the border of the screen :slight_frown: But that's really my only complain, it's a lot of fun! I love how simple and effective this is.
I'm getting slight Ski Free vibes, which I love. Cool game! :smile:
🎤 Johnsensei
03. May 2023 · 02:30 UTC
Thanks for playing @fluburbio - I got everything strung together close to the end of the jam and then realized the game was too easy when it was too late. Everyone is getting Peace on Earth, which is the best ending. I realized the presents getting thrown to the side with no chance to catch them was a problem too late too. Got that in my todo list to fix.
ardorugus
03. May 2023 · 03:25 UTC
Maybe, not that season yet, however it's an easy-to-play fun game that can hit it in the winter period. Keep it delivered!
Alex Chertilin
03. May 2023 · 03:33 UTC
sometimes it goes out of screen
KhaoKG
03. May 2023 · 03:38 UTC
Well made, plays good, music and audio cues were good, only thing I have questions/if its a bug is if the presents are supposed to be able to leave the screen horizontally. Overall good stuff!
cavedens
03. May 2023 · 14:40 UTC
Very nice little submission. It was a lot of fun with the obstacles and presents going in all different directions. My only criticism would be that the presents can fly off of the screen immediately and make you miss some of them. I would suggest adding a border that will bounce them back in the opposite direction if it hits an edge. Overall great submission and I look forward to move levels in the future :)
Helen
04. May 2023 · 03:46 UTC
The only submission I've seen so far which thought of Santa when delivering packages. I love Christmas, so if course I like the game :)
It's fun to play although it's pretty easy. Music and graphics fit well.
LDJam user 257438
04. May 2023 · 04:40 UTC
Nice mobile game!! With good graphics, effects and animations can be a good mobile game!!!
I think it is bit off the theme since you are just catch the presents and nothing else!!!
Smoky01
04. May 2023 · 04:45 UTC
The cool game)
alisher_fazilov
04. May 2023 · 04:51 UTC
Not a bad mobile game you have, you can finish it and it would be themed hyper casual game)
Cookiezz
04. May 2023 · 05:39 UTC
Cool mobile game with a simple game loop. Some of the ground tiles are hard to tell if they'll hurt you or not. Love running Rudolph into mountains though.
Lychee
04. May 2023 · 05:46 UTC
Simple idea but I think you executed it well, it's pretty cool that you managed to make it a mobile game too, played well on my phone!
LDJam user 352490
04. May 2023 · 18:27 UTC
I absolutely love the main menu music @nrankin13! One note on sound: the collect-present effect was panned to the left, which sounded odd in headphones. Not sure if that's an issue with the source file or how it was added to Unity. More of a personal choice, but I also might reduce the hard pan for some of the soundtrack instruments, as they stand out a lot for a game-play background track.

For controls @Johnsensei, I would suggest making the hit-box for clicking / dragging the reindeer much larger (maybe 2 or 3 times the size of the deer), as well as adding something to indicate that the reindeer should be dragged. That would make it much more intuitive, especially on mobile.

Aside from fixing the presents going off screen, I'd also suggest limiting how far to the sides the presents can go. It's a little awkward dragging all the way to the sides on mobile, and it might trigger accidental swipe gestures for some phones.

The background objects should blend with the background more so that they're clearly differentiated from obstacles. It might be enough just adding some transparency / color filters.

Otherwise nice concept, and neat to see a Unity based mobile game.
Lucas Taniolo
05. May 2023 · 00:05 UTC
Good job with the theme and remembering Santa at this time of the year.
🎤 Johnsensei
05. May 2023 · 00:48 UTC
@sudocoffee - thanks for pointing out about the collect-present SFX being panned left. I hadn't noticed that but I'll check it next time I work on the game.
jakelazaroff
05. May 2023 · 04:46 UTC
Peace on earth! I don't know what the other commenters are talking about — when I died once and got the red particles I tried real hard to not let Rudolph hit another mountain :(
snesgaard
05. May 2023 · 05:27 UTC
Wasn't immediately obvious to me that you should avoid the mountains, even though they have a red aura and the text tells you so XD

But since retrying is so fast, I don't see that as a big problem. Only bad thing I could say is that I wish there were more levels!
LDJam user 359614
05. May 2023 · 07:51 UTC
good game, but sometime out of screen
aschab
05. May 2023 · 14:59 UTC
Christmas is only 233 days and 14 hours away! I really enjoy the music in this game. Although there are some presents that seem impossible to get, I'm someone who likes to achieve 100% completion in games, so that's my only critique. Overall, it's a fun game!
Dinoraz
06. May 2023 · 06:18 UTC
Short, simple, but not too shabby at all! As others have said, the RNG of where santa goes and how the presents fall can be a little unfair at times, but I have no other complaints really
Voodoo
06. May 2023 · 11:04 UTC
Fun idea for a mobile app. Would have tried to make the base 'ground' a little more exciting than a flat white background. Also being able to move right up to Santa feels like cheating, should stop the user from moving more than halfway up the screen maybe. Lastly the issue of presents falling off the screen needs to be fixed.
kiguel182
06. May 2023 · 11:07 UTC
Nice to see a mobile game. Concept works well and it's fun and well executed. Music and sound effects are nice. Good job!
Justine D
06. May 2023 · 11:07 UTC
Fun to play, glad I managed to bring peace on earth
A1stakesauce
07. May 2023 · 15:14 UTC
Good execution of simple mechanics. Would have liked the obstacles to be a little more apparent to the player and stand out a bit more. The mountains seemed to blend in with the background on the same plane. (Add some perceived depth) Adding some other obstacles to increase the humor may benefit as well (Fighter jets, Aliens, Birds, Weather Balloons, etc.) Good job. Good on you for tackling a mobile game.
PoshDan
07. May 2023 · 20:21 UTC
I played this on stream. It's a cute little game! Nothing wrong with a bit of casual fun while on a bathroom break, eh? ;p
That said, hugging santa's butt made it a bit too easy to beat the levels, and I would've loved a bit more variety in hazards. I appreciated the red glow on the mountain as an indicator. The length and pacing work really well for mobile, so well done on that!
🎤 Johnsensei
09. May 2023 · 00:19 UTC
@poshdan thanks for playing on the stream! That was fun to hang out, watch the stream, and check out other people's games.
nrankin13
12. May 2023 · 16:58 UTC
Thank you so much, @sudocoffee ! I need to get the actual loop a little tighter; I thought it was fine when I bounced it, but evidently there was an audio tail included...
🎤 Johnsensei
20. May 2023 · 22:11 UTC
Ok guys, it’s been great jamming with you for Ludum Dare 53. I’ve used the evaluation period to work on the game based on everyone’s feedback and goals I wish I’d gotten done during the jam. Check out the latest version at the itch.io play link above.

About the changes:
1. The #1 comment was about Santa throwing presents off the side of the screen with 0 chance to catch them. Thanks to @fluburbio, @alex-chertilin, @khaokg, @cavedens, @pralista, @aschab, @dinoraz, @sudocoffee, @voodoo, and others who mentioned this. It has been fixed. A present won’t rotate in a direction where it flies off the screen if it’s spawned within a margin of the screen edge.
2. Another fix to deal with (1) above is that Santa won’t fly along the side of the screen for a long time anymore.
3. Thanks to @cookiezz, @snesgaard, @a1stakesauce, and @poshdan for pointing out that the mountains weren’t obvious hazards. I thought the red glow and helper text at the level start made it obvious. But I watched @poshdan on stream crash right into a mountain and realized it wasn’t so obvious. There is now additional helper text and an image on the level transition screen. The red glow’s alpha has been increased too.
4. I added a “magic dust trail” to Santa to keep the player from ridding his @$$ and collecting presents easily.

There are other changes like adding fonts, a score system, a bit of polish, etc. but there are too many to list. Thanks to everybody including @nuin, @nail, @ardorugus, @helen, @random-ideation-studios, @smoky01, @alisher-fazilov, @lychee, @lucas-taniolo, @jakelazaroff, and @kiguel182 for playing.

I’m considering whether or not to pursue this game for commercial release. Check out the latest version and feel free to leave any feedback on the itch.io page. See you at Ludum Dare 54!