Holiday Halfpipe by Marcus Otterstrom

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

Holiday Halfpipe

Gameplay preview

Grind, flip, and dunk while delivering as many gifts as you can in this Santa Claus Snowboarding game!

The goal of the game is to score as high as you can. You earn points by doing tricks such as flips, wheelies, and big air time! But don't get too greedy - hitting your head will end your run.

Click here to play in your browser: https://lemorrows.itch.io/holiday-halfpipe

Controls

| Key | Action | | ------ | ----- | | A/ D or / | Rotate | | SPACE | Jump |

Tips

  • Holding SPACE will make your jump higher
  • You can press SPACE while over a chimney to double jump (gift jump)
  • The game speeds up over time, making survival more difficult with each second that passes. Playing safe to survive is usually NOT the way to reach high scores.

Credits

Music
"Christmas Rap" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Audio effects
Public domain from https://freesound.org/
@grommit
@marcus-otterstrom

Programming
@grommit
@marcus-otterstrom

Art
@mirriu
@humnyn

Ratings

Overall 241th 3.908⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Fun 95th 4.066⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 649th 3.276⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Theme 289th 4.184⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 301th 4.118⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Humor 231th 3.731⭐ 41🧑‍⚖️
Mood 382th 3.77⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Given 14🗳️ 19🗨️

Feedback

LDJam user 221750
02. May 2023 · 17:15 UTC
Neat little game :) I like it a lot, kinda addictive! I got to 6550 score. Really like that you added gift jump, and wheelies make it gambly in a good way!
bloodyaugust
02. May 2023 · 18:33 UTC
Very nicely done! Highly polished complicated physics gameplay for a weekend, I'm seriously impressed with the programming. The art is also fantastic! I think I might be terrible at it, after 20 or so attempts my high score was 5000. :sweat_smile:
Dominic Graziano
02. May 2023 · 18:35 UTC
![Screenshot 2023-05-02 at 11.34.22 AM.png](///raw/3c9/81/z/5ac52.png)
definitely has the vibe of the dinosaur game in chrome, but with more fun and humor. I love the sound effects, and the randomization of the level made it a really replayable experience.
LDJam user 356534
02. May 2023 · 18:42 UTC
Didn't expect to play a Christmas game at this time of the year, but here goes :)
It was a lot of fun playing it, although I seem to be a lot worse than some of the other players here. The sound effects were nice and the graphics looked super polished.
The randomization definitely screwed me over a few times - at least that is what I tell myself :D
Samoussa
02. May 2023 · 18:43 UTC
Very fun game! It's a fun little game, I loved seeing all my tricks written on screen like old school Tony Hawks! The physics is very well done, especially for a week-end project! Amazing!
Allas
02. May 2023 · 18:44 UTC
This is a very polished and fun to play game :) although I didn't expect to play a Christmas game this time of year, it definitely kept me a bit cooler with the temperatures slowly creeping up these days.
Koolruz
02. May 2023 · 18:49 UTC
The physics of doing tricks and jumps felt really good - I loved how generous you were with what counted as a death so that you could really experiment and express yourself as you were riding around! It would have been really easy to count any minor bump against a chimney as a death, but they way you can vault over them with well timed jumps meant that I felt free to play around and do tricks, and only worry about landing somewhere on a roof. I spent a run popping a wheelie on every roof just for the fun of it, and it felt really good!

My only suggestion would be to emphasize tricks even more heavily, so that a player can't avoid them - At first, I thought this was an endless runner where you only got a point for every chimney you passed, so I wasn't doing anything but angling myself to the slope of the roof I was going to land on next. It wasn't very fun to play this way, but I think that if you're playing for a high score, that might be the optimal strategy (assuming you had enough patience), because it was extremely safe. The tricks make the game so much more fun though, so I would try to figure out some way to force the player to engage with them - Otherwise, they might self-sabotage their own fun while trying to go for a high score :)
🎤 Marcus Otterstrom
02. May 2023 · 18:59 UTC
@koolruz thanks for the feedback! The speed (and difficulty) ramps up over time, and after 90 seconds it's quite difficult to stay alive. We think the optimal strategy for highscores would be to do as many tricks as possible early on, and perhaps play a bit safer (but still doing flips) in the late game. Our highscore is currently 73,500 which was not achieved by playing safe :wink: But emphasizing the tricks is a good idea. I added a short sentence to describe that the goal is to earn as many points as possible, and that points are earned from tricks :)
chompdev
02. May 2023 · 19:05 UTC
Wow, this one is nicely done! The music and sound effects are great, and the graphics are nice and clean. The random level generation works really well and the steadily increasing speed feels like a good challenge. Reminds me a bit of Alto's Adventure but this one definitely has it's own unique identity and feel. Nice work all around!

![1.PNG](///raw/044/42/z/5ac88.png)
Simeon Radivoev
02. May 2023 · 19:18 UTC
Pretty fun and engaging simple game.
soundgnome
02. May 2023 · 19:44 UTC
Really well executed, great job making a game you can jump into and have fun with immediately, and learn the finer points as you go.
elysiagriffin
02. May 2023 · 19:45 UTC
Thanks for submitting your game for me to play on my stream!

If you’d like to rewatch the playthrough, you can find it here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1809503221?t=5h9m6s

Good luck on your ratings, see you next LD! :D

💜 Elysia Griffin AKA Button Feedback Lady
https://www.twitch.tv/elysiagriffin
stuembi
02. May 2023 · 20:35 UTC
Cool little game! Love the idea. You nailed the physics(jiggly and fun) and the mechanic is well executed and polished. This really adds to the whole game. I enjoyed the multiple goes I had at this game. Nice job!
drazil100
08. May 2023 · 04:01 UTC
I got 7950! I really liked parallax background.
Madbarron
08. May 2023 · 04:11 UTC
Excellent! Highly polished. Love the abstract Santa character. I like that you stuck to a minimal scope for the jam and made it great.
MacDoom
08. May 2023 · 04:47 UTC
![santaskis.png](///raw/124/31/z/5b971.png)

HAHA! Fun game! When I got the hang of it couldn't stop making flips! Gonna keep the link for the holidays season. Good job!
hulien22
08. May 2023 · 04:51 UTC
Fun little game! Got a highscore of 19250 :) Really liked the art and all the sounds!

One thing I'd like to see added is some form of combo system where the more (and different) tricks you do in a row the more points you get (could also do point multipliers for keeping a long streak going).

Nice work :santa: !
StaGYL
08. May 2023 · 05:03 UTC
The music and visuals are so polished!
caeonosphere
08. May 2023 · 05:06 UTC
Simple and sweet! I like the chimney jump mechanic, and of course the very nice art. Some kind of combo multiplier would be cool, it does seem like the balance is currently in favor of safe, consistent play and I'd like to get some big points for big risks!
DeadByDeath
08. May 2023 · 07:12 UTC
Nice, simple and addictive game. The Christmas concept is very nice. I liked a lot the art and the mechanics of the game! Good job!!!
TobiasD
08. May 2023 · 07:42 UTC
Yeah really fun! Lots of personality and smooth gameplay. Love the santa voice. Reminded me a bit of the old indie classic "Icy Tower"
kesha11S
08. May 2023 · 08:17 UTC
really really fun game. santa's voice is hilarious. i loved the parallax background. great game and merry christmas!

look at my best record
![jhj.png](///raw/ff4/45/z/5b97e.png)
IndivisibleParticles
08. May 2023 · 08:20 UTC
Very nice game overall. The graphics and visuals create a good atmosphere. You created a simple game that is fun to play, I enjoyed it. Good work!
alpacalypse
08. May 2023 · 08:39 UTC
This is a crisp little game, good jam content.
FoggyDude
08. May 2023 · 10:17 UTC
@kesha11s And so I took that personally
![Screenie.png](///raw/a1f/84/z/5b986.png)
LDJam user 296412
08. May 2023 · 11:15 UTC
nice game!
love the parallax background
Adam Jenness
08. May 2023 · 11:31 UTC
Absolutely an amazing take on the theme, and you killed it with the actual execution.
blotosaur
08. May 2023 · 14:27 UTC
Really fun! Sounds are just perfect. Snow effects are amazing. Just couldn't coordinate the rotation with the jump, so I just ended up jumping. Cool mechanic where you get a little more air time when delivering presents.
aschab
08. May 2023 · 15:35 UTC
fun game, Only 230 days and 13 hours for Xmas
Vilmantas
08. May 2023 · 17:06 UTC
Pretty addicting gameplay. Simple and well executed. Really enjoyed the game. :) ![Untitled.png](///raw/8f2/9/z/5b9b7.png)
MAR Zockmeister
08. May 2023 · 23:17 UTC
Reeeeally nice game. I hope I remember it to play it on christmas. :smiley: Totally like the idea, controls are really nice and easy to learn and totally fitting graphics and sound/music. Maybe an updated version for christmas with more levels or some addition? Pleeeease? :smile:
ruruie
09. May 2023 · 03:16 UTC
Web build loaded very slowly for me but it was worth the wait. Fantastic concept and the controls are rock solid. I have broken many necks.
joao-marcello
09. May 2023 · 14:02 UTC
Absolutely incredible! Had much fun on this!

Just like some players, i initially played only jumping across the roofs without caring for tricks until i notice they give much more points.

Loved the graphics and nice parallax! Also the music is pleasant to hear (would love play this game on Christmas)

Overall, a great game! Good job!
chaoli
14. May 2023 · 04:43 UTC
Very fun to play and nice graphics! It reminded me of Steep
Kami Amiga
14. May 2023 · 08:36 UTC
Really fun, gameplay is easy to understand (but hard to master), graphics work well for this kind of game. Great job
Sebhulhu
14. May 2023 · 21:09 UTC
Really fun gameplay :D Easy at start but after a few moments it gets challenging :D Great game :-)