LudumData

Carl Hates Christmas by gwinnell

[raw]
made by gwinnell for LD 40 (COMPO)

The more you have, the worse it is for everyone else.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PDzF5jJH28

CARL HATES CHRISTMAS. feat. BOOMERANGS.

  • You are Carl.
  • Carl hates Christmas!
  • Steal all twelve presents from flat-earth Santa. Make the world a better place.

Design props to my pal Nick.

screen-22.png

screen-3.png

CONTROLS * WASD to move * Mouse to aim & click to throw boomerang

OBJECTIVES * Hit Santa for presents. * Don't let them crush you. * Avoid Bombs, Christmas Puddings, Moles and Mistletoe Kisses. You HATE Christmas!

POWERUPS * Star of Bethlehem * Moon Boots * Hoverboard * Fire Protection * Multiple Boomerangs! * Book of Aerodynamics! * Saving Grace - Extra Life

TOOLS * C++ using ARK2D Framework, with Emscripten for WebGL build. * Photoshop CC 2017 for art and animations. * Reaper DAW with ReaSynth VST and ReaSamplomatic5000 VST for music. Drum samples are C64, I think. * BFXR & ChipTune for SFX.

HINTS * Hit the Christmas Puddings before they touch the ground. * Moles cannot hurt you when you have Boots or Hoverboard. * Give me some hints?

REMARKS * Was going to do LOOT BOXES with permanent effects instead of power ups but I ran out of time/energy.

HTML5 (web) https://gamejolt.com/games/carl-hates-christmas/301230
Source code https://gamejolt.com/games/carl-hates-christmas/301230
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/carl-hates-christmas

Ratings

Overall 95th 3.825⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Fun 38th 4⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 207th 3.447⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Theme 456th 3.15⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 69th 4.05⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Audio 5th 4.325⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Humor 93th 3.556⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Mood 76th 3.706⭐ 19🧑‍⚖️
Given 16🗳️ 12🗨️

Feedback

quixatocs
04. Dec 2017 · 15:57 UTC
Nice work, especially on the art and music. I liked how the audio filter shifted when you were dead, I'll have to look into how that's done as it really had a nice effect here. GOod job, see you next jam :)
Colossal Gnome
04. Dec 2017 · 22:11 UTC
Pretty fun. Was a little disappointed that it failed to load unless I disabled my ad blocker. Also struggle a bit to see how it fits the theme, but it was fun to play none-the-less.
Criggles
04. Dec 2017 · 22:17 UTC
Wow! That is one polished game! Fun to play, great graphics, great music, fun and fits the theme!

Awesome!
gamesplusjames
04. Dec 2017 · 22:18 UTC
Really fun gameplay. The various mechanics tied together very well and I like dhow the difficulty ramped up as you collected the presents. The art all fit together really well too. Great job!
johnnygoy
04. Dec 2017 · 22:18 UTC
Great art, great music. I just wish the presents didnt kill you if you picked them up in the air. Forgot about that so many times :D
happygreenfrog
04. Dec 2017 · 22:42 UTC
I had high expectations going into this one, as it looked like more fun than the other games I had tried up to this point. I've gotta say: I think this is the first of these games I've played so far I actually really enjoyed playing. Nice work all around!
🎤 gwinnell
04. Dec 2017 · 22:52 UTC
@colossal-gnome Thanks for pointing that out! I think that may be a Game Jolt-specific issue but I've disabled ads on the page now. Forgot I had to do that!
Elemental Zeal Game Studios
07. Dec 2017 · 02:12 UTC
This is a nice entry. Feels well polished. I liked all the little touches. Nice job!
tvance
07. Dec 2017 · 20:19 UTC
Fun game and very nice job on the art. The music enhances the mood nicely. The only thing that felt off was that presents are good but other xmas things are bad. Seems arbitrary and not intuitive. I didn't know until I read the instructions. Great work overall!
sbarrio
07. Dec 2017 · 23:56 UTC
Nice job, game is polished and the music and graphics fit the mood perfectly.
6smith
09. Dec 2017 · 00:30 UTC
haaa this game was sick! i really found myself having a lot of fun. i didn't really want it to end when it did, even. the music was jammin, too.
pvtroswold
10. Dec 2017 · 14:30 UTC
Those. Dang. Eeeelves! Could have used more forewarning for the elves, sometimes I would just die, inexplicably. But other than that, I think I got like 7 on my best go. I loved the music and the crunchy drums, it was very challenging, with so many different threats at once.

Powerups were actually useful (especially the Star of Bethlehem), and the art was really pretty to look at. Nice touch with the "distant/behind a wall" version of the music. I really wanted to beat it, but those elves! Haha, I had fun, so good job!
IllaBom
12. Dec 2017 · 01:46 UTC
Nice game you have here. SUPER WELL DONE!

Come check out my game if you like!
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/virus-detected
jjjjason
13. Dec 2017 · 06:48 UTC
Really fun base mechanics! As everyone said, unless you read the full descriptions first it's a little hard to tell what kills you, but once you manage to figure it out it becomes a fun dance targeting all of the targetables and jumping over all of the elf-shaped spikes.

Really like how you have the filtered version of the music play during game over.
Arputikos
16. Dec 2017 · 14:44 UTC
Very well done, hovewer, it's too hard. Vert polished. I liked the 'audio blur' when the game finishes.
DDRKirbyISQ
18. Dec 2017 · 19:22 UTC
Took quite a handful of tries, but finally Christmas was cancelled -- huzzah!

The gameplay was actually pretty fun and had a good mix of obstacles that you needed to dodge while also targeting mistletoes, bombs, puddings, and of course Santa and his presents. I think better readability would benefit the gameplay a lot -- things like showing a more obvious marker when the moles are going to appear, a better indication of when Santa is about to throw a bomb, etc. The multi-boomerang powerup didn't always seem to reset properly (perhaps when you have multiple boomerangs already out), but I didn't mind that since that was by far the most fun to play with. Never actually saw the saving grace powerup function properly, but overall the selection of powerups was cool, though the movement-enhancing ones weren't super useful (besides avoiding moles).
🎤 gwinnell
26. Dec 2017 · 19:38 UTC
@ddrkirbyisq Great feedback - I agree with all of it! Thank you for leaving such a thoughtful comment. (You're right about the multi-boomerang issue too; didn't have time/patience/energy to fix it!) :smile: