Snowman - Wildfire Edition by Tiberiusuciu
You are a snowman,
you realize there is a wildfire in your homeland. Free your friends by letting them out and avoid the chaotic flames!
Tools used: - Game Maker Studio 2 - FL Studio 12 - BFXR - Pyxel Edit - Gimp
The game is complete, there is some blurry text, and the lighting could be a bit brighter. But I wanted to have this night effect. I just want the fire to be a bit brighter. This game compared to my first event shows an improvement, in terms of quality given in 48 hours. I also have music this time! I made it myself playing with midi keyboards. This game has also a few small puzzles to solve for some extra credits!
Special thanks for those who watched my stream on twitch
And also special thanks for my family, friends and my girlfirend who were supportive
* Feel free to share your score in the comments, I had 6100 :) *
EDIT: I would like to point out that after further testing, it appears that if you do not succeed the tutorials, you might get stuck until you melt away. If this ever occurs, there's no way to restart the level but by killing yourself (by fire exposure) or restarting the game. I have provided many sticks per level so this shouldn't really happen. But it is possible. Terribly sorry for this.
| Source code made with Game maker studio 2 | https://github.com/tiberiusuciu/ludum-dare-40 |
| Windows | https://tiberiusuciu.itch.io/snowman-wildfire-edition |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/snowman-wildfire-edition |
Ratings
| Overall | 119th | 3.768⭐ | 58🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 205th | 3.545⭐ | 58🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 120th | 3.67⭐ | 58🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 461th | 3.134⭐ | 58🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 181th | 3.716⭐ | 60🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 67th | 3.75⭐ | 56🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 274th | 2.9⭐ | 52🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 27th | 3.954⭐ | 56🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 58🗳️ | 61🗨️ |
It hit not perfectly the theme, but a nice entry.
@gilborn
Yeah my interpretation of the theme might be too abstract, but essentially, it boils down to: the more you have fire, the worst it is. Because the snowman needs the fire so that he may progress through the game, but it also makes you more likely to melt away. I hope this clears it out a bit :^)
Thank you for playing!
This was one of my worries: to try to make this game reflect the emotions I wanted it to bring. I'm new at this genre, my last and only game I made before was a simple platformer with no music.
I tried something new this time
Take care!
Thank you for playing!
Yeah this was one of my last item on my todo list for this game, I ran out of time by trying to have an end to this game and some music. But I see what you mean. Thanks for the feedback!
Yeah this was also a worrying subject, I didn't want them to disappear either. If I had some more time, I wanted to make a smiling version of each snowman, and a non-smiling version, so you could see if the snowman is happy or not which would signify he has been saved. But I know what you mean. Thank you for playing!
I had a lot of trouble with the sounds in this LD. At first every burning sound was waayyy too loud, so I dropped the volume dramatically. But then when I added the music, I needed more balancing to do. The sounds were the last "big" features I've added at the end. I would of definitely balanced it out with more time.
and YES!! the snorkel snowman! hahahahaha
Thank you for playing!
Though sometimes they did not work so well. Using mouse to waive often reponses too quickly to match with the ice barrier I want to melt and I could't know to what extent I will melt down myself. It can be a fantastic job with a easier operation!
Yeah there are a few things that were not quite clear, but basically at the moment, as long as your are in front of an ice barrier at about half a block of distance maximum, you can burn the ice barrier. If you are behind the ice barrier, you cannot, and there's actually a puzzle with a specific ice barrier in a level of the game, that requires a lesson seen in the tutorials about chain reactions. But I understand that it wasn't very clear. I made some friends test out my game after LD, and I noticed that my tutorials were not as clear as I thought they were in my head.
Oh yeah and for burning an object, you don't really need to waive anything, you just need to have a burning source nearby a burnable object. My instructions were not clear enough and I have seen some people spinning the snowman's hands thinking that it was the answer hahaha
Sorry about the misdirection. Thank you for playing!!
Thank you for the kind words, this means a lot for me! Your description about how you felt about the game is EXACTLY what I wanted you to feel hahahaha I'm glad to see you've captured what I was trying to reflect with this game. Thank you for playing!
Cool mechanics
Thank you, I made it myself with a few midi keyboards, I'm looking forward to have more integrated songs in my next LD entries :) Thank you for playing!
Nice, well implemented game, Well done!
Super fun! The maze level was obnoxious, but I guess that was kind of the point. The premise was great, and pulling off sick dance moves while moving around was a ton of fun.
Yeah I had fun writing those tutorials hahahahaha :)
I see what you mean about the maze level, and I agree, I had a hard time figuring out how to not make it too obnoxious. I told myself that the fire would quickly consume the level, so in case you get tired of searching, the fire would probably open you a quick path to the exit if need be. But yeah, that maze should be reworked, thank you for the feedback and playing!
I totally understand that. And I actually realized a little bit after my deployment, that a restart level button would definitely help out. especially in certain levels where if you run out of sticks, then restarting the level is the only choice (this happens in the tutorials, I hope not too often hahaha) Thank you for playing!
Very nice music.
Thanks for playing, you don't really need to save them :p my tutorial level in the first level just says to save the snowman for some extra credits, and that's pretty much all they are used for. Otherwise you could also want to save them because it's the right thing to do? You're right, there are no indications on how many snowmen per level, I'm not sure if I wanted to display that, since they are optional in the first place. But thank you for the feedback, maybe my instructions were not clear enough!
Would have liked to see the snowmen you saved move towards the exit, maybe even only be saved if they escape the level. Also would have been cool if they could melt too.
Overall very enjoyable tough. Could have happily played for hours.
Thank you for playing! The snowman can melt actually, but there is no animation for them. It was on my todo lists but with only 48 hours, there is so much I can do. I had to choose between having the same looking snowman with a melting animation, or various looking snowmen. I choose having different kinds because I didn't want the game to look to repetitive. Also yeah, that was in my ideas to see the snowmen run towards the exit. Thanks for the feedback!
The idea of flailing your arms around while on fire is as unique as the rest of this game, but I couldn't get the hang of it well enough and had to keep trying to progress. Moving my mouse quickly in order to flail didn't feel right to me (maybe I didn't get how I was supposed to move my mouse). I honestly would've preferred mashing a key or mouse button. But I loved the idea behind it.
Overall, great job especially on everything about the mood: music, artwork, and setting.
Thank you for the kind words. My tutorials were not very clear on that aspect, but you don't really need to flail your arms to burn things. All you need is having your arms pointing towards a "burn-able" object and that's all you need. And for setting your arms on fire, all you need to have your arms on fire is to touch the fire. No need of flailing. I believe the word "waving" in my tutorials was very misleading. Thank you for your feedback!
Some of my problems are that the health of yourself is somewhat hard to tell. And I sometimes tried to resuced snowman twice since after being rescued the just sort of move slightly. It isn't very obvious how they are being rescued.
Overall great entry.
Thanks for the feedback. I am aware of the tiles not being very clear. Having more time, I would of definitely went over my tiling and make sure to add the subtle hints about where you can step through. For now I assumed that seeing a bunch of snowmen across a wall, would intrigue the player to try going through the snow walls. Not very clear I must admit. Thank you for playing!
Thank you for playing! Yeah UI was also a lacking feature. At the end of the 48 hours, I was struggling trying to figure out what to prioritize in order to make sure that what will get delivered would be playable. Having had more time, the spriting and the UI would of been on my next tasks. Also, I do agree that just by touching the snowman didn't make it vert clear if they were rescued. The ultimate goal with them is to have them run towards the exit once saved, which would also indicate the player where to go within each level. Thank you for your feedback!
The interaction between player and the environment is interesting.
All the graphics and music are highly polished.
Nice work overall!
If you can expand it and make it a whole game, I'll play it.