Snowballing Out of Control! by Shipshape Detour
There's a snowball, and it's rolling down the hill. You have to get the snowball to the finish line as fast as possible! Sounds easy, right? Snowballing Out of Control! is a game that takes that simple concept and makes it a bit more difficult.

When the snowball rolls on snow, it picks up the snow and gets heavier. The heavier the snowball is, the more difficult it is to move. Roll the snowball on grass to drop some snow and get lighter! There are also trees and snow banks in the way. If you hit a snow bank, you'll pick up a lot of snow and slow down. If you hit a tree, something disastrous will happen. Try your best to avoid them!
Controls
A/Left - move left
D/Right - move right
R - restart

Changes
1.0.2 (4 December 2017) - added support for software OpenGL.
1.0.1 (3 December 2017) - minor fixes for physics bugs.
1.0.0 (3 December 2017) - initial release.
| Windows | https://shipshape-detour.itch.io/snowballing-out-of-control |
| Windows | |
| Source code | https://bitbucket.org/ShipshapeDetour/ld40 |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/snowballing-out-of-control |
Ratings
| Overall | 158th | 3.7⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 73th | 3.875⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 217th | 3.425⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 74th | 4.1⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 209th | 3.625⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 21🗳️ | 4🗨️ |
@regularjohn4: I set 495 lb as the maximum weight as I found that anything beyond that makes obstacles way to difficult to avoid. I might increase it, though.
@nardandas: In the future, I will add an endless mode, and allow the snowball to move freely around the whole map.
I have some suggestions:
- Add outline to important objects like the snowball, the trees & stuff
- Add fog to hide the object popping (Object apearing far away)
Edit: I tried it from the command prompt and got this error:
```
Exception in thread "LWJGL Application" com.badlogic.gdx.utils.GdxRuntimeExcepti
on: OpenGL 2.0 or higher with the FBO extension is required. OpenGL version: 1.1
.0
Type: OpenGL
Version: 1:1:0
Vendor: Microsoft Corporation
Renderer: GDI Generic
at com.badlogic.gdx.backends.lwjgl.LwjglGraphics.initiateGLInstances(Lwj
glGraphics.java:380)
at com.badlogic.gdx.backends.lwjgl.LwjglGraphics.initiateGL(LwjglGraphic
s.java:259)
at com.badlogic.gdx.backends.lwjgl.LwjglGraphics.setupDisplay(LwjglGraph
ics.java:250)
at com.badlogic.gdx.backends.lwjgl.LwjglApplication.mainLoop(LwjglApplic
ation.java:144)
at com.badlogic.gdx.backends.lwjgl.LwjglApplication$1.run(LwjglApplicati
on.java:126)
```
467lb
good game
I think You may implement something to reduce the snowball size and add particle animations on it, that would make this game a stress-killer
the maxium is 500lb? I want to have a screen-sized snowball:(
my weight, I think it is a worthy achievement :D
Good job on this one guys!
How do you make a game using Java, though? I'm curious. I saw some people doing the same thing, and I also saw a few submissions here that use Java.
EDIT: I also enjoy the meter and counter graphics, great job!
Awesome game! If I had to improve anything:
- at higher speeds the ball don't have to slow down on collision with snow bank
- add some particles on hit with tree and snow bank!
- music and audio
It could be a hit on android! Just make the steering by accelerometer!
Anyway, I think it would _seriously_ help this game if it had some jingly music (mayhap with bells in) and/or some SFX with snow sounds. ... but this has been mentioned already I see. (Why'd you opt out of 'Mood' anyway? It has a decent mood I think?)
Another thing that I can think of is that the snowbanks, even if they connect brilliantly to the _theme_, don't do anything _other_ than make life difficult for you, meaning that the best way to play the game right now is to avoid them completely, like you would with trees. I think you can make this mechanic more interesting (and you even have the 'grass = less snow' implemented already) is if it also had some positive, like if the added snow made you either go faster, or _make you able to survive more trees to the face_. Just a suggestion of course!