Snowball Extravaganza by mackthehobbit

[raw]
made by mackthehobbit for LD34 (COMPO)
** This game was designed for and should be played in Google Chrome for the best results. The worst graphical problems in Firefox have been fixed, but there is still some minor clunkiness in the background and severe lag happens when there are a lot of entities. IE is untested. Please ignore any browser-related problems when rating! **

This is a game about snowballs. Who doesn't love snowballs?

Mouse1 will roll your snowball towards the cursor, while Mouse2 allows you to throw a small snowball (at the cost of some snow!). Rolling over objects that are smaller than you will make you grow.

If you find a house, try rolling over it! You may need to throw snowballs to pack it down to size first.

Your snowball is prone to melting, so watch out for bombs! These nasty little goblins keep throwing them... If you find a goblin tower, be sure to wreck it!

Crush goblins, destroy houses, and most importantly: have fun!

Written in JavaScript without any libraries. Currently, a mouse with two buttons is required to play, but a solution for touch-screens etc. may be added if requested.

Ratings

Coolness 66% 3
Overall 3.59 218
Audio 1.63 677
Fun 3.74 104
Graphics 3.46 297
Humor 3.31 133
Innovation 3.45 292
Mood 3.14 359
Theme 4.18 104

Feedback

Sublustris
14. Dec 2015 路 05:57 UTC
Nice idea :)
mcmahoniel
14. Dec 2015 路 06:18 UTC
Very clever idea! I love the small Katamari influence. :)
graceavery
14. Dec 2015 路 06:34 UTC
Haha, I love the derpy pixel santa. Fun and very cute art!
馃帳 mackthehobbit
14. Dec 2015 路 07:10 UTC
Thanks for the feedback! I've just done the first test in a browser other than Chrome (Firefox) and noticed some terrible graphical issues. I'm trying to fix that up now...
馃帳 mackthehobbit
14. Dec 2015 路 07:27 UTC
Ok; the worst of Firefox's issues are fixed, but I think the background scrolling seems more clunky (which I won't be able to fix). Any reports on IE/Safari? I suspect IE will have stitching issues etc. too.
dusho
14. Dec 2015 路 07:58 UTC
wow.. that was something :)
grew my blocky ball so it didn't fit on screen.. then got to <1 FPS
good work
jerry111zhang
14. Dec 2015 路 08:12 UTC
Great idea!
Ghen
14. Dec 2015 路 08:13 UTC
hahahaha, nice game!, remind me of katamari
John Drury
14. Dec 2015 路 08:13 UTC
Funny game. Kinda of reminds me of skifree. Can see this becoming an endless runner on mobile!
RadMcCool
14. Dec 2015 路 10:17 UTC
good christmassy fun :D
prymidion
14. Dec 2015 路 11:04 UTC
A good time. Hope I never in a house that can be taken down by tossing snowballs.

The katamari vibe is well placed here!

I like your graphics. The little goblins tunneling out of the ground are fun, and those are some nice jaggedy purple mountains you have in the background there.

Was there audio??
wuppy29
14. Dec 2015 路 11:28 UTC
Nice idea to have attacks make you weaker. Too me a bit to figure out that you could actually destroy houses though. Feedback on that would've been nice.
MorganLeFay
14. Dec 2015 路 11:57 UTC
Great idea incorporation both themes!
馃帳 mackthehobbit
14. Dec 2015 路 12:00 UTC
Unfortunately, there is no audio. I was going to add some BFXR sounds ('whump' for snow etc) and a quick chiptune, but I didn't get time. I spent a lot of the weekend doing other stuff, and I only started adding towers 45 minutes or so before the deadline...
@wuppy29 Houses will show wear in the form of snow on the roof and walls. If you're big enough, you can also roll straight over them.
jcwelgemoed
14. Dec 2015 路 12:26 UTC
Cool game. love how the characters get stuck on snowball :)
goffmog
14. Dec 2015 路 12:34 UTC
Really really solid entry, so much fun, runs beautifully.

Really can't find anything negative to say except that having to throw lots of snow at houses before I can squish them gets a bit repetitive and stops me from just rolling around squishing things which is where the real fun in this game lies. I would love to see hills added too.

Nice to see another snowball based game :)
馃帳 mackthehobbit
14. Dec 2015 路 13:00 UTC
All this positive feedback (and some problems I'm aware of :P) makes me want to update this post-LD. I think it could do well on mobile: I was thinking there could be different game modes.

Survival would be like the current game, but more difficult and focused on not dying. Sandbox (or snowbox) would just be rolling around and achieving hilarity, and there'd be an endless mode based on getting distance too (maybe down hills?)

It'd be a complete rewrite of course, but could be fun!
freddyw9
14. Dec 2015 路 15:42 UTC
Great idea and I love the pixel art.
aamatniekss
14. Dec 2015 路 15:43 UTC
Pretty funny :D
TheSteveIAm
14. Dec 2015 路 16:08 UTC
2D Katamari! Love it!
tanjent
16. Dec 2015 路 18:52 UTC
mack: You should def. continue with this. I think you should go all in on a christmas theme (like jingle bell music etc.) snow blizzards/snow castle bosses, fights with other balls ... Perhaps you could sell it to some company that needs an ad-app/promotion for the next holiday season. The basic idea is very simple so anyone should be able to get it instantly.. And you can cute it up/spice it up to infinity with IAP and upgrades etc.
sP0CkEr2
21. Dec 2015 路 06:08 UTC
very nice game - great controls - great idea - well done
Jupiter_Hadley
28. Dec 2015 路 17:05 UTC
Nice graphics, cool game. I included it in my Ludum Dare 34 compilation video series, if you鈥檇 like to check it out :) https://youtu.be/Fm6iQk47yZ0
Clabbage
29. Dec 2015 路 06:12 UTC
Was a bit unbalanced; after I was larger than the towers I could just keep rolling in one direction forever.