LudumData

Snowballin' by Frenchie

[raw]
made by Frenchie for LD34 (COMPO)
Be a baller as you roll down the hill and grow! Win the game by becoming the biggest thing on the slopes! Featuring procedural terrain generation and low-poly art!

How to play:
- Left/Right arrow keys to move
- Rolling over snow makes you grow
- Rolling over rocks, crystals, and trees that are smaller than you will absorb them and make you grow faster
- Rolling into rocks, crystals, and trees that are bigger than you causes you to shrink

How to win:
- Become bigger than anything else you encounter!

Full screen recommended! Right click -> "Go fullscreen"

Updates:
- Added a "Distance" score for when you win. Try to win in as little distance as possible!
- Increased the volume

I wrote up a tutorial on how I did the terrain generation (just the ground, not the objects). You can read it here if you're interested: http://ludumdare.com/compo/2015/12/16/snowballin-technical-post-mortem-procedural-terrain-generation-tutorial/
Web Player (Firefox required) (Fullscreen highly recommended! (right click)) https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/23137627/Snowballin%27/Web.html
Source https://github.com/Frenchie14/Snowballin
How I implemented the terrain generation http://ludumdare.com/compo/2015/12/16/snowballin-technical-post-mortem-procedural-terrain-generation-tutorial/
Original URL https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-34/?action=preview&uid=43979

Ratings

Coolness 57% 3
Overall 3.65 183
Audio 2.72 436
Fun 3.83 76
Graphics 3.83 157
Humor 2.84 269
Innovation 3.36 357
Mood 3.26 290
Theme 4.14 125

Feedback

Tensoplast01
14. Dec 2015 路 07:53 UTC
No challenge, but so fun :3 Like the concept. It's just a shame that we can't grow (or i failed?). But the fact that we kick off the trees or rocks is sooooooo funny
馃帳 Frenchie
14. Dec 2015 路 17:13 UTC
@Tensoplast01
You failed :P Hitting things that are bigger than you makes you shrink! I just made it so you couldn't lose so that everyone gets a chance to enjoy it :)
StabAlarash
14. Dec 2015 路 18:56 UTC
Eh nice game too, feels like katamari on ice ^^
wilsk
14. Dec 2015 路 19:27 UTC
Nice little zen-like game. Initially I tried to avoid the obstacles, then when I realised you could stick them to you... ooooo!

I did like the way the terrain formed up in front of you as you rolled downhill, although it was sometimes a bit too obvious when it seemed like the seams in the ground closed just as you rolled over them.

Thanks!
sydan
14. Dec 2015 路 21:24 UTC
My girlfriend and I played this game and we both loved it! At first we didn't know if the ball was growing but once we got the hang of it we really enjoyed the mechanic! Congrats on the great game!
馃帳 Frenchie
15. Dec 2015 路 05:13 UTC
@StabAlarash
Although I've never owned a Katamari game, it was clearly an inspiration in my design ^^

@wilsk
I tried to vary the rate of the terrain coming up so that it wouldn't look so robotic. I guess the lower bound is too slow!

@sydan
Glad you guys enjoyed it!
dustyroom
15. Dec 2015 路 07:46 UTC
I could play this forever.
Epicruins195
15. Dec 2015 路 07:59 UTC
Fun little experience. Seems very difficult to lose, but maybe that was intended. The procedural generation is nice; I especially like the way the terrain pops up in front of you, although when you get big it becomes pretty obvious. Low poly art is good too. Nice work!
ajopart
15. Dec 2015 路 08:00 UTC
Great game. Fun, simple and neat. I had almost gave up before seeing the first rock stick to the ball and then everything made sense.
piper82
15. Dec 2015 路 08:09 UTC
very good and fun. sometimes when you start you only get big rocks and when you grow you get fields of pebbles.
馃帳 Frenchie
15. Dec 2015 路 08:11 UTC
@dustyroom
Sorry the game ends :P Also, I think Unity would likely crash if you played long enough. I had to start the player way off the center of the world because otherwise the shaders would flicker after a while

@Epicruins195
My last two LD games were impossibly difficult, so I thought I should make games people could actually enjoy :)

@ajopart
Glad you rolled over something smaller! I'm guessing you wouldn't be the first one to miss that!
馃帳 Frenchie
15. Dec 2015 路 08:12 UTC
@piper82
It's all random! You either get fields of something for a little while or just total randomness. If I had had more time I would have tried to be a little smarter about how I generated the obstacles. But... 48 hours... xD
Tony Coculuzzi
15. Dec 2015 路 19:43 UTC
pretty fun! I really loved the look of it too, nice and simple, and clean
zebi24
15. Dec 2015 路 20:22 UTC
It's so nice livin' life of a baller.
Great game!
Starspell
16. Dec 2015 路 04:47 UTC
That was really sweet. I love the graphical style and just how fun it is. Needs a bit more sound support and better performance optimization but overall very nice.

My thoughts during play:

"Awww yeah! Getting pretty big now. I can take down anything! ... What's that? A forest of giant trees that I'm not quite large enough to absorb but too large to avoid!? NoooooooOOOoooooooOooo!"
micky
16. Dec 2015 路 04:55 UTC
nice game, i like the models :), sometimes couldn't see with all the snow coming up when hitting trees and what not but overall a fun game
馃帳 Frenchie
16. Dec 2015 路 05:15 UTC
@Starspell
What kind of performance problems were you having? This should run fine on just about any computer
Andrew Deem
16. Dec 2015 路 05:29 UTC
Okay, this is stupidly fun. Good work. :) And nice use of both themes. I played another snowballer game this LD already, but this is the superior one.
TaylorAnderson
16. Dec 2015 路 05:44 UTC
loved this game. my only wish would be that the game scale more to my ball's size. in the early game i felt it almost impossible to get going, but in the late game i basically couldnt be stopped. really great game though! gotta love those low-poly graphics.
Quadnozzle
16. Dec 2015 路 05:52 UTC
Fun game, but no way to lose plus being forced to roll through several forests kills the challenge. Really enjoy the procedural generation though. Would be really neat if play could continue forever. Nice entry.
blohod
16. Dec 2015 路 06:01 UTC
It took me 4735m, I am really bad, first load after looking at how to play I fell through the ground on start. Also there is a really annoying size where you are too big to avoid trees and too small to eat them.
The Merge Conflicts
16. Dec 2015 路 06:02 UTC
Nice game, but why can't I grow as a snowball...sad
Bogden
16. Dec 2015 路 06:21 UTC
Loved Katamari Damacy, and I love this!
Oye Beto
16. Dec 2015 路 06:59 UTC
A WebGL or Windows version would've been cool.
mukult
16. Dec 2015 路 07:21 UTC
Somebody else made a similar snowball game ....
I like yours and his entry too!!
Your game kinda has more satisfaction though... :P Loved it!! Nice work!
lordsavage
16. Dec 2015 路 07:34 UTC
Great game, only pity was the total loss of visibility when i ran into a few trees one after the other (without being big enough to eat them)..

Collision detection, terrain gen, and the camera perspective were all great!. A very polished entry.
ryan.poitras
16. Dec 2015 路 08:07 UTC
Very nice, good use of both themes. Very impressive work in such a short time frame. Much better than I did :P

Some constructive criticism: I felt that the difficulty was a bit backwards. It "snowballs" quite a lot haha. Beginning almost everything stops you and it takes a little while to be big enough to start picking things up, then once you've collected a few it becomes WAY too easy and you can almost let go of the controls.
Evergreen Games
16. Dec 2015 路 09:04 UTC
Really fun! like others said its basically katamari + skiing
Erlend Aakre
16. Dec 2015 路 10:16 UTC
Awesome graphics and controls, love that you've put up the source code, nice way of making the level.

Did have some issues with not colliding with the top of the mountain unless moving the ball a lot right after the game starts.
Modoc73
16. Dec 2015 路 10:23 UTC
Wasn't loading for me. Wanted to play this one.
jackyjjc
16. Dec 2015 路 10:27 UTC
Very nicely executed game. The visual is simple but great, it is just very fun too keep rolling up all the things. Well done! I know the terrains are randomly generated but it would be nice if they can be less random (sometimes you just run into a thick forest and lost everything, it is kind of frustrating at that point.)
Janacek
16. Dec 2015 路 13:06 UTC
Cool game ! Just the random generation that made me enter a long tree part too big for me :p
VladRusu
16. Dec 2015 路 15:22 UTC
It's fun to play even though I didn't get it at first :)) really cool design!
馃帳 Frenchie
16. Dec 2015 路 17:04 UTC
Thanks for all the feedback everyone! I'm going to do a little bit of work to make a post-compo edition with harder modes and various improvements! :D
DinnerInTheDark
16. Dec 2015 路 18:36 UTC
I've balled it twice! Very nice interpretation of the theme, very cool level generation, overall, very cool :)
xWarZonex
16. Dec 2015 路 18:51 UTC
Best game I've played so far! So much fun and very complete! I loved it! 5/5
renegadeninjanl
16. Dec 2015 路 19:19 UTC
Good game, but your procedural generation could use some tweaking. Sometimes I am surrounded by bigger trees and at other times I am surrounded by tiny rocks. It made one section too easy and the next too hard. But I did enjoy the game overall. Nice work!
scottthoo
17. Dec 2015 路 03:13 UTC
Enjoyed the game, nice work !
ProgramYourFace
17. Dec 2015 路 04:13 UTC
SUPER similar to mine ;(. If we mixed my controls and your world it would be an interesting game ;).
VitasaMode
17. Dec 2015 路 04:43 UTC
Cool Katamri clown. it took a while for my snowball to grow but when it, oh boy I got excited. there were a couple of glitches where the snowball would clip through the ground but when I restarted the game it worked fine. Overall good job.
Rfdshir
17. Dec 2015 路 10:46 UTC
Yeah, good game. Despite of strange level generation, very positive impression.
Tuism
17. Dec 2015 路 12:51 UTC
Another take on the eat and grow and can't eat smaller things theme - the problem here is that it's REALLY difficult to tell what counts as smaller and what counts as bigger. That's very important information.

The camera doesn't always work and often I'm stuck pretty much going blind with no idea what's going on. And lag.

Solid game and looks great, the terrain generation is ace :)
KayZ
18. Dec 2015 路 16:39 UTC
I really liked the way the objects popped up and I was sad when the game ended :(. Got to play again!
Farelle
18. Dec 2015 路 16:54 UTC
haha it's fun that everything that was slowing you down in the beginning is later just assimilated ;D
Farelle
18. Dec 2015 路 16:54 UTC
argh, forgot to rate something*submits*
Sir Magic
19. Dec 2015 路 12:10 UTC
Nice game in general, loved building up everything on my snowball.
wdebowicz
19. Dec 2015 路 18:54 UTC
That was Fun and enjoyable! Btw while full-screen I get error "Could not switch to request monitor resolution"
dcRfj15
20. Dec 2015 路 21:04 UTC
Great job! It was really fun to crush everything and become a very large snowball.

I really wish that the level kept generating after I beat the game because I really wanted to become bigger and bigger XD. Overall very innovative, and great use of the theme!
piper82
22. Dec 2015 路 13:22 UTC
@Frenchie its a superb effort however. i always fail to praise the good points when they are too obvious. i saw your progress post before the comp ended and i thought to myself wow this is cool. and it is. superb game in such a short time. i merely mentioned my only tiny gripe instead of praising the good points. i really loved the mechanics and visual style.
michidk
24. Dec 2015 路 01:35 UTC
Very fun game! Your post about terrain generation is very helpfull, thanks!
mahalis
25. Dec 2015 路 03:46 UTC
Fun! Felt almost peaceful, despite the whole barreling-down-a-mountain thing. Nice art style, and good work on the terrain generation - the way bits of it visibly rose up in front of me gave it a cool, kind of dreamlike style. Well done.
justinooncx
29. Dec 2015 路 08:22 UTC
May not be the most original ideas, but it's definitely one of the more well-polished ones. Fun, and not too challenging!
Stals
29. Dec 2015 路 09:44 UTC
At first, I thought that I just should avoid obstacles and increase in size by rolling on the snow, but then I accidentally picked up the rock - and the real game began. Excellent game, great job!
zenmumbler
31. Dec 2015 路 09:45 UTC
It gives me a strange feeling when the world floats up in front of me. Nice implementation of the snow roller sub-theme (mine is in that category too) and sort of a serene way to play. Soothing.
speciesUnknown
02. Jan 2016 路 01:09 UTC
Very calming game, with the snow and the generally soft sounds - you should add more objects , such as skiers and a yeti - but don't overdo it.

I got too big to avoid trees and that limited my growth, I went through a forest before getting back to open slopes - are you using perlin noise or something like that?

Great work.