So at the fall of our beloved ☃, myself and my partner could not come up with a solid game idea soley off of the theme “Entire Game on One Screen”, which I think is not a theme but a technical limitation. As I’ve stated on Twitter, this does not influence one’s idea, just how it is presented, which in my opinion does not improve the jam.

That said, we decided to essentially go with the theme of ☃ anyway, while accepting the limitation of keeping everything on the one screen. While searching for inspiration, my partner found a screenshot from a game named Nox Timore, which piqued his interest. We haven’t played the game itself, but that image gave my partner the idea to have a Slender-esque game of a protagonist stuck in a forest, beset on all sides by advancing snowmen. They can only be fended off by throwing snowballs, which require the player to look down to collect.

I’m not a huge fan of horror or horror-esque games myself, but as we discussed it a slightly different design grew, with influence from the limited movement and actions of Five Nights at Freddy’s. Our protagonist is now at an abandoned Christmas tree lot, being hunted by the snowmen as they slowly advance on the player’s position. They dart behind obstacles and can only be clearly seen (and slowed) by turning on rows of christmas lights, similar to the door lights in Freddy’s:

The player must still gather snow to make snowballs, but while doing so takes his hand off the light switch, plunging the entire lot into darkness. While I’m still not entirely sold on the horror concept, I think this might have enough strategy to still be fun and engaging. We’ve laid out the scene similarly to the concept art as shown below:

The green blocks will be trees which the snowmen hide behind. Gameplay should be possible in the next few hours here, wish us luck!