Unity Thanksgiving and Christmas Games FREE CHRISTMAS IMAGES HERE

@GarBenjamin @randomperson42

Here is a (not even a DEMO) of the game I am making, there is only one enemy for now, you'll see it lol. (You can't kill it so don't try).

But it's just so y'all can see the Artwork mainly, it's like a quarter of the map.

(Still not done) There is gonna be so much more stuff than what you see, but I'm wanting opinions on how
y'all think the artwork looks.
I know it's different blending Normal maps into Toon shading, but I think it makes it look unique and really brings it out.

P.S. - when you get passed the huge ruins spot that's all I have so far.

Here is the LINK to the game.
http://warhead-designz.com/DEMOGAMES/WOD_WEB_Dev_Build_Data.html

 

OHHH, and I got to work on the jump more, you can walk up the invisible walls LOL.
Just haven't done it yet.

 

Final update (probably) to Santa's Rocketing Christmas Drop.

Total Time now 45 hours. @Misterselmo took time out of his busy schedule to draw a new Santa & sled (animated even) for me. Thanks! You are in the Credits of the game so hopefully you don't hate it. LOL!

Anyway, I spent 1 hour plugging in the new graphics, coding the animation and changing the positions where the gifts, snow thrust and black smoke are spawned to line up with the new image. I did not change the collision checking so I may need to do that but all seemed well in my brief play testing.

I think this makes the Title Screen look better. I could only work with what I had available ya know. This one fits the theme much better than that crappy clip art version:


And here it is in the actual game:


I spent even more time making a new collage and updating the screenshots on my new website.


You can play the game here.

 

Looks good to me, but I might be biased. I'll try it out tonight.

 

Okay, one more update to Santa's Rocketing Christmas Drop.

Total Time now 47 hours. I spent a good amount of time working on the controls. After getting feedback about the sled moving too quickly and play testing many many more times I had to agree it did feel a little slippery. So, I focused on the control and also decreasing the difficulty level in general. Of course, a big part of the challenge of an "old school" game like this is to figure out how to control your "ship". Often the key is not what you would think. In this game there are two distinct ways to be successful all revolving around which way you choose to fly around. Once you figure one out it should be very easy.

Anyway, since I was in the code and because I prefer joy pad control for games like this I went ahead added support for PC/PS3 game pads. No guarantee it will work with yours but it does with mine.



Okay, I think this wraps it up. After all it is just a simple game. Next year I can expand on it.

Anyway, please give it a try and hopefully if you found the previous versions too hard this one will be easier.

You can check it out here!

@N1warhead and @randomperson42 give it a go if you have a few minutes and see if this plays better / easier for you.

Thanks!

 

Kinda tough!

If you're looking for feedback, I would suggest making the chimneys bigger or at least easier to see.
Also you might consider some kind of bonus score or something when you complete a level without a single miss.

 

I'll it it out. (P.S. - I posted my current game I am working on (the 2.5 D) game. I posted it earlier (It's at the top of this page). You should try it out too.

 

Final update to Santa's Rocketing Christmas Drop.

Total Time now 48 hours. As I mentioned in one of my earlier updates a while back. I had all of the infrastructure defining the # of gifts to be delivered to each house. I just added the numbers up and used the totals. But since I originally planned on the player needing to deliver a certain # of gifts to each house and already had much of the work done I went ahead of finished it off. Just needed to implement the visual indication and turn off the colliders for the completed houses.

Each time a gift is delivered to a house it will darken. When it is completely black no more gifts can be delivered to it:


Latest version is online.

A couple of tips:

• Just because the sled can move fairly fast doesn't mean you should be flying around as fast as possible.
• Don't let other things distract you from your goal. This is the big one. I watched two players focus more on a secondary goal than the primary goal (the one that actually matters).

Thanks to the people who took the time to test my game. I appreciate it!

The game is challenging. Many people find it too difficult and that was a design goal. Part of the appeal of retro games is they often were darn hard but really it mostly depended on how you played them. For Santa's Rocketing Christmas Drop it actually seems much more difficult than it really is. The true difficulty depends on how you are playing the game. If you learn the mechanics and think about what is going on it is actually easy to complete the game. I know it may be hard to believe but it is true.

Now it is time to focus on the website and distribution of the game.

 

I got on it as soon as I made my post and just got out. Wow, the playfield is large. I noticed some issues regarding collisions near the far back of the map around the ruins. I am sure you already know that and is to be expected from an early W.I.P. Anyway, I liked it a lot. It has a different feel from most 3D games. The same as your Reindeer Crossing game. You have a unique style. That's a great thing!

I explored all around not just by the ruins but also went all the way to the other side and then walked to the east then back to the north again. At one point I saw some objects moving toward me. Thought "what the heck?" Continued walking back to the north and saw the contraption. lol That was a nice surprise.

However, in all of my journeying I only found 4 of 100 gems. Are there really 100 gems in there?

 

There's only 7 Crystals for now, but I'm going to have 100 on every map.

I'm assuming your talking about the Arrows that shoot you? .

Yeah I know about the collision problems, I just wanted to give a quick little demo of game, because the Art Work is the most important thing about this game, if the art looks like crap, I want to be told, so I don't get 600 hours into the game and have crap lol.

Do the Normal Maps make everything look good?
I think it brings it out greatly and not look bland.

 

Oh wow. I completely did not pay any attention to the graphics at all. I was just exploring the world and seeing what I could interact with (trying to smash stuff and jump all around the ruins).

I will have to play it again because I honestly don't remember what it looked like. But I can tell you I remember seeing what looked like Easter Island head shaped rocks, roots, green rocks, trees, a few crates. Oh as I recall bright green ground. Some cobblestone. Kind of totem pole like structure that shot the arrows at me. Oh and I remember some mountainy / hilly areas in the back where the trees are. And the character I do remember noticing a headband.

LOL! Honestly when I play a game I don't pay much attention to the graphics at all. Just the world. Interacting to see what I can and cannot do. Exploring and so forth.

I will check it out again.

 

Yeah Well I changed the mountains out now, it's going to be more like a Tropical level now, I figured it was better to see more than just a mountain in your face lol.....

But I was mainly trying to see if the Normal Maps made the toon shading come out more..
I think it looks great, but of course thats just my opinion lol

 

Oh yeah I think the graphics have a distinct look. They kind of "glow". The colors are very rich and vibrant.

 

Hey I sent you an Important message @GarBenjamin

 

Here's some dead leaves on the ground I took a picture of. Feel free to use them in anyway.

 

Haha I never thought about that, my yard is full of them as well!
Too bad they aren't seamless, I have a program that can do that though

 

The difficulty is high and that's awesome, I definitely think that this feels like it's locked in "hard mode". Also, the automatic reset to level 1 without any lives is totally barbaric! I have to admit that the clip art graphics definitely pushed me away from trying it, even though I figured it was going to be fun to play... and it was fun to play, and I wouldn't mind playing it more. However, I will have to say that it's far too brutal right now even for a retro game! 3 lives is the golden standard.

Also, one oddity... there's no place that tells you how many shots you can miss before you lose the ENTIRE GAME.

I know you've released it and all, but I still have to have my opinion. How about a quick and easy power-up that disables those little buggers... I lost most of the time due to their snowballs hitting my 100% perfect shots.

In all, good job, though. Once you added the scoring and all that, it's a pretty fun little game. It just needs to let you win a little more, at least in the first few levels.

Oh, the music and sound effects... all very well-tuned and fit the game perfectly. The houses darkening is a great touch, although I do wonder why I have to darken each house multiple times? That's a little fuzzy at first and I'm pretty good at figuring out patterns. Only last thing, I don't think you should "miss" if you hit a house that's already been darkened out. I think at worse it's a neutral "oops".

 

Thanks for testing it out! I appreciate it!

I could definitely change the Lost Gifts counter in the upper right corner, flipping it around to count down instead of counting up. Right now it gives a visual indication when you have only one more gift you can lose. When the entire Missed: XX counter turns flat red one more lost gift will lose the game.

I think flipping it around to count down sounds like a good improvement. I don't really want to implement extra lives in it. It'd be simple enough but I think what I can do is slightly reduce the intensity of the reindeer snowball throwing and increase the # of gifts that can be lost slightly.

Combined those 3 improvements should make quite a difference. Alright, I will do one more update later today. Right now I am about to leave the house. Need to go to town.

 

Looks good, I'm not sure I understand everything... I can climb on nothing and I can hold jump to scale walls? Lol. Weird stuff. I would say work out the collisions.

 

Yep, you could just make their snowball throwing tendencies based on how far you are in the game and I never noticed any visual indicator of no longer being able to miss any more shots. Also, yeah, I feel like missing 4 shots in level 1 and GAME OVER is harsh. Extra lives aren't necessarily fitting, now that you mention it.

But bonus "misses" makes total sense, I think. Also, what about a simple "streak" thing? Like if you score presents in rapid succession you're rewarded extra. Even space invaders had the red ship you could shoot, can't get more retro than space invaders.

Lol k, that's enough from me.

 

It's all great feedback. I thought about adding the scaling intensity for the reindeer throwing. It is all based on a timer. And a score too but never did. Basically I just want to wrap it up and get it out there then next year will release a sequel with my stuff I didn't get implemented and the great ideas a few of you have shared. Thanks! I willdo one more dev session on it to handle those 3 things from above post. At Wally World now. But sooner or later be home.

 

Okay, @Misterselmo @N1warhead @randomperson42 this is the Final update to Santa's Rocketing Christmas Drop.

Total Time now 49 hours.

Updates made this time:

• The Misses counter in the upper right corner has been changed to "Losses left" counter. It now shows how many gifts can be lost (miss the chimney) before you lose the game. When it shows 00 you cannot lose any more gifts. Your next lost gift will lose the game.
  
  
• The reindeer start out throwing snowballs much less than before and gradually each level the intensity of their snowball attacks increase until finally at level 10 it will be the same as it originally was in previous versions.
  
  
• The number of gifts that can be lost on each level has been increased slightly. In addition, the player can always lose at least 5 gifts which gives another bump to the first few lower levels.
  
  
• Increased the size of the stats at the top slightly. It is my hope now that it will be easier to see when the Losses left counter hits 0 and turns red. It used to do that when the counter ticked up to the max too. But maybe now with it counting down and the stats being a bit larger it will be more noticeable.

The game is much easier now. To me it seems too easy but I am hoping that for the rest of the world who have not played the game thousands of times (I play many dozens of times every time I make an update) will find it enjoyable, challenging and not so hard it is frustrating.

A couple more tips. When you drop a gift into the chimney the houses always darken a bit. When the house needs only 1 more fits it darkens significantly.

You can use this information the game is providing to play better. For example, in this screenshot I can see the blue house is quite dark but is not at the final darkness left. So I know I can safely drop 2 gifts in a row there.
The red house on the right is bright so I know I can drop at least 2 gifts there (unless I am at a very low level).


After dropping several gifts and watching the red house gradually darken, finally another gift caused it to darken significantly. Now, I know this red house needs only one more gift:


There is a lot of information being communicated by the game to help you along.

Another tip: use the snowballs to help guide you in position and when the sleigh drops you can end up right over a chimney. Now when the sleigh climbs back up into the sky spam those gifts.

Between the tips I just provided and the updates made to this last version I hope to see someone post a screenshot showing they completed the game.

If not at least post if you noticed it is easier.

Thanks again for all of the feedback!

This simple game ended up taking nearly 50 hours! I think it came out good and was worth the effort. Now I am done with this game dev project and time to get onto other projects as well as start on the game release phase.

 

I don't get it, all the houses are dark but I haven't delivered all my presents yet... what are you supposed to do?

 

Take a screenshot! And also write which house was the last one completed. If the houses are all completely black and the level does not end something is wrong. I have never seen that happen in all of my testing but it is always possible a bug got in. Also check to make sure the houses are not simply the darkest of their colors. If your brigtness is down it is possible the darkest blue may look very much like black

 

Oh you're right, it looked like it was getting too dark too fast.

 

Yeah I make it drop down significantly when the house needs only one more present. Supposed to be feedback from game just to let you know alright only one more needed here.

Thanks for trying it out. I appreciate it. The feedback you guys provided made it a better game.

I officially released to non devs today. I shared with some people at work. One never knows what to expect. YOU SUCK!! TOO DARN HARD! Etc. But so far all I heard was "That is AWESOME!", "It's addicting!" and "it reminds me of a better time in gaming!". So I call that a successful micro release. Now I need to roll it out. Really the game is just to serve as marketing for my website.