A game made in Dart using WebGL and Web Audio. Should run fine on most modern browsers, but you need to manually enable WebGL in Safari to get it to run.
Santa has forgotten about Christmas, and needs to gather wood for his elves, so they can make the gifts in time. But Santa only has ONE minute to do so!
What a fun game, excellent presentation! For some reason my arrow keys didn't show instructions the first time I played so I didn't know what I was doing. Next time they did, and got the idea.
Really like the lighting effects, getting darker as you go and the torch lighting at the end. Nice and smooth too, Chrome only at 9% on my desktop PC. Straightforward use of the actual theme, but the snowy Christmas theme is really great.
Truly amazing. Like an Atari game mixed with Space Harrier. Awesome work. Well done.
E
Elite680915 Dec 2013, 18:57
Looks the part but gameplay-wise isn't great. You need a great deal of luck with the random generation to get anywhere above 700 points before the minute is up. The tentacles? Goop? stuff seems a little out of place as well and I'm not quite sure what benefit collecting it does. However it is fun to play a bit and it's very impressive that it's done in Dart and HTML5.
The tentacles are because of Cthulhu, of course. To use the goop, and to get closer to being able to beat the game, hold the jump button and tap the chop button.
The game and the graphics are really cool. But I think the concept is not that original. But you're still the best programmer I've ever seen in my entire life.
Compelling. The controls felt very tight and nicely tuned with a real pop to them. Very readable graphics and the sound adds a sense of gravitas to proceedings. Jolly and complete, thanks!
I played the early version of this game that you posted on Twitter, I think that this game is really fun, although I am having terrible performance issues? I am sure it's my end, but I am only getting like 3FPS at best. The older version that you put up on Twitter played fine though. Nice work. (I did not rate this game as I feel the performance on my machine is not an accurate representation of this game.)
Saw some of your stream while I was making my game, nice job, the final product turned out pretty good. My biggest complaint would be that the game isn't all that 'fun' as it's pretty much just key spamming, but I really like the actual look of the game.
Also, the sounds didn't work on Firefox for some reason, had to switch to Chrome to hear them.
Thanks Notch. I've been doing games in Dart for a little bit more than a year and I felt quite lonely with a maximum of only one or two other people creating games in Dart. Thanks to your stream and this game it'll probably be different at the next Ludum Dare.
Also thanks for your stream. Seeing that you still kept coding when I wanted to sleep made me stay up and keep coding too. Thanks to that I was able to finally finish a game in this LD.
Last but not least, this game encourages me to take a dive into WebGL :).
S
stayg0lden16 Dec 2013, 08:01
Fun game, but my wrist hurts from failing to much.
I like the visual style and atmosphere. The snow particles are a nice touch.
The gameplay itself is a bit monotonous, but perhaps with refinement it could be enjoyable. I feel like the density of objects makes it tough to see ahead and to plan, which makes the game feel a bit frustrating at times, but of course we can't always have what is ideal given 48 hours!
Game looks great as usual, however nice it looks and how smoothly it goes, there's very little replay value on there. There's no achievement feedback except for how many points you got and if you made the goal (which is incredibly hard, actually too hard). It quickly becomes boring although random placement, a really effortless addition to make this the *fun* game it could've been would be progressing onto new "levels", small variations in landscape, maybe some basic NPCs as hinders, upgrades or such, just something that tells you your effort is worth it! (Some new stimuli goes a long way!) You had loads of time to spare, so I don't see why you wouldn't try to make the game less minimalist, objectively speaking. On the other hand though, you made this game in a lot less than 48 hours, so it's still a tremendous achievement, but like I said, some very minimal additions could've made it that much more enjoyable because it's a fun concept. :)
- Overboard difficult to win. - Painful controls - Buggy collision resolution and world ticks. - No rewards, variation or some sort of dynamic. - Can't restart the run if I know I won't win. - No replay value
webgl - nice choice! well done on getting a game in 3d within 2 days!
J
juxiliary16 Dec 2013, 11:11
Nice game. I think games like this are funnest without a fixed time. I prefer having one life or an extendable time limit. That way your high score depends more on skill rather than on how the trees generated.
Others have said it's pretty hard, but I found it rather easy, won first time. I guess that not everyone picked up on how to use goop (hold a and tap s).
I liked that you tried an interesting perspective and an ambitious genre, so gave 5's in innovation, humor and mood (Christmas!). The weakest parts were the audio and theme (3's) but overall it was good and fun (4's) :) While the time spent on the effects is very cute, I think additional gameplay mechanics should have been introduced instead to make it more fun, such as up-down for speed, upgrades, or better score/point rewards. It'd be nice to have some background ambient sound/music, even if just blowing/whistling in a mike to represent cold wind. Great for entering :)
The game looked great, but in terms of gameplay I didn't think that it was the best. At times I was hitting A and S randomly, which made me progress further than I was before, when I was trying to play properly. Some music would have made it a lot more engaging too!
A nicely polished game. Hard to gauge depth and I would have lurved to hear a Christmassy jingle in the background. Otherwise, a merry old time was had playing this baby. :)
I like the awesome graphics and the great atmosphere. Due to your interpretation of the theme the game is really short, multiple levels or stages would have been nice. Maybe santa has to chop wood around the world. But the only thing really missing for a christmas game is a christmas song.
Gathering the wood and killing the tentacles is pretty fun. I wish there was more to do, but I like the feel of the controls as well as the art in the game.
Considering your recent tweets about how many sprites you can render and still pull 60 fps, I'm disappointed that my screen was not filled with more sprites!
Well, the theme reminds me a bit of 10sec one. It was hard to everyone to came up with very original ideas. The game lacks a bit of fun and music. I like pixel art graphisms. It serves tour game well.
Very nice game, good use of the theme. Very nice difficulty as well, and fun to play, though I'm still not sure what exactly the goop does. Also nice title. Good luck and keep at it!
It's a game! Sorry to say, but I wonder how much the lack of music brings down my general score. No music gives a low audio rating, of course, but it also decreases the mood a bit, since the graphics and especially the lovely effect of nightfall approaching were really quite pretty, and in the end it also brings down the fun - a catchy track could have done so much for a game like this.
Along with graphics, on the other hand, I gave you a high score on the humour – you had me at the game's title.
I must say, you really should've made the up arrow key be the jump button instead. My brain didn't work properly when it came to jumping and chopping with the same hand, for some reason.
A game, I suppose. Music, and at least to my sloppy brain, better controls, would've boosted the score, definitely. Perhaps you could do what I did about the music this time around, if you want to work on your own but can't make music, which was to let Wolfram Alpha generate some for me: http://tones.wolfram.com/generate/
Liked the 3D graphics used, and I found the obviously simplified grammar amusing. However in my opinion, using time as a way to connect the theme a weak concept.
I find the gameplay and aesthetics really underwhelming. It's a complete package that functions well, but there's not much to think about in-game, and as mentioned above, the colors are either overly saturated or not at all, with no hue-shift in the shading.
I hope this doesn't come off as 'hating' simply because you're Notch, I have a ton of respect for your work.
D-e-X already gave you a good feedback so I won't repeat what was told. Just a note about sounds : they end to be really annoying. I'm not sure how to fix it, but maybe a more quiet sound for the jump and a stronger visual feedback would allow the same comprenhension without the annoyment. Good overall, I liked it. Thanks for the game !
Very nice concept and polished. I like the graphics and sounds and as well, the gameplay is good although I think it's hard. How did you decide where to put every object? is it generated ramdonly?.
Great polish here. Looks and feels great, though it's punishingly difficult to win (I didn't).
There's a game-breaking bug when playing in my default browser, though. You're not preventing key events from bubbling, so they trigger typeahead find for me in Firefox. The first time I hit 'a', it brings up the search box, taking focus away from the game. To fix, just call .stopPropagation() and .preventDefault() on the key events you want to consume. It's an easy thing to overlook. =)
No sound in Firefox on OS X. Looks like the game doesn't even try to load the WAV files?
I like the game, the trick to winning is to know exactly what you need to do to kill the tentacles and to use the gloop when you have it. Very well polished game.
This a well done game, I can't say otherwise. I liked (your usual) "pixel-art in a 3D world" style. :)
But I didn't find the game fun at all... :( I felt the game was only about mashing the 's' button... and that's it. I didn't feel compelled to keep playing it only for a higher score...
Nice entry in the sense that i was surprised by what this game turned out to be. The mechanic with the goop was very important to discover. :D I loved the menu's and the personality of the messages.
The gameplay is a bit repetitive, and gathering all the needed wood in just one minute seems nearly impossible. On the other hand, the graphics and the falling snow make a nice mood together.
The controls were a bit off for me for some reason. And it moved too quickly for me. But maybe I'm just slow? Could have made do with some sound effects. But maybe that's just me. Neat idea.
Comments164
Really like the lighting effects, getting darker as you go and the torch lighting at the end. Nice and smooth too, Chrome only at 9% on my desktop PC. Straightforward use of the actual theme, but the snowy Christmas theme is really great.
But I think the concept is not that original.
But you're still the best programmer I've ever seen in my entire life.
I played it alteast 10 times, and only won a couple, it's pretty time consuming.
The art is fantastic, you always do a good job on art :)
"This is Player. Santa used up Player's time. But Player is cool with that"
hahahaha, nice, nice.
-ENDESGA
has a nice finished quality to it -- I love the subtle animations on the title screen... even just having the snow fall adds a nice mood.
Please rate mine, if you have the time.
Also, the sounds didn't work on Firefox for some reason, had to switch to Chrome to hear them.
+ The 3D runner looked quite awesome.
+ Liked the instructions in the beginning.
+ Loved the Night effects. Reminded me of Enduro!
- No sound? awww :-(
- This game gave me carpal tunnel syndrome :-P Maybe holding S you can continuously attack?
Thanks for the game!
Also thanks for your stream. Seeing that you still kept coding when I wanted to sleep made me stay up and keep coding too. Thanks to that I was able to finally finish a game in this LD.
Last but not least, this game encourages me to take a dive into WebGL :).
The gameplay itself is a bit monotonous, but perhaps with refinement it could be enjoyable. I feel like the density of objects makes it tough to see ahead and to plan, which makes the game feel a bit frustrating at times, but of course we can't always have what is ideal given 48 hours!
So to sum up:
+ Graphics (incl. fx)
+ Humor (dry)
+ Overall feels and looks somewhat high-end.
+ Creative
- Overboard difficult to win.
- Painful controls
- Buggy collision resolution and world ticks.
- No rewards, variation or some sort of dynamic.
- Can't restart the run if I know I won't win.
- No replay value
Others have said it's pretty hard, but I found it rather easy, won first time. I guess that not everyone picked up on how to use goop (hold a and tap s).
Nice audio.
Needs preventDefault on keydown to prevent type-to-search in Firefox!
Overall a pretty sweet game.
Well done, a stellar little game.
Also nice title.
Good luck and keep at it!
Along with graphics, on the other hand, I gave you a high score on the humour – you had me at the game's title.
I must say, you really should've made the up arrow key be the jump button instead. My brain didn't work properly when it came to jumping and chopping with the same hand, for some reason.
A game, I suppose. Music, and at least to my sloppy brain, better controls, would've boosted the score, definitely. Perhaps you could do what I did about the music this time around, if you want to work on your own but can't make music, which was to let Wolfram Alpha generate some for me: http://tones.wolfram.com/generate/
Amazing how well is runs though.. only dart and html5, nice work.
5 for graphics, mood and audio.
I hope this doesn't come off as 'hating' simply because you're Notch, I have a ton of respect for your work.
Good overall, I liked it. Thanks for the game !
Loved the art of the game. Are the purple trees a reference to Day of the Tentacle?
What could be improved:
- more entity types
- stupid AND/OR catchy music
Also, in a totally different topic, I Love you Notch <3
So a nice little added depth by adding the goop.
I like it. Also good classic Notch art-style.
This was a lot of fun and has neat mechanics. I've yet to make the damned child happy, but I'm trying...900 so far.
There's a game-breaking bug when playing in my default browser, though. You're not preventing key events from bubbling, so they trigger typeahead find for me in Firefox. The first time I hit 'a', it brings up the search box, taking focus away from the game. To fix, just call .stopPropagation() and .preventDefault() on the key events you want to consume. It's an easy thing to overlook. =)
No sound in Firefox on OS X. Looks like the game doesn't even try to load the WAV files?
-mildmojo
Nice game.
but I really like the artwork!
But I didn't find the game fun at all... :(
I felt the game was only about mashing the 's' button... and that's it. I didn't feel compelled to keep playing it only for a higher score...
Treepunching ftw! :D
Nice graphics thought.
(I reeealy like minecraft, such a huge fan!)
Anyways I thought it was really fun! It was well lengthed as a jam game too. I always like the sound effects in your games :)