☃ Jingle Calls ☃

Overall★★★★★★★★★★2.66
Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.26
Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.28
Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.23
Graphics★★★★★★★★★★2.02
Humor★★★★★★★★★★3.09
Mood★★★★★★★★★★2.46
Coolness★★★★★★★★★★100%
This game was programmed in C# and only uses WinForms. It should be able to run on Linux and OSX using Mono (http://mono-project.com).

We took the theme of "Entire Game on One Screen" and decided to make a game about screening calls! (It's also on one screen.)

In ☃ Jingle Calls ☃ , you play ☃ , secretary to Mr. Claws at the North Pole. Mr. Claws doesn't want to be disturbed, except by callers that he wants to talk to, so screen them carefully! If you make Santa mad, you might get a pinkslip.

Jingle Calls was created by: Jesse W. Schirmer, Charlotte M. Ellett, Stephanie Clark, Ashley West

If you're going to PAX South, swing by booth #1551 and say hello!

The team was hosted by MindGear Labs (http://mindgearlabs.com).

screenshot

Comments32

dylanwolf
dylanwolf9 Dec 2014, 05:16
Pretty funny. Reminds me of Papers Please. And it triggers the visceral reaction to a phone ringing that you get once you've taken enough client support calls.

I wasn't completely clear on how the hang up/transfer worked. There were times that I felt like the conversation wanted me to transfer or hang up, but they just called right back later (without the previous context).
Techblogogy
Techblogogy9 Dec 2014, 08:36
I do agree with dylanwolf that it is a bit like papers please, but anyways fantastic game.
aeveis
aeveis9 Dec 2014, 09:07
It was interesting to see sort of a story from from the phone calls. I guess Santa here is pretty racist.

The hanging up and holding was a bit confusing to me, as people would call me back asking about the same thing. I'm not sure what the number pad is for. I think I only ever got a response from Santa for transferring the duck.
Terrabalt9 Dec 2014, 09:35
Is the transfer button didn't work or that i used it too much?
Rocketship
Rocketship9 Dec 2014, 09:42
This is cool, there's a lot of text put into this one. One criticism I have is sometimes the conversations get tangled and the dialogue makes no sense but I guess that's part of the charm!
esaygin9 Dec 2014, 09:47
Interesting!
Wilson
Wilson9 Dec 2014, 10:37
Cool game, I enjoyed it, though as dylanwolf says sometimes the transfer/hanging up doesn't seem to end a conversation (unless you've already said a line to the effect that you're transferring or hanging up?).
calavera
calavera9 Dec 2014, 10:39
Pretty good stuff, funny. I didn't like how the old conversation options stayed on screen and you could go back to responding to their first remark after a full conversation and they didn't mind.
skonkan9 Dec 2014, 11:57
Great idea. Fun calls to answer. But I did not understand how to transfer or send them to the boss.
Asaratha9 Dec 2014, 17:40
Very cool little game you have here.
rjhelms9 Dec 2014, 17:52
Cool take on the theme. I also the same issue with being confused about the hang up & transfer - if people explained why they called back, rather than just picking up with the same dialog options for you, that'd go a long way to clarify it.
StMatn9 Dec 2014, 17:56
Awesome game!

The duck call was really great :D
The game did bug out for me after some time. It seemed santas mom kept calling all the time and I had all the previous answering options but no geeting aviable. Draging the windows around was a bit unasthetically, because it didnt move smoothly.

All in all awesome work!
peterthehe
peterthehe9 Dec 2014, 18:33
Beautiful concept :3 Graphics needs some work
Frozen Fractal
Frozen Fractal9 Dec 2014, 20:58
Well done on the texts, I love how the backstory unfolds through these phone calls. But the options you get to say are a bit weird sometimes, because they stick around after the conversation has moved on. There were a few more bugs (I think), because when I hung up on someone, I'd just get them back with a blank screen and no options to say anything. Transferring them didn't seem to help.
Newt_9 Dec 2014, 22:12
Interesting, nice job! I agree with several others in that the dialogue options got a little overwhelming, though.
MentalBlockGaming
MentalBlockGaming10 Dec 2014, 00:14
Interesting game, I just couldn't find a lose condition so after a while it felt like I could press anything and reading didn't even matter anymore.

Nice back story. Made taking calls more interesting.

As others have said, having previous chat options lingering even when you've moved past that point of the conversation can lead to nonsensical conversations. That said, there seemed to be a lot of text there, so I'll admit that tying up all the speech could get pretty tricky.

The game was kind of laggy for me. It took much longer than usual to draw a simple window. I found the way you could only have one conversation up at a time not necessarily bad, but the fact that the window got placed OVER the phonepad every time I answered a call made it annoying to click and drag each time.
Hellequin10 Dec 2014, 00:19
Cool and ubique little game! Well done!
CMWeissMedia10 Dec 2014, 00:24
Definitely not your average cookie cutter game, which I appreciate. Some of the dialog options were a bit clunky until you get used to how the game wants you to interact with it, but not too bad all in all.
Lacaranian
Lacaranian10 Dec 2014, 00:47
A bit buggy, but lots of content. A fair amount of story in just a minimal interface. Nice work!
EvanEGibbs
EvanEGibbs10 Dec 2014, 01:05
I liked the idea of the game a lot! Man Santa is a huge jerk apparently. :O

One comment is it keeps the dialogue options all the time, so I could say a response to something that happened way earlier in the conversation.
ProteinPannkaka
ProteinPannkaka10 Dec 2014, 02:13
Not my type of game but I guess it's appealing to some.
ENDESGA
ENDESGA10 Dec 2014, 03:02
Awesome game! I love it :D
dalbinblue
dalbinblue10 Dec 2014, 03:03
Pretty funny experience. The game seemed a bit buggy though. I would get a lot of calls that looked like they were mid-conversation (none of the options looked like a greeting so I just had to select something at random). Also, transfers didn't seem to always work because the light would still be on for the line I was on. Regardless I did enjoy the calls and discovering the silly story from bits and pieces of the conversations.
intersectiongames
intersectiongames10 Dec 2014, 03:39
Seconding the constructive criticism from everyone. Felt like I could hang up on people, or transfer them, and they'd just call back to continue the conversation where they left off, with no context whatsoever. Couldn't win or lose, only see the story unfold with no clear end. Characters were all great, I wanted hear from more people, helped in part because I wanted the same ones to stop calling me.
RobustInteractive10 Dec 2014, 04:04
why does my anti virus keep deleting your game? i use norton.
Ryan Kline10 Dec 2014, 16:32
Great idea guys! I gave you 5 stars for innovation and humor because this was a really neat idea that definitely isn't the first thing that comes to mind when I think "game on one screen". Like someone else said, not your average cookie cutter game. Also this may have been one of the funniest games from the jam so far. Great idea, solidly executed, good job!
hypnoticbytes10 Dec 2014, 17:59
Interesting game, a bit laggy but that's not really important. Good work!
BtheDestroyer11 Dec 2014, 04:14
Funny and cute, but the phone ringing is a bit annoying...
Demy
Demy11 Dec 2014, 06:03
I love text quests. It's fun and have some nice moments. But after couple themes (like "who are you", race theme and something about Santa) answers look a little bit messy and you need to be careful to pick the one you need.
ynots12 Dec 2014, 19:49
that was funny...

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