Snowball Strike

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  Snowman with a sprinkler.

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  Control panel aiming a snowball to the right/down of B3.

Inspiration

Snowball Strike was primarily made for Game Dev at SF State's 2024 Competitive Game Jam. I played a tactical RPG where powerful long-ranged units needed weaker units to confirm attack locations for them, and wanted to adapt that concept into something I could make in the span of a game jam. The game jam's "As above, so below" theme was interpreted as a cooperation between a snowman scouting enemy positions for the snowball launcher.

What it does

This is a Unity game that can be played in-browser via the attached itch.io link. Walk around as a snowman, carefully find enemy sprinklers, and use the artillery control panel to launch a snowball at the position. You win if you destroy all sprinklers and save all fellow snowmen, and lose if you're melted by a sprinkler or accidentally hit a snowman with the snowball.

How we built it

I used Unity version 2021.3.17f1 to build the game and GitHub (and GitHub Desktop) to work on multiple devices. Art was made with paint.net and MediBang Paint Pro. Some copyright-free sounds from freesound.org were also used.

Challenges we ran into

Some assignments from other classes came up that meant I had less time to work on the game than I expected. The main challenge I ran into in making Snowball Strike was trying to determine how enjoyable the gameplay loop was. I like the control panel system but feel like the enemy sprinklers aren't super interesting to interact with, and finding a sprinkler then snowballing it felt a bit repetitive to me. I struggled to determine how fun the gameplay loop would be in theory, as well as determine how it changes from my initial ideas in practice. I ran into a handful of other small unresolved problems like misaligned audio volumes, but on the matter of actually making the game, it was mostly smooth sailing.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

This is the first game I've made on my own from start to finish and I'm extremely proud of being able to finish a game on time without any major missing pieces. There were a lot of Unity features like audio and UI elements that this was my first time interacting with, but I was able to learn about and use them without compromising on the game's vision or my schedule.

What we learned

The big thing I learned how to do was pull back and adapt my goals based on what was realistic. I initially planned on animating the snowman when moving, having visuals for a physical snowball landing instead of just the white puff, etc. but cut most of them off in favor of working on other things, since they weren't strictly necessary for the core game. It saved me time to even work on other aesthetic elements (like sounds or the "ready to fire" indicator) that had a bigger impact on gameplay. I also had more ambitious goals for enemy designs but settled on the sprinklers because I knew I would be able to finish the game on time if the enemy had simpler behavior; I'm not 100% happy with them as described in the challenges section, but the sprinkler enemies did ensure that my game would be finished before the deadline and with time to spare for other things like the menu.

What's next for Snowball Strike

I plan to learn more about UI elements through other Unity games but don't have plans on adding to Snowball Strike; I think it's OK for game jam games to end at the due date, and it's more important that I get comfortable with finalizing and releasing a game than endlessly improving it.

Built With

• unity