Free Snow Balled

[Masked Ninja Games]

​

Snow Balled...An exciting twist on Dodgeball.

• Throw snowballs at enemies.
• Fast paced Throwing style.
• 40 Levels each Harder than the last.
• Play for Free

Play for free. Download Snowballed Now Here:
https://masked-ninja-games.itch.io/snow-balled

Check out these Shots



Red Enemies Throw Snowballs Back at You!



8 Stages with 5 Levels Each



Run out of Snowball or Hearts....Game Over!!



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[chance]

I've played Snow Balled a few times now, and I'm starting to like it more and more... although it didn't start out that way. So let me share some thoughts.

First Impressions
To be honest, my first thoughts weren't that favorable. I was a bit annoyed by the 35 MB file size. That seems overly large for a casual game like this. I suspect the bloated file size is because of the heavy metal music score. Including large MP3 files isn't generally a good idea -- but I'll come back to that.

I was also a bit put off by the photographic backgrounds. I generally prefer hand-made graphics. (The one exception is sky and cloud backgrounds.) Nevertheless, you'd used these well.

Gameplay
The gameplay is basically throwing balls at targets, while avoiding obstacles. The first few levels are fairly easy. The obstacles are easy to avoid, and the aiming with the red line makes it hard to miss. Just put your pointer on the target and press. Not much challenge at first, although a few of targets require careful "aimpoint selection".

The levels get harder when you become a target yourself. You have to both dodge and throw to complete the level.

Graphics and Music
As I said above, the photographic backgrounds aren't my favorite. But I must admit you managed to incorporate the player and targets into the backgrounds fairly well. Still... I'd prefer to see everything drawn by hand. The player animation (throwing and dodging) is done well. So you certainly have the artist skills needed to draw backgrounds, trees, snow, etc.

The choice of music was terrible IMO. Heavy metal? I like metal OK, but it's not exactly my choice to evoke a sense of the old snowball fights when I was a kid. I think something calmer and maybe with a winter theme would be a MUCH better choice.

Areas for Improvement
-- The biggest design flaw is forcing players to re-start the entire game if they fail a single level. If there's a way to re-start a level, I missed it.

-- Add some physical realism to the throwing, such as having the ball arc slightly and lose altitude as it travels to the target. This may not fit the style you're looking for, but it's something to consider.

-- Add some graphical effects when the ball hits the snowmen. Like a burst of snow. Just having them disappear suddenly is disappointing.

Final Thoughts
All said, I actually like this game despite it's annoying habit of forcing a re-start. (And with the sound turned way down.) I think it has lots of potential. The basics are there -- it just needs some fine tuning of the graphics and graphical effects. And better music. Please.

 

[Masked Ninja Games]

Hey thanks Chance!! I am really happy to see your thoughts... Now....these are not excuses... lol, but simply an explanation of why some things are the way the were (are) This is my Very First Game so, Not only do I have some learning still to go... I certainly have some things to redo.... I am currently making a Better version of Snow Balled. You are correct also in the file is Way too large...This is just a noob error on my part ... I simply have 20 megs of Backgrounds...(and over 8 megs of music) I guess the backgrounds I used are super duper large?!? Anyway, I should have an Improved Snow Balled by the End of the Month (July). I too agree with you on my horrible choice of Music which, is Way too aggressive...and have since collected a few, lighter sounding melodies! Also I Actually do have a Snowball Crumbling Sprite.... I have it in the Demo Version of Snow Balled I had done awhile back...I guess I just forgot to put it in this Version... As for the Restart.... With the Demo version of Snow Balled, I only had 20 levels. And starting on the same level seemed a little easy at the time. Later, in a (Beta) Version of Snow Balled, I had the twenty Levels, but decided to put in 20 more... I guess in all that changing and what not, I simply forgot to add the restart level option button (Which Exists...ha). Plus, Since this is my very first game, some of the Code I wrote was early in my learning stages, so as I progressed, and as I was adding and replacing codes (some much more complex than before), Snow Balled (or Game Maker) became very unstable causing many many crashes....This is why for the most part, I am rewriting the entire Game... Plus.... I do not draw....I am really bad at art stuff....Graphics and what-not....So All of the Graphics I used here were from free Open Sources I have collected over the Internet. And so....After all of these excuses....I mean...explanations haha.....I am very glad to see your feedback.... So to sum up my response... I really appreciate the thoughts and suggestions.....It is great to hear how the game should be played from the perspective of the Player.... I was actually starting to think my game was being passed up.... (Mostly because of the Size Issue....) I will definitely have a new and Improved (and much much smaller in size) Snow Balled Very Soon.... I appreciate all of your feedback and want to thank you again personally for taking the time to check out my Game!! And I will have a much better version of Snow Balled very soon! Thanks Again.... ~ James ~ Masked Ninja Games

 

[marius]

the background is too different from the sprites...

 

[Masked Ninja Games]

I've played Snow Balled a few times now, and I'm starting to like it more and more... although it didn't start out that way. So let me share some thoughts.

First Impressions
To be honest, my first thoughts weren't that favorable. I was a bit annoyed by the 35 MB file size. That seems overly large for a casual game like this. I suspect the bloated file size is because of the heavy metal music score. Including large MP3 files isn't generally a good idea -- but I'll come back to that.

I was also a bit put off by the photographic backgrounds. I generally prefer hand-made graphics. (The one exception is sky and cloud backgrounds.) Nevertheless, you'd used these well.

Gameplay
The gameplay is basically throwing balls at targets, while avoiding obstacles. The first few levels are fairly easy. The obstacles are easy to avoid, and the aiming with the red line makes it hard to miss. Just put your pointer on the target and press. Not much challenge at first, although a few of targets require careful "aimpoint selection".

The levels get harder when you become a target yourself. You have to both dodge and throw to complete the level.

Graphics and Music
As I said above, the photographic backgrounds aren't my favorite. But I must admit you managed to incorporate the player and targets into the backgrounds fairly well. Still... I'd prefer to see everything drawn by hand. The player animation (throwing and dodging) is done well. So you certainly have the artist skills needed to draw backgrounds, trees, snow, etc.

The choice of music was terrible IMO. Heavy metal? I like metal OK, but it's not exactly my choice to evoke a sense of the old snowball fights when I was a kid. I think something calmer and maybe with a winter theme would be a MUCH better choice.

Areas for Improvement
-- The biggest design flaw is forcing players to re-start the entire game if they fail a single level. If there's a way to re-start a level, I missed it.

-- Add some physical realism to the throwing, such as having the ball arc slightly and lose altitude as it travels to the target. This may not fit the style you're looking for, but it's something to consider.

-- Add some graphical effects when the ball hits the snowmen. Like a burst of snow. Just having them disappear suddenly is disappointing.

Final Thoughts
All said, I actually like this game despite it's annoying habit of forcing a re-start. (And with the sound turned way down.) I think it has lots of potential. The basics are there -- it just needs some fine tuning of the graphics and graphical effects. And better music. Please.

I was hoping maybe you would kindly give Snowballed another go? It's called Snowballed Deluxe... I have made lots of Improvements based on your suggestions! Here is the Direct Link to save you time... https://masked-ninja-games.itch.io/snowballed-deluxe
or you can check out the Video here ...the music can be heard in the vid also

So, thanks again for helping me with my first game and hopefully making it a much more enjoyable game to play!
Thanks in advanced - James ~ Masked Ninja Games!