its cool for a first try. just wish i cld see whats going on without moving around nonstop!!!

it's a very unique mechanic!

i actually had the idea you cld turn this idea into a full game, if done very well, it cld be a tricky and very fun game!

the bug is a feature now

ok...where to start? well, first of all, this

second of all, this is a very botbcore entry, something i didn't expect when seeing you share screenshots of this on the server. if anything, i was expecting a somewhat typical christmas game (of which i'll get to) but i'll admit the references here to formats are pretty cool to see! nice to see them correlate to their reputation on botb as well (e.g. deflemask taking away points)

as for the game, i literally played this same concept just before (not a dig, just how autovote works) and to see it done again, i have my opinions on it. firstly, the smooth movement is a plus: it gives this sense of fluidness to the character being controlled here, which is a nice added touch to the presentation of the game. however, i'm taken out of it due to two glaring issues that brought it down.

the collision box for the player is, i believe, the area directly above the player's sprite, and nowhere else. while this is accurate to concept (the presents are falling out of the sky after all) i think having it extend to the sprite itself, as well as a little to the sides of it, would ultimately relinquish this issue to the grave, but as it is, i cannot overlook it. it was legit difficult to manuver and catch presents with such a lofty and unwieldly hitbox to deal with. i also noticed that the collision detection itself was hit-or-miss at certain times, but i do not know if this is the fault of lua or the hitbox.

the thing that really tired me out was the fact that, unless a movement key is pressed, the screen freezes. everything goes still. i honestly don't know if you intended this or not (i'm willing to think of it as a bug), but regardless it hurts perception and believability by a large factor. during my run, this bug was forcing me to keep my fingers glued to the movement keys at all times - not a good reason to have that happen! if it is a bug, it could be tic-80 not having any function that would refresh the screen without moving it? idk, i'm not a lua programmer. (yet)

lastly, the music. it's fine, a solid arcade-y song! like the fittingness of the drone at the end.

overall, i think this is a damn good effort at making a fun christmas arcade game. while i think damifortune executed it better, this just feels truer to the botb ethos: try your worst, or do your best. the worst definitely was on show, but i think you did your damnedest best to make this a good thing and it shows. well done :)

~ post script ~

ik i - among others - have been ribbing you since you got here (at least i hope it comes off as ribbing . w.'), but after seeing this and chatting with you in the botb discord, i think you'll make a good botbr, really. you definitely have the admiration and spirit to be great at music and art - hell, even coding! - and all the while be a memorable part of the site the likes i haven't seen in a while. thanks for joining dunehawk :D/

i did find it really bizarre that the game doesn't display, yet seems to process, changes in the presents' location while the player is immobile... but after playing with it for a couple minutes, i got used to it and enjoyed it. i agree with kleeder, there's probably an interesting and thematic way to utilize that in a full game! and i can tell you put a lot of work into this despite not really being into the format - props :D

not sure why my score kept being negative? lol

Thanks for the comments!

I've considering doing a sequel/improvent of this game concept since there are few ideas that I couldn't manage in time (falling presents in different speeds, more levels and better music selection), tho it will most likely be on a different engine since tic80 doesn't seem to be very partical for this kinda multi-tasking with various different levels and themes.

Now, to answer some of the issues mentioned here:
1) The collision box of the player is 16x16 (8 with double scale), where the presents have to align right above you in order to be collected between mid-region and bottom-region. Unfortunately, there is still a bug in the final game where you can't collect presents that are off-screen half of the time since auto-wrapping instantly teleports you to the otherside, which might be patched by re-sizing the empty space just enough while giving the warp zone still a use.

2) The player having to move constantly is another short-coming of using a slippery foreground where the player will instantly freeze once stood still (admittedly this could've been handled more subtly and with warning). In order to have an acceptable temperature, you need to move a lot to retain your own energy.

3) Each present comes with it's own advantages and disadvantages, which is why you have to be careful whenever you encounter a masked present of some sort (also mentioned on the description). On average, there is more punishment since you lose more rewards than regain with the same amount of presents, which is where the strategy of opening the right presents at a great pace come in.

4) Due to musical limitations, I couldn't add in a title nor a victory fanfare theme as originally intended, which is why that idea was scrapped from the final game (title theme is still being accessible on the music editor)

yeah the collection hit box and yeah it's odd that the boxes dont continue to fall when you dont move, and it refreshes with them having already fallen once you move again, but it is in its own way charming, i think the setting, music and botb format icons help with all of this