Ola! Tannenbaum

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Published 2020-12-05

Ola! I thought it would be cool try making a Christmas-themed game, so here it is. Ola! Tannenbaum is a quick arcade game where you're going to need good timing, lightning reflexes, and absolutely no sense of colour-coordination to create the most chaotically decorated Christmas tree ever. Start by placing baubles, tinsel and fairy lights and top everything off with a star on top. Will you be a bauble boffin or a yuletide liability?

Ola! Tannenbaum is an accurate simulation of what it is like to decorate a tree after too many glasses of sherry and with your eyes closed.

I tried to make an in-game tutorial that explains everything reasonably well but here's what you need to do in more detail if you're planning on min-maxing this.

  • The closer you are to a target the more points you will get. Miss the target and you drop the decoration.
  • Baubles only need one target. Accurately place two in a row and you'll gain a bonus bauble that's worth double points.
  • Tinsel needs to be draped across two targets, one at a time. The longer and closer to horizontal it is, the more points you'll get.
  • Fairy lights are similar to tinsel but don't need to be placed horizontally.
  • Once all your decorations are gone or you have filled up the tree, you can place the star on top.

Top tips for a truly terrific tree:

  • If two targets are next to each other, place a bauble so one target will move somewhere else (hopefully further away so you can place a long piece of tinsel)
  • The longer you take to aim a decoration, the faster it will move, making it much harder to place accurately.
  • The star is worth the most points, don't drop it!
  • A well-placed decoration is worth double points, a well-placed bonus bauble is worth quadruple points.

Updates:

•v1.04 - Added a screenshot function at the end of the game. It doesn't work quite as it should, it says 'screenshot saved to the desktop' but it just seems to dump it in the top right corner of the game area. So it *does* 'work'. Anyway, if you want to save screenshots of your score or your beautifully decorated tree; you now can.