When I was in school, my teachers would sometimes comment that I had a warped sense of humor. Anyone who has played the new Christmas level will probably agree. I won’t even tell you what I had planned for the Thanksgiving level before it became obvious there would be no time to work on it. Ok, one small hint. It was going to be set in Roanoke.

But that is not what I want to talk about today. Today I want to talk about the new Christmas level. When I started to design the level, I was interested in creating a new Roblox game type that did not directly center around combat. I also wanted to try to make a level where time bombs were useful and dying meant something. Finally I wanted to make a team game. Santa’s Winter Stronghold was the result and I do not think that I was entirely successful — it is a pretty looking map though.

I tried to make the map display instructions at the start of each game, but I have noticed that sometimes they go by too fast to read. Here is how the game is played:

• Each game lasts 8 minutes. At the end, the player with the most points wins and a new game begins.
• There are two sides, Santa vs. the Elves.
• The elves are looking for presents (worth 1 point each) and are trying to avoid the super-powerful Santa (any elf that knocks off santa will get a 3 point bonus, though).
• Santa is looky for those pesky elves. He gets 1 point every time he bloxxes one. Anytime Santa accidently bloxxes himself, he loses 5 points. Be careful with those rockets, Santa!
• Santa has two special powers: the Multirocket and the Jet Boots. The former lets him shoot rockets more than 3 times more rapidly than normal. The latter lets Santa fly for 9 seconds at a time (select the boots and hold down the mouse to use)

Pretty simple, but it took me more than 800 lines of lua code to implement it. Blah.

Since you’re here, I’ll give you some insider hints on how to play this level.

Elf Hints

• Number one thing. Get over the bridge into Santa’s fortress right away. Santa will be out to blow it up and then you will have to take the long way in.
• Killing other elves doesn’t get you any points. Only finding presents and getting Santa. Teamwork may be a good strategy.
• There are places in this map where bombs can be really useful to blast through walls. Bombs in this map explode more quickly than on other maps.
• There are three main treasure troves of presents on this level: in the black tunnel by the frozen lake, in the far corner of the map behind the ice, and in Santa’s throne room. You should try to get there before the other elves.
• If you can’t reach a present, you might be able to knock it loose with a snowball.
• Dying is a bad idea because elves always respawn at the starting cliff. It is a long walk from here to anywhere. Therefore, you should be more careful than in a regular BrickBattle game.

Santa Hints

• Blow up all bridges and stairs. The harder it is for the elves to move around in your fortress, the longer it will take them to steal your presents. It also makes being able to fly a bigger advantage.
• You can’t pick up presents directly, but many are positioned so that you can knock them off the map, where no elf will ever be able to pick them up.
• It takes a while to get from your starting location to where the elves are – this is by design. There are two quick ways out if you look for them.
• Be aggressive. You’re better armed than the elves and you can fly. Try to pick them off one by one, rather than fighting everyone at once.

Well that’s it for today. I’d be curious to know if anyone has found all the presents that I put in this map, some of them are quite hard to find (and others are very hard to get to!)

– Telamon