Giveaway of the Day - Winterball

Installation:

Today’s game downloads to a 7.02Mb zip file and unpacks to a read me doc with the terms and conditions and instructions for running the game from the executable plus a dual activation and set up module.

The game installs to C:\Games by default and is 6.61Mb in size once unpacked. There is no shortcut installed nor any uninstaller. To uninstall the game just delete the executable. As with other Wheemplay games there is no folder just the executable.

I’ve tested the game on Win XP Pro 32 bit, Vista Home Premium 64 bit and Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit with no problems.

Introduction:

Roll the ball into the hole! Avoid enemies and collect stars Winterball is back with 50 ‘all’ new levels, new graphics and soothing music in this player’s pack. Guide your ball to the end of each level by choosing the correct path. Set some time aside -relax and enjoy.

Reference http://apps.wheemplay.com/winterball/ accessed 12th Feb 2011

The Game:

Winterball initially opens up in a window but you can change the game window to full screen; you can also close the game to the task bar (ideal if you are playing on your works computer) or exit the game by clicking on the appropriate button to the top left of the screen.

Your goal is to guide the hero, a multi-coloured ball to the exit without leaving the screen. Collect as many stars as possible to gain the best score. Achievements are awarded when certain criteria are met. You can see what criteria there are via the button in the main menu.

When you move your hero using the WASD or arrow keys or by clicking on the appropriate arrow using the mouse he/she will keep moving in the direction you’ve chosen until hitting an obstacle. Initially there are no enemies (red balls), but in later levels (from level 3 onwards) you will need to avoid them. If you hit an enemy you will have to restart the level. There is also a restart button if you think you need to restart. Also avoid hitting any black holes which are placed at specific places to make the game more awkward. The enemies have their own path so try to analyse the field before starting to move. You you will need to move your hero at a particular time to avoid hitting the enemy; it’s basically all about timing with a little though as to which path you take. There are also teleports that can help you. Levels become more complex as you progress through the 50 levels that are available. Initially the first 10 levels are unlocked and as you progress more levels are unlocked.

You will find a simple to use levels editor, however I think you can’t save levels until you’ve completed the 50 levels that are provided (I couldn’t save the codes that each level generates – you’ll see what I mean when you try yourself)

Images:

You can see 15 screen captures as a slideshow via the following link:

http://s571.photobucket.com/albums/ss160/Whiterabbit04/Winterball/?albumview=slideshow

Conclusion:

This is a reasonable puzzle game. Very simple in design, but rather addictive. I like the added levels editor and the ability to choose from more than one puzzle at the start of the game. The game starts off very simple, but soon becomes quite complex. Timing is important in this game as well as the abilty to analyse the field for the correct route to the exit. Its well worth 7 out of 10 IMO.

p.s.

for some reason WordPress isn’t accepting the coding for showing images. all images from previous giveaways have disappeared; however I have uploaded all screen captures I’ve taken to my photobucket account which you can find just above the conclusion.

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PLEASE READ:

Just a side note about allsmartgames.com, which a community member has posted several times in the past. I’d never bothered to download any of the games but had judged that site looked like a decent gaming site but Delilah checked the EULA of one of the games she downloaded and posted the following warning:

RE: allsmartgames.com !Warez Alert!

No wonder there are so many/so new games on this free game site: The Terms of Use state that they are cracked games, and name the person who cracked them. Also there is a Disclaimer section on their site that tells copyright holders where/how to complain about copyright infringement

Thanks for the warning Delilah

I don’t think I would play this on my PC, but if this was a game for the Android platform I would definitely be interested. I might try it out anyway and then look for a similar game in the Android Market. Thanks for the games this weekend. It’s always nice to get 2 games on the weekend instead of 1 or none. I wish the game giveaway site was more popular with devs so we could get more games!

………………………..Moderator comment………………………….

I believe if we got plenty of constructive feedback from the community Developers would see this as an opportunity to test their games out on the community. As it stands though it says a lot when less than 1% of downloaders even bother to leave a comment let alone any constructive comments either positive or negative. Until community members do leave more appropriate/useful feedback; (which from my own experience is very unlikely) I doubt we will get more games unless you were forced to leave a comment to be able to download the next game. (This could be achieved by giving each member whose bothered to leave a comment an unlock key for the next download. You would only be able gain access to the next giveaway after leaving a comment via this unlock code . This would certainly cut down on the number of downloads, but it would hopefully increase the number of useful comments that could eventually have a snowball effect, bringing in loads of premium games. (Just a though). So far today ‘over 5 hours into the giveawa’y we’ve had only three comments (including my short review) yet there has been nearly 3000 downloads this morning.

I don’t know why people can’t see the reasoning that I give above. I’ve been saying this on and off for a couple of years now, but i’ve yet to see any improvement in the quality of comments. (Not implying that we don’t get such comments; just not enough of them)