A Good Snowman Is Hard to Build

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A Good Snowman Is Hard To Build
A Good Snowman Is Hard to Build.jpg
Developer(s)
  • Benjamin Davis
  • Alan Hazelden
Publisher(s) Draknek
Designer(s)
  • Benjamin David
  • Alan Hazelden
Composer(s)
  • Priscilla Snow  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Engine OpenFL
Platform(s) Linux, OS X, Windows, Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch
Release
  • Linux, OS X, Windows
  • 25 February 2015
  • Android, iOS
  • 9 December 2015
  • Nintendo Switch
  • 2 September 2021
Genre(s) Puzzle
Mode(s) Single-player

A Good Snowman Is Hard to Build is a 2015 puzzle video game developed by Alan Hazelden and Benjamin Davis and published by Draknek. The game was released in 2015 for Linux, OS X, Windows, Android, and iOS.

Contents

Gameplay

The player (black figure, referred to as a monster) and a snowman, missing the top snowball A Good Snowman Is Hard To Build screenshot.png
The player (black figure, referred to as a monster) and a snowman, missing the top snowball

A Good Snowman Is Hard to Build is a grid-based puzzle video game that tasks players with helping a featureless monster to build snowmen. Snowmen are built by stacking three snowballs of decreasing size. Rolling small or medium-sized balls over snowy ground increases their size. Building all snowmen in a room unlocks adjacent rooms which are all part of a hedge maze. [1]

Players can undo one move at a time or reset a room. [2]

Development and release

A Good Snowman Is Hard to Build was created by UK-based independent developers Alan Hazelden and Benjamin Davis. [3] Its prototype was developed using Puzzlescript, an open-source HTML5 puzzle game engine, in 2014. [4] The commercial release was written in Haxe and OpenFL [5] and released for Linux, OS X, and Windows-based personal computers on 25 February 2015. [6] A version for Android and iOS mobile devices was released on 9 December 2015. [7] [8] A Nintendo Switch version released on 2 September 2021. [9]

For the game's 10th anniversary in 2025, the Itch.io release of the game permanently moved to a 'Pay What The Temperature Is' pricing model, where the price would be $1 for every degree Celsius it is in London according to OpenWeatherMap's tracking, updated every hour. For example, if the temperature was 2.5 degrees Celsius, the price would become $2.50. [10] If the temperature in London drops below freezing the game will become freeware.

Reception

A Good Snowman Is Hard to Build received "universal acclaim" from professional critics, according to the review aggregator website Metacritic. [11]

A Good Snowman Is Hard to Build won the award for "Best Character Design" at Intel Level Up 2014. [12]

References

  1. ↑ Rich, Rob (10 December 2015). "A Good Snowman is Hard to Build Review: Easy to Love". GameZebo. Archived from the original on 14 August 2020. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
  2. ↑ Slater, Harry (14 December 2015). "A Good Snowman is Hard to Build - Yup, but it's a lot of fun". Pocket Gamer. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
  3. ↑ Matulef, Jeffrey (22 December 2015). "A Good Snowman Is Hard To Build rolls onto iOS and Android". Eurogamer . Archived from the original on 4 April 2017. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
  4. ↑ "Interview with indiegames.com". A Good Snowman Is Hard To Build. 30 April 2014. Archived from the original on 30 December 2017. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  5. ↑ "Showcase". Archived from the original on 3 May 2020. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
  6. ↑ Matulef, Jeffrey (19 February 2015). "Sokobond dev's latest A Good Snowman is Hard to Build gets a release date". Eurogamer . Archived from the original on 4 April 2017. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
  7. ↑ Brown, Mark (10 December 2015). "A Good Snowman is Hard to a Build turns festive frolics into a tricky logic puzzle". Pocket Gamer . Archived from the original on 4 April 2017. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
  8. ↑ "A Good Snowman Is Hard To Build – iPad". multiplayer.it. 29 December 2015. Archived from the original on 27 September 2020. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
  9. ↑ Whitehead, Thomas (2 September 2021). "Nintendo Download: 2nd September (North America)". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on 17 December 2023. Retrieved 18 December 2023.
  10. ↑ "A Good Snowman Is Hard To Build by Draknek & Friends, Benjamin Davis". itch.io. Retrieved 5 March 2025.
  11. 1 2 "A Good Snowman Is Hard To Build for iPhone/iPad Reviews". Metacritic . Retrieved 3 April 2017.
  12. ↑ "Hall of Glory". Archived from the original on 26 August 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
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