Christmas in Peril
A mischievous orphan teams up with Santa’s right-hand elf to stop Mr. Nightmare and save Christmas.
Christmas in Peril was a seasonal jam exercise in finishing a small, complete story before the cultural moment passed.
The situation.
Made for Big Festive Game Jam 2020, the game follows Aster or Asteria, an orphan who teams up with Santa’s elf Elvis after Mr. Nightmare threatens to end Christmas. The premise gives a short RPG a clear emotional clock: Christmas is imminent and the protagonist has a reason to act.
We built it as a short, narrative single-player game for the jam, with a scope that could be finished while the seasonal idea still felt timely.
What I did.
I led the team’s game development, design, and release production through W15I, working with collaborators across the title.
I focused the build around a readable player choice between mischief and doing good, then helped shape it into a cross-platform jam release.
From the game.
Two gameplay captures pulled from the Christmas in Peril itch.io page.
Choose Aster or Asteria
The opening choice puts the player directly into the festive story instead of using title art as a substitute for gameplay.
Image source: W-15 Interactive on itch.io
The festive town
A gameplay screenshot shows the seasonal environment the player explores while trying to save Christmas.
Image source: W-15 Interactive on itch.ioHow the work unfolded.
Design around a seasonal deadline
Scoped a complete festive RPG around a day-before-Christmas threat rather than a setting that required extensive exposition.
Make the moral hook playable
Used the protagonist’s shift from mischief toward good deeds as the narrative engine for saving Christmas.
Package for three desktop platforms
Released downloadable Windows, macOS, and Linux builds on the jam’s closing weekend.
What happened.
Christmas in Peril released for Windows, macOS, and Linux and remains listed in the Big Festive Game Jam 2020 archive.
The project ended as a completed seasonal jam release, which was the right scale for its premise and deadline.
What I learned.
A seasonal premise supplies scope
A clear calendar moment gave the story urgency and made it easier to decide what belonged in a short game.
Finish beats seasonal perfection
A jam build has to be coherent and available while its context still matters, even when further ideas remain.
Platform packaging is part of the promise
Releasing on several desktop platforms made the team confront delivery work as well as game design.
Related links.
Repositories, demos, event pages, posts, and other places connected to this project.