Play Santa's Sleigh Ride 
Spike, prototype, MVP and full system software development
5 minute read
As a leading design-led digital agency, we’re always exploring creative avenues to blend technology with user-centric design. This festive season, we’re excited to reintroduce a bit of nostalgia mixed with modern tech – our very own “Santa’s Sleigh Ride” game!
Santa’s Sleigh Ride: A festive flashback
Originally developed way back in 2011 as a mobile app, “Santa’s Sleigh Ride” is a simple yet captivating endless runner game. The premise is to help Santa avoid obstacles on his journey by clicking to jump and double-clicking for a higher leap. It’s an engaging, fun experience that’s surprisingly challenging – and it’s not just for kids!
Festive fun but not just a game
At Rant, we understand the importance of engaging digital experiences. While we’re not in the business of game development, we believe in the power of fun and engagement, especially during the holidays.
“Santa’s Sleigh Ride” is a playful reminder of our capabilities beyond conventional web and mobile platforms. It underscores our commitment to delivering captivating digital experiences, no matter the medium.
While “Santa’s Sleigh Ride” might seem like just a bit of holiday fun, it represents much more. It’s a testament to our capabilities as a digital agency. We’re not just about creating websites or apps; we’re about breathing life into digital experiences. This game is an example of how we can repurpose and reimagine existing digital assets to create something fresh and exciting.
The technical side: A blend of old and new
Reviving “Santa’s Sleigh Ride” was both a technical challenge and a labour of love. We dug up the old code and worked our magic to bring it to the web. This transition from a mobile app to a web-embedded game showcases our technical agility and dedication to innovation.
The original iOS game relied on frameworks such as Cocos2d for sprite rendering and Box2D for physics. This time around we removed all external dependencies from the original game, rendering to HTML Canvas directly without the need for third-party libraries, and calculating the game dynamics and collision logic in a few simple functions, cutting out the additional overhead of a physics framework.
As a multidisciplinary agency, inspiration comes from all sorts of places, and so To simplify and compartmentalise our re-built game loop, we took inspiration from the request pipeline and middleware pattern commonly seen in .NET server-side architecture.
We divided all aspects of the game loop into numerous pipes (23 in total) to handle user input, physics calculations, and graphics rendering in discrete pieces. Each pipe deals with one specific game element, such as detecting if our main character collides with a Christmas tree or generating the particles of snow that continuously fall from above. This gave us a flexible codebase to build on, allowing us to add or replace individual features with ease, resulting in an uncomplicated and linear development process as we rebuilt the original game on a whole new platform.
Experience Santa’s Sleigh Ride
We invite you to experience “Santa’s Sleigh Ride”. It’s more than just a game; it’s a showcase of our technical expertise and creative spirit. Save it to your home screen on your mobile, and you’ll see it transform into a full-screen gaming experience, blurring the lines between web content and mobile apps.
As we approach the festive season, we hope “Santa’s Sleigh Ride” brings a bit of joy and a reminder of the endless possibilities in the digital world. Remember, we’re here not just to create digital platforms but to craft experiences that enchant and engage. Happy holidays, and happy gaming! 🎄🎅🛷
