Serious Santa

Serious Santa became one of the most popular Flash games on Christmas 2006-2007. It's well-known for its second version (2.0), which was released on a lot of Flash game websites. Its first version wasn't as popular as the second as it was released too late in January, and it was made for Newgrounds's web page.

Unused Sprites#

Starting Screen#

There's a sprite at the first screen (Play button) that is placed in 8 different positions, all of them out of the limits making it not visible. Its purpose is unknown.

This sprite also has its own code:

//  Action tag #0

if (!swatches) 
{
    _global.swatches = new Array();
}
swatches.push(this.filters);

Unused Cheat Functionality#

Cheating functionality was disabled at some point of the development, but sprites and their respective code are still present in both versions of the game.

Sprite 1296 only contains two strings in the custom game charset. The first contains ENTER CHEAT CODE: and the second would be the user input in yellow colour.

Sprite 1297 is placed in the HUD at the bottom center of the screen and it has two frames, being the first (used) frame an empty container. Second frame (unused) is never shown, and it has sprite 1296, and a working code for a cheating functionality.

The cheats would be:

Cheat	Description
PAINKILL	Makes the player near invincible giving it 99999 of health.
BLOWITUP	Gives player 999 ammo for every gun.
GOLDFISH	Enables a flag. Maybe makes the water don't hurt the player but needs to be documented.
SKIPTHIS	Skip current level and player gets to the next level.
SLOWTIME	Slowdowns the time counter.
PLAYASAH	Enables character.
PLAYASPG	Enables character.
PLAYPBOT	Enables character.
PLAYPICO	Enables character.

Here is the full code for the second frame of sprite 1297:

//      On load
onClipEvent(load)
{
    var string = new String();
}

//      On keyUp
onClipEvent(keyUp)
{
    if (!Key.isDown(17)) 
    {
        key = Key.getAscii();
        if (0 != key >= 97 & 0 != key <= 122) 
        {
            string = string + chr(key);
        }
        if (string.length == 8) 
        {
            if (string == "painkill") 
            {
                _root.game.player.health = 99999;
                _root.game.player.maxHealth = 99999;
            }
            else if (string == "blowitup") 
            {
                ammo.shotgun = 999;
                ammo.rocket = 999;
                ammo.grenade = 999;
            }
            else if (string == "goldfish") 
            {
                _root.game.player.inofall = 1;
            }
            else if (0 != (string == "skipthis") & 0 != _root.level < 5) 
            {
                ++_root.level;
                _root.gotoAndStop(4);
            }
            else if (string == "slowtime") 
            {
                _root.charge.clock.crate = 120;
            }
            else if (string == "playasah") 
            {
                secrets.data.alienhominid = 1;
                _root.gotoAndStop(4);
            }
            else if (string == "playaspg") 
            {
                secrets.data.pg = 1;
                _root.gotoAndStop(4);
            }
            else if (string == "playpbot") 
            {
                secrets.data.pbot = 1;
                _root.gotoAndStop(4);
            }
            else if (string == "playpico") 
            {
                secrets.data.pico = 1;
                _root.gotoAndStop(4);
            }
            _parent.gotoAndStop(1);
        }
    }
}

Placeholder Text#

There are some placeholder texts in the HUD that are immediately replaced when the player first starts the game.

Health#

It's initialized at

Health: 200/200

, despite Santa's final health being set at 80.

Ammo Counter#

The ammo value for every gun before being initialized to 0 is

.

Time Counter#

The time text is set to

before initializing. The final max time for each level is 150.

Score Counter#

Its value is

45347657657

before being initialized to 0.

Revision Differences#

This page or section needs more images.
There's a whole lotta words here, but not enough pictures. Please fix this.
Specifically: Add screenshots.

Play button screen is different.
Intro animation of Newgrounds was removed in version 2.0.
Secondary playable characters are visually different in these two versions.
In version 1.0, the first level background art has two banners, one for Newgrounds, and the other announcing a fictional toy which is one of the playable characters. In version 2.0, these two banners were removed.
In version 1.0, the elf with the bomb box can walk, making it more unpredictable. In version 2.0, its walking was disabled, but the animation of its legs walking still plays, despite it always staying at the same position.