Chimney Presents

Chimney Presents is a retro-styled indie side-scrolling platformer with a focus on precision, where — for a change — Santa needs your help to deliver all the presents on Christmas night. It was developed by Daniel Linssen (or Managore) and initially released on December 27, 2016.

The game revolves around traveling from home to home, each requiring a certain number of chimneys to visit, with gradually increasing difficulty. The rooftops are quite abstract, but that is part of the challenge: they’re filled with moving platforms, pits, and even a green hazardous thing that is poisonous to Santa. Once all objectives in a given home are completed, you must reach the sleigh to move on to the next stage.

Self-published by Daniel Linssen and distributed for free on Windows, Chimney Presents drew attention despite being a small indie title. Its appeal likely comes from combining tight controls, a consistent (and not casual at all) difficulty curve, and a charming atmosphere with attractive pixel-art visuals reminiscent of 8-bit classics or old PC games. It’s also worth noting that Chimney Presents has no BGM — only an ambient snowy-night soundscape with what seems like a slightly detuned violin, which, in a unique way, complements its cozy atmosphere, inspired by the best time of the year!

Videos

This is a let’s play that also reviews the game.

This is a playthrough of Chimney Presents.

Gameplay

Chimney Presents is a precision-focused 2D platformer in which each stage represents a different house and the goal is to guide Santa Claus to all available chimneys, delivering the number of presents indicated by the counter in the upper-left corner of the screen. After completing all deliveries, the player must return to the sleigh to proceed to the next area.

Stages feature variations in terrain and obstacles that increase in difficulty. Moving platforms, rotating platforms, and platforms that push the character are used to create movement-based challenges. Certain environmental elements, such as holly leaves, cause instant death and must be avoided. In some levels, icicles fall when Santa passes beneath them, acting as temporary hazards that do not respawn once they drop. The player can also be crushed between moving platforms, resulting in immediate death.

Some stages include snowballs that can be used as platforms to gain an extra height jump or reach alternate routes leading to different chimneys, though these disappear after being stepped on (at least some of them do respawn after a while). The game restricts certain types of movement — for example, Santa cannot jump from slanted surfaces — requiring careful planning of routes and jumps. In later sections, delivering presents in the correct order becomes necessary to ensure Santa can return to the sleigh, adding light puzzle elements to the platforming.

The game includes checkpoints that can be triggered within levels. However, upon death, any instructional dialogue associated with the checkpoint is played again.

Controls

• ← and → — Move left and right
• Space Bar — Jump and skip dialogue
• Alt + F4 — Quit the game
• Alt + Enter — Toggle fullscreen/windowed mode
• It’s also supposed to have gamepad support.

About the game

Welcome to Chimney Presents.

Made with love for all my friends, family and fans

Click on the link below to get the game! Have fun with it!

Screenshots

More info and Christmas-themed platform

• Managore @ YouTube – Official developer’s channel.
• Chimney Presents @ Game Jolt – With alternative download link and more comments.
• Chimney Presents @ Gaming Room – Source, with more info and media. In Portuguese.
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