Merry Christmas, everyone!

I've seen how many videos everyone is making and how many people is downloading the game. Sounds to me everyone is having a jolly ancient-soul-containment and a very white Christmas!

To celebrate Ons'Thasnou's arrival Christmas, and the one year anniversary of this game, I will be sharing 25 fun facts about this game and it's development, kind of like a late advent calendar.

This doesn't mean it ends there though, I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have!

Now, let's begin!

1. I didn't know people built snowmans giving them buttons for eyes. I thought it was just rocks (not coal)! Once I discovered it, I didn't change it because I personally dislike how they look. I dislike buttons completely to be honest.
2. I live in Spain, and so, being the developer of this game, I have never built a snowman. Furthermore, I have never seen one with my own eyes. I should be thankful!
3. This game was developed in around three weeks, since I was racing to have it done before Christmas. However, and funnily enough, when I wrote the story and started modelling and programming, I was on the beach.
4. How To Build A Snowman takes place in Canada.
5. Ons'Thasnou's name was one of the things I had more clear when I wrote the final story. It is inspired by Lovecraft's way of naming his creatures, as Ons'Thasnou is inspired by them. Finally, after I studied how the "grammar" of those names worked, I came up with "Ons'Thasnou", simply because it's pronunciation was close to "Once The Snow", although the game says it actually means "He who carries the cold".
6. There is a page for Ons'Thasnou in the Villain Fandom Wiki. However, it says he does not have an alias (which he does, "He who carries the cold") and also talks about being able to possess. This does not appear anywhere in the game, but casually the original story featured possession of human bodies through snow. Current Ons'Thasnou can't... I think. Thank you to whoever made that page, though, I really appreciate it!
7. The ancient paintings on the cave of the Order of the Flake features, in order, a meteor approaching a populated area, the meteor impacting, Ons'Thasnou's hand reaching out of the hole the meteor left behind, and finally Ons'Thasnou's whole figure... but not actually, only half of it is shown, and the game was supposed to be longer and have a room where the legs could be found, for his size to be more impactful.
8. Related to the previous fact, Ons'Thasnou's appearence was meant to look uncanny and unhuman, but also characteristic. While his face has a recognizable silhouette, his body is long, with feet divided in three points, and long arms with three long fingers at the end and a thumb at it's shoulder. This tall, uncanny appearance was inspired by these cave paintings (which I think have been proven to be fake).
9. Related to the previous fact once again, this are concepts for how Ons'Thasnou would look. Does something look familiar?
10. Even though many have called Ons'Thasnou a "snow demon", he does not come from hell in any way. While I would consider him a god due to his nature and his influences, if we go the way of simplistic monsters, Ons'Thasnou would actually be an alien!
11. I wanted to give Ons'Thasnou moose horns, but that would mean he is not completely made of snow. Instead, I thought of using ice as a tough material in his body.
12. The original name for How To Build A Snowman was actually Our Very White Christmas. I liked it, but it didn't stick as much as the new one did. I also considered calling it To Build A Snowman due to my tendency of giving my games four word names. (Extra fun fact, the original name, Our Very White Christmas, can still be found in After The Curtain Call: Act 1, another game of mine you should check out, in one of the books which references How To Build A Snowman)
13. The moose skull in Grandpa's toolshed is supposed to be a Shaman mask. I "somehow" didn't think that you all would try to break it, grab it's horns and use them as arms for the snowman. Yeah, when I say it like that it sounds absurd you tried that, doesn't it? You psychopath.
14. The first version of the game was just a menu, because I forgot to make the "Play" button do anything.
15. The original story for the game was just inspired by Frosty. Toby would make a snowman, it would magically come to life and, as all living things do, it would have to take lives and eat to remain alive. So it would be just a hungry snowman.
16. In the original story, "Robert" was not the Grandpa's name, but Toby's father. After the story changed, Toby became fatherless.
17. The house has a door that doesn't open, and leads to a room with no window, no floor and full of snow.
18. When in the "summoning room" Ons'Thasnou takes the place of the snowman, his hat grows larger. While it may remind you of Scary Movie, this was needed for the shadows around his eyes to actually make sense.
19. In the first recording by Robert you can see when entering the path to the Order of the Flake, he says "If you are reading this", even though it is supposed to be a voice recording. Great mistake by my part.
20. In the concept, the snowballs would be used to press buttons and progress through the game. However, the process of making snowballs ended up being too slow to press buttons on chase scenes as I had planned, so I ended up taking advantage on how it forces you to look down for the "summoning" room.
21. On's Thasnou is never a complete being in the whole game. At least not technically. In ALL of it's forms and shapes, the head is a different model than the body. BUt I guess that's how you build a snowman!
22. When the snowman gets arms for itself, it is actually a very very small Ons'Thasnou body model inside it which moves it's arms.
23. Yeah, I admit, I was the one who forgot about the snowman'sarms when modelling and blamed it on Toby.
24. The "Shadow over the eyes" idea was brought to me by an AI.
25. The first artstyle the game had was a very rough and painful-to-look-at brush textured which did not fit (maybe would have, but I didn't manage to do so.)
    
    Thanks for reading! And even more, thanks for playing! Last year, Ons'Thasnou told us all he would come back, and so has he, thanks to all of you!
    
    Hope to see you once again next year, when he arrives once again! Merry Christmas, and happy new year!