Let me preface by saying I love the XMAS carts, I've been a customer for several of the releases but this past year's is the first time where I haven't felt the urge to buy. During the Christmas season I fired up the multi cart and found that, in my opinion, the games haven't been that great over the past few years. Exclude the pinball year, that's a fun one.

I'm not a programmer so no offense is intended but I feel like the gameplay is pretty bland. There's been threads made where users have thrown out some pretty rockin ideas on what kind of game they'd like to see but it feels like they're totally overlooked and we get a simple game that's fun for five minutes. Personally I'd rather have a rockin fun Christmas game than a novelty item. If these are intended to be a novelty item with a bland game then that's just something to accept.

However I'd like to encourage the people behind the XMAS carts to put more effort into producing a fun game rather than relying on the blinky lights to sell a product that's fun for five minutes.

Something I've noticed people saying a fair bit in the brewing community is this sentiment that nobody is actually PLAYING their Homebrew games. I can't speak to that being a "reason" for what you're talking about as I know nothing of the gameplay on these Xmas carts (I simply don't follow them), but it seems like that might make some sense. Perhaps these carts are seen by those creating them as a novelty rather than the next big Homebrew hit.

It kinda makes sense - anything Xmas themed you generally whip it out on the holiday, ooh and aww at it for a bit, then move on.

Game for 2019 hasn't been started yet, which pretty rockin ideas can be finished in a couple months instead of a couple years?

If I had programming experience I'd love to tell ya. Maybe hire some help or seek out assistance from the NA community? Surely there's enthusiastic fans that could offer some input.

Of course, time frame is a big factor in these games in both production and devlopment.  However, despite programming knowledge and despite the timeframe, what games would you want or like to see? You said that there were threads with ideas, post those up if you like them. Make it be known what particular thing you are looking for to help point devs in the right direction.
 

It would be really cool to see a game in the style of 'Daze Before Christmas' or a game that has characters resembling the Grinch or the different characters of the season at the forefront.

I really enjoyed what they did with the SNES Xmas 2011 so it would be cool to see something similar.

What aboot a game where you play as a snow blower and you scroll down the street and blow every snowman in front of each house? You gain points for ever snowman you blow and snowmen who dont get blown melt away the next day.
The game could have a rockin name that everyone would enjoy like snow job, blow man, or blow job.

Or what aboot a game where you play as a Keebler Elf?

I like your style brother.

I pitched the idea of playing as the Grinch and you're going after Santa. You encounter elves, reindeer and whatever else you can think of as enemies. Eventually you get to the big boss and throw down.

Like I said, something in the light of Daze Before Christmas.

What about a game where you play as Peter Dinklage beating up Will Ferrell in a boardroom?

Don't forget laser sharks!

I think you need to put out a XMAS cart.

OK check it out: A game where you're in a house, one player hides, and the other player has to find them... but the players are wearing Santa hats. Some kind of... Hide 'n Yuletide.

I love the Xmas carts and appreciate the work that goes into them. I dont have any ideas for a game but would what about using NES maker to help speed up the process? I wpuld think it would help take care of some things so more time can be focused on other aspects. You can still tweak the underlying code to make it more unique but itll give a baseline maybe. Just spitballing here

The NES needs a high quality fireplace log burning simulator.

With poker and bellows function.

 

That was 2011s cart.

HAHAHAHA.
Boy, it’s chilly out here.
Say I know! let’s go inside and warm up with some coco and my favorite new Christmas game... blow job!
 

I want a full length, minimum 40h RPG on the next Xmas cart. Also, it better have branching story paths, or I am throwing an absolute shit-fit.

But seriously, I see the X-mas games as a bonus, not the main reason to buy the cart. They are put out as a yearly collectable for the NES community. Also, they really seem like bunnyboy's way of flexing his coding and engineering muscle, rather than having deep engrossing game play. He demonstrated ray-tracing this year. Last year's multicart was an engineering marvel. Other marvels included using the power pad for a 6 player game, using 4 different arkanoid controllers (which I never actually got to work properly), or creating a difficult physics engine in 12 seconds of Christmas.

In short, don't like 'em, don't buy 'em.

I agree, the X-mas carts do a great job showing off bunnyboy's skill and are wonderful ways for other brewers to be inspired to make their own games; they're not supposed to be the next FF. I love these games and I'm excited for each new entry going forward just because bunnyboy is making them.

That said, if we're spit-balling ideas for the fun of it, maybe a holiday gambling theme, where you're a mall Santa cashing in his paycheck and the goal is to make enough money by the end of a set time limit (determined by difficulty level) to save Christmas for your family. That way you could try your hand at a number of games and go for the high score ($) at different levels (ex. 1hr, 30 min, 10 min).

Sounds kind of Paperboy esque in my mind

I would love to see an N64 cart (even if just the lights) just to have another cart system going at Christmas time.

You need to modify the 4-score to get 4 vaus controllers working. Or play on AVS. 

The cart is a microcosm of the Xmas experience- you get something shiny and new and amazing, you play for five minutes, and then don't touch it for the rest of the year, and after a decade or so you find out it's worth a heck of a lot of money on eBay.