It’s the eighth year Sponge UK has released a complimentary Christmas game instead of sending Christmas cards. Louise Pasterfield, Sponge’s Managing Director, said, "It’s become a bit of a festive tradition, and Save Santa! is our best ever Christmas game.

"There are six levels to conquer, spike traps to avoid, and baddies to defeat. It also has an interactive leaderboard displaying the top ten highest-scoring players, and you can also tweet your score from the game. It’s our way of saying 'thank you' to our clients and everyone who has supported Sponge in the past year. But as you would expect it’s also a learning opportunity.

"Creating the game allows our team to try out new ideas and further hone their skills in game design and development. As games become more important within workplace learning, I believe it’s good for people who don’t normally play them to expand their knowledge. So whether you’re an instructional designer, learning consultant, or L&D manager, have a go and see if you can save Santa!"

The game has been built using the open-source HTML5 gaming tool Phaser. It is cross-platform, which means it can run on any device and operating system.

Players are able to return to the game and continue from where they left off, which enables everyone to reach the final “boss level” and ultimately…Save Santa!

Sponge UK’s Games Developer, Jason Butler said, "The Christmas game provides an excellent opportunity to showcase our cross-platform game development and push the boundaries. It also enables us to try new techniques, which we can then use in future projects. I’m planning to repurpose the game engine we’ve created for fire safety training in 2016, obviously without any penguins or yetis!"