The Great Toy Robbery Manual

# The Great Toy Robbery

Developed by LWorks

## What’s New in Version 2.1.1

- Fixed a bug where the Death Slay sounds would not play.
- Fixed gamepad button inputs bleeding between screens, causing unintended actions.
- Fixed the game freezing when alt-tabbing or minimizing the window. The game now continues running in the background.
- Fixed Evil Santa’s audio starting during the phase transition instead of after it finishes.
- Improved spatial audio: sounds now attenuate more naturally with distance, making it easier to locate objects on the grid.
- Fixed identical toy types causing audio interference by randomizing their playback positions at spawn.
- Destructive prompts (exit, erase data, reset stats) now default to “No.”
- Removed the HRTF option due to engine-level issues.
- On Mac, exported statistics are now saved to the Documents folder.
- Improved gamepad reliability across all menus and prompts.

## Table of Contents

1. The Story
2. Configuration
3. The Main Menu
4. How to Play
5. Free Play Mode
6. Toys
7. Elves
8. The Fat Man Himself
9. Keys and Doors
10. The Death Slay
11. Scoring Breakdown
12. Achievements
13. Leaderboards
14. Controls
15. Contact Us
16. Credits

## 1. The Story

Christmas comes once a year. We know that. You’ll see lighted trees, sleds, snowmen, and presents. Lots and lots of presents under lots and lots of christmas trees. But for one boy this isn’t the case. Naughty McNaughterson lived a naughty life. He J-walked all the time, spit his gum on the street, and to make matters worse Naughty was an avid Grand Rapids Gryphons fan. Every year Santa never brought him anything. Nothing! Not even socks! He had to steal those from his dad. Naughty decided that he had to take action.

After consulting his map, Naughty figured out where the North Pole was. He constructed an airplane out of pieces of tin foil, and away he went! He flew for what seemed like hours, which ended up being about 5 minutes.

Naughty landed in a snowy clearing. He glanced around and saw a heavily secured building. Groups of elves stood around guarding the building. Naughty knew that this is where Santa must’ve kept his toys. “If there are no toys for me, then there will be none for anyone else!” said Naughty. He laughed and cackled as he approached the building. The elves saw him and began to glare. Naughty just laughed and booted an elf into the air. The others ran in terror. He walked into the building and saw hundreds of toys all scattered around the room. Dolls, bears, trucks, pogo sticks, and basketballs were all there. Naughty began to scoop up toys into his backpack when he heard an alarm off in the distance. A large elf on an even larger pogo stick bounced in through the door. He began to chase after Naughty. Little did Naughty know, that wasn’t the worst of his problems.

And that’s where you come in.

## 2. Configuration

The first time you run the game, you’ll be asked to enter your name. You will be given a spoken prompt to enter your name. If you don’t want to use your real name, why not make one up? If you leave the name field blank, the game will generate a random name for you. You can always change your name later from the Options menu.

You will also be asked to select a leaderboard region. This determines which regional leaderboard your scores will be posted to. This option cannot be changed once selected, so choose carefully.

## 3. The Main Menu

When you run The Great Toy Robbery, you will hear an introduction sound, and then you will be presented with the main menu. The options are as follows:

- Start Game – Starts a new game.
- Free Play – Starts a relaxed free play session with no enemies, no timer, and no scoring. See the Free Play Mode section for details.
- View Leaderboard – View the top scores on your regional leaderboard.
- Post Your High Score – Sends your high score to the leaderboard. Only appears if you have an unposted high score.
- Browse Regional Leaderboards – View scores from other regions or the global leaderboard.
- Achievements – View your unlocked achievements and overall progress.
- View Statistics – View your game statistics. Press Enter to export them to a text file.
- Read Manual – Opens the game manual in your web browser.
- Options – Change your name, toggle pitch effects, clear statistics, clear your high score, or erase all data.
- Calibrate Speakers – Hear where left and right are in your stereo field.
- Check for Updates – Check if a newer version of the game is available.
- Replay Most Recent Message of the Day – Replay the latest announcement.
- Exit – Closes the game.

## 4. How to Play

The game is split into two phases.

### Phase 1: Toy Collection

When you start, you will be standing on a 100x100 grid. There are 100 toys scattered around the grid that you must pick up. You start at the bottom left hand corner and can move using your arrow keys, including diagonals. As you move you will hear different toys. Center a toy in your speakers and walk to it. If a toy is behind you, it will have a lower pitched sound.

Of course, there is an issue. Since you’ve broken into Santa’s workshop, he has some security measures. These are the security elves. Every so often, an alarm will sound, and an elf will hop onto the grid. He’ll chase after you and try to knock you out, so keep away from him while grabbing toys. The more toys you collect, the more frequently elves will appear.

After two minutes, the toy collection phase ends and Santa himself arrives.

### Phase 2: Santa Chase

You’ll hear the ambient sound pitch down dramatically as Evil Santa enters the workshop. Your goal is now to collect 7 keys scattered around the grid, each of which unlocks a door. Find an unlocked door to escape and win the game. Be careful though – Santa’s goal is to stomp you, and he gets faster with every passing second.

## 5. Free Play Mode

Free Play is a relaxed mode where you can explore the workshop and collect toys without any pressure. There are no security elves, no timer, no Evil Santa, and no Death Slay. Toys will respawn as you collect them, so there’s always something to pick up. Scores are not tracked, achievements are not awarded, and you cannot post to the leaderboard. It’s a great way to get familiar with the controls and the spatial audio before jumping into a real game.

## 6. Toys

There are seven different types of toys. When you grab a toy, you will have a few seconds to rack in some bonus points. If you grab another toy within that time, a bell will sound and you will earn bonus points. Grab a third toy in the streak for an even bigger bonus.

## 7. Elves

Elves are crazy little creatures who make the toys, and who would love to break your neck for stealing them. When one appears, you will hear a siren tone. Keep away from him, or else it’s lights out. You’ll hear him bouncing on his pogo stick and cackling. Just like toys, the pitch of an elf is lower if it is behind you.

## 8. The Fat Man Himself

When the two minute timer expires, Santa himself decides to deal with you. You’ll hear roaring thunder and an evil laugh. Santa always appears in the center of the grid. He will chase you relentlessly and gets faster every second. Collect the 7 keys and reach an unlocked door to escape.

## 9. Keys and Doors

During the Santa chase, 7 keys are scattered around the grid. Each key you collect unlocks the next door. Doors are positioned at various locations around the grid. Walk to an unlocked door to escape and win. Be warned – each key you collect also makes Santa faster.

## 10. The Death Slay

Once you’ve collected all 7 keys, Santa is removed from the grid, but don’t celebrate yet. After a few seconds, you’ll hear the Death Slay launch. This explosive sleigh approaches from the distance, getting louder and louder. If its volume reaches maximum before you reach an unlocked door, it explodes and takes you with it. Get to a door fast!

## 11. Scoring Breakdown

Scoring is broken down as follows:

- Base toy score: 5 points per toy collected.
- Double bonus: Collect a second toy within the bonus window for 10+ extra points.
- Triple bonus: Collect a third toy in the streak for 25+ extra points.
- Key bonus: Points awarded for each key collected during the Santa chase. Collecting fewer keys before escaping awards a higher per-key bonus.
- Bombing bonus: 750 points if you escape after the Death Slay has launched.
- Speed bonus: If you escape from Santa in under 60 seconds, you earn bonus points for each second remaining.

Your final score is the sum of your toy score, key bonus, and speed bonus.

## 12. Achievements

The Great Toy Robbery features over 125 achievements to unlock. These track game milestones, score thresholds, toy collection records, special conditions, and more. View your progress from the Achievements option on the main menu.

## 13. Leaderboards

After you play, why not submit your score for all to see? When you get a local high score, go to the main menu and choose Post Your High Score. You must be connected to the internet for this to work. If you’re having internet troubles or the server is down, your score will be saved locally so you can come back and send it later. Only your highest score can be submitted.

You can browse leaderboards from other regions or the global leaderboard from the main menu.

## 14. Controls

### Movement

Key | Action
--- | ---
Up Arrow | Move north
Down Arrow | Move south
Left Arrow | Move west
Right Arrow | Move east
Up + Right Arrow | Move northeast
Up + Left Arrow | Move northwest
Down + Right Arrow | Move southeast
Down + Left Arrow | Move southwest

### Status

Key | Action
--- | ---
C | Speak your current coordinates
S | Speak your toy count
T | Speak time remaining (Phase 1 only)

### Other

Key | Action
--- | ---
Escape | Exit the game

### Gamepad Controls (In Menus)

The Great Toy Robbery supports any standard gamepad. Button names below use Xbox conventions; PlayStation and Nintendo controllers use equivalent buttons.

Button | Action
--- | ---
D-pad | Navigate menu items
Left Stick | Navigate menu items
A | Select / Confirm
B | Back / Cancel

### Gamepad Controls (In Game)

Button | Action
--- | ---
D-pad | Move in 8 directions
Left Stick | Move in 8 directions
B | Speak toy count
X | Speak coordinates
Y | Speak time remaining
Back | Exit to main menu

## 15. Contact Us

If you encounter any technical problems with the game, please visit l-works.net.

## 16. Credits

Thanks to the following people:

- The entire beta team
- Everyone who plays, posts scores, and sends feedback