Game Design Challenge: A Holiday

EDIT: We Damn the Night! made it into the Honorable Mentions! Yahoo! I really, really need to work on some art for these things, though...

As every month, GameCareerGuide issued its challenge, with an unbelievably original holidays theme. It's been months since I last ssubmitted a proposal, but I gave it a try again today.

So, wihtout further ado, I present We Damn the Night!. I hope you enjoy it.

Title: We damn the night!

The Winter Solstice has always been one of the most important dates in the year, marking the return of light to the world and banishing evil for another cycle. Although not as common as in the Summer Solstice, it is still usual in different parts of the world to light bonfires, helping the forces of good recover their strength.
In We Damn the Night! you have to build up a flame hihgher than any other in a given time (2-10 minutes), to receive the favour of the new Sun. But to do so, you must confront your rivals and the forces of evil.

We Damn the Night! is a 2D game played from a typical beat'm up perspective, with 2D graphics in a pseudo-3D environment (think Streets of Rage, Final Fight, Scott Pilgrim). The player must pick up/break objects from the scenary and throw them into its fire to make it bigger. Different materials burn at specific rates and produce lower or higher flames. There are also objects than can reduce the strength of a bonfire, like water bottles. These can be thrown at a rivals' conflagration.
Players can only carry one object at a time, and meanwhile can do nothing but move and throw the load.

While picking stuff, the player must keep its rivals at bay. Although bonfire creators cannot touch each other, they can throw objects to stall the player's progress, and so do you, so don't doubt and fight back. Rivals will also try to reduce your flame, so keep a close look at it, or attack theirs. There is no life bar, and the fire can be lit back again if depleted, so death is nothing to fear.
But if it wasn't hard enough to please the Sun already, the creatures of the night will do anything they can to prevent the Sun from rising again. You can fight them back with your fists, or knocking them down with projectiles, but will never defeat them unless they are thrown into a pyre.

Special objects:
Water bottles: Slightly reduce a fire.
Fuel: Considerably raise a fire.
Chemicals: For a short time a fire treats water as if it were fuel.
Explosives: Throw away half of a fire's objects, so they can be picked up again. The fire is reduced to half its size. They take 10-20 seconds to explode once thrown into a fire.
Gel: If thrown into a fire with a bomb about to explode, the explosion is controlled and has the effect equivalent to 4 or so fuels.

Enemies:
Mokujin: Wood man. It burns easily, but is very fast recovering after been beaten down.
Zombie: Not too tough. It has the same effect as fuel and chemicals on a fire.
Terminator: Very tough, but slow. Only big fires can destroy it, and behaves as explosives when destroyed.

Co-operative gameplay: Join other players and work together against other groups of rivals!

P.S.: It's been the first time my submission fitted into the (recommended) 500 words limit without cutting anything out! I'm getting better at it.