Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → LD51 → Thornscatter
By keithswanger
| Category | Rank | Score | Count | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 397 | 3.68 | 54 | |
| Fun | 583 | 3.38 | 54 | |
| Innovation | 162 | 3.85 | 53 | |
| Theme | 313 | 3.93 | 53 | |
| Graphics | 344 | 3.95 | 54 | |
| Audio | 387 | 3.48 | 53 | |
| Humor | 854 | 2.32 | 19 | |
| Mood | 127 | 4.03 | 54 |
Super super pretty little game. I really liked the themeing of the game, though found the gameplay a bit lackluster. Without any way to really get rid of the thorns from an area, the game just got more and more difficult to navigate. I didn't really enjoy pressing through tiny passages. I think if the game had some pressure that wasn't just "the world is getting slower to move around in" it might be fun! As is it's just kinda slow.
Nice game. It's getting more and more hard to move, and I love the music and the mood.
Liked the mood, graphics, music a lot. Interesting take on Snake, not a lot of games try to build on Snake nowadays. Would be nice if the direction you clicked in decided the attack direction when the player is using a mouse but it overall doesn't seem like a game where snappy, accurate controls are essential to the intended experience.
I like the idea and this cozy art :) Thank you, really good job
Nice game dude.. Has potential i think
I liked this game a lot ! It took me a few tries to complete the easy level, but it was fun haha
Very innovative idea. Feels great to play and challenging enough to keep me engaged. Simple idea executed well!
Amazing mechanics, I liked the idea of having drawbacks when spamming leftclick. It makes Pathfinding strategical. Cute character also! Dead Scene so coool
I completed the game on normal and going to retry on harder difficulties. It's very well designed and is genuinely fun!
I think the game could be a little more forgiving about getting hit. At least being to know exactly where the hitboxes are would be nice.
The presentation gave me some Hollow Knight vibes in the good way. I liked the art a lot, the thorns are unpredictable and frustrating.
Lovely idea for the setting and the character! The whole game has a really nice atmosphere. Although I think the gameplay loop becomes repetitive after a while, along with the music; but I think that kinda fits the theme of this never-ending fight of the rose hip.
Great atmosphere in this game! Music really helps to create a sombre tone. The gradual ramp of difficulty getting around also goes a long way to building the mood.
Really nicely put together!
Really cool game concept! Love the art style and the calm music too. Great job!
Very embarassing to accidentally click and then immediately walk into my own thorns lol, but very cool concept, really nice art and simple gameplay. Overall came together really well, congrats!
Great music and animations! Idea with weapon also creating obstacles is very interesting. Thanks for the game!
Really great theme and mood as others have said, love the vibes. The animation on the vines is fantastic too, I love watching them grow in even after I die haha. Great job!
Really interesting mood & mechanics! Kinda cool to be your own enemy, I ended up running to open spaces before I would bring the rain of thorns. The art / animation is gorgeous - some more audio would've been a treat but very impressive game overall, I'm in awe :)
The thorn animation is SO pretty that I kept making things harder for myself by clicking around so much. Really nice art, atmosphere, and concept!
very good idea for a 2 side mechanics, the weapon that you use to kill the thorns also creates thorns that you should avoid, really clever. I loved the dying scene btw
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Very good game, possibly could make the environment slightly better, other than that, great game!
Such a beautiful and calm game. Liked that "clearing path" is not as simple as "spam click and walk".
I really like the thorns and how you animated them. I think the entire game looks super cute and amazing. I also think the idea of the game is unique which I love. Good job on the game :)
I love this concept a lot ! I find it really hard and never got really far, but the idea of having to deal with your own mess is really cool ! One small nitpick : I think it would be good to have a texture, even subtle, on the ground. Before thorns appear, you have zero visual indication of how fast you move.
Nice game. Was cool and interesting trying to balance where you should be when the thorns shot everywhere and that your weapon modified the thorns and didnt actually destroy them. The death animation was really cool looking too. Nice job!
Its interesting how the game does not want to be anything more than what it is, the graphics are in resonance with the mechanics.
Sound could be a bit less repetitive but add to the melancholy. Nice work!
Very innovative and interesting mechanic solidly showcased. Also the art is beautiful!
Had a great time playing on stream here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1609528446?t=2h57m49s
Thanks for sending your game to me on stream and sticking around for it :) Really enjoyed the game (even though I had to play on easy to win hehe). I loved your art (main character is a very cool design and the thorns / animations look really nice) and the music fit the theme very well and increased immersion a lot. You did a great job getting all this done by yourself within the time frame!
I really like the mechanic of your character spawning the hazards they must then avoid. I also really appreciate that you chose something with a scope that could be done well in the short game jam period! Great job!
Wow this is really philosophical and beautiful game! I really love it! But if I finished game on one level of difficulty and I want to change it, I should wait a lot of time. Great job!
Very innovative and fun to play! It's actually quite challenging even in Normal mode. Great entry!
This is a great idea. I really like the art and animations. And the effect at the end of overlaying all the thorns is quite nice - it looks very complex. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, it looks like winning on insane isn't something I'll be able to do :)
Simple, quick to play, yet challenging, with levels of difficulty. What can one would ask more for a LD game? Well done!
I really love the music and the graphics of your game. The gameplay is cool, I think adding enemies and sound design could improve the game.
Such a pretty game, with soothing background music that belies how difficult it is. Or maybe I'm just really bad at it. Either way, the weapon also creating deadly thorns felt quite unforgiving. I feel like I would have struggled less if the thorns were created further away from myself, or if the weapon had some more range to it or something.
Either way, I did thoroughly enjoy it, and I'm glad I stuck through to the end. It felt like a game that was more about strategizing where you were going to be every ten seconds rather than simply slashing through a maze. Great job!
Really unique game idea. Enjoyed playing through it. I did have to play it on easy to complete it though. Love the underlying story with it or at least what I took away from it. Great Job!
I loved the art and the music !
The mechanics are fun, even if i'm not fan of the fact that you create thorn while attacking. The problem is that you attack to clear the path in front of you, but by attackin you also block the same path that you wanted to clear. Maybe I missed something here ^^
However I had a lot of fun playing good job !
The mood is definitely set by the art and the music. I can't decide if it needed sfx, as I was kinda expecting it, or if it's better without it as the music sets the tone. I'm undecided. For sure need to decide how to attack the thorns as it removes the placed thorns but you also set your own. Great job!
This is a really cool concept for a game!! Really liked the animations and the vfx when you water! It's also pretty cool how your only way of clearing thorns out of your way also creates thorns. Very unique fun game -and great music too! Awesome work! :D
Such an interesting game! I really liked the more difficult stages as it gave a bit more challenge and the longer you played the more interesting it became with all the vines everywhere. Great music but it did feel slightly empty without some slashing and movement sfx (understandable as it is a jam!)
Nice entry!
Very nice mood all-around!
The poetic intro along with the melancholic guitar sets the tone perfectly. Color palette is well chosen and compliments the graphical style.
Thorns are drawn and animated very beautifully, so it's really pleasant to see them just sprout.
ThornFace2.png
You can even make rudimentary "drawings" with them!
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Some constructive critisism:
- Gameplay-wise the main-mechanic could use a bit adjusting. I see a lot of potential and room for experimentation there!
- The guitar-ambience is nice, but a bit short loop. I kept imagining solos and harmonies that could go along with the chords!
- A few feedback sound-effects would enhance the experience
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Great job, and keep on jamming!
This had a great mood set with the music. Definitely a game that gets difficult really quick so I found myself slowing right down but it makes you plan out where to make cuts so you can make a path and not box yourself in. The throwns growing looked great and it was really easy to grasp what was happening. Great entry!
Really really great game. I love the mood set by the intro text and the guitar. Was that you playing on the guitar? Really good audio. I love the idea that the obstacles come from you and that you are responsible for choosing a good location to expel your thorn spores out. Later on when it gets filled up, it feels like navigating a maze that you yourself had created. It took me a try or two to figure out the mechanics but they were simple enough to understand; however, I think that it might be good to add a small tutorial to explain the objective for people who might not be experienced gamers. Other than that, I really loved this entry. Thank you for making such a great game!
great game, I enjoyed the fact that I create a new obstacle with the attack and therefore I have to think a lot about its use. Great idea and well executed
Very nice and relaxing music to start my LD playing session with 😊 Initially I wondered if it clashed with what seemed to me like hectic gameplay but after accidentally running into thorns one too many times I learnt to take it more slowly and just let them come, cutting the few I needed to.
This could've just been an abstract mechanic but you gave it a nice theme with the rosehip, the goal and sort of a poem at the beginning of it. I guess it would've been nice to be able to skip when selecting the next difficulty level but having R within one is probably enough, especially considering most people don't spend a lot of time on LD games anyway 😅 Said rosehip is also quite cute, even with the stern eyes.
Again music is great, wish there were sound effects too. Gameplay is good and a nice interpretation of the theme. I like that there's still a little caveat to cutting thorns by creating new smaller ones. Nice job!
Nice game!
I really liked the mood the gameplay, art and music set: I felt a mix of tension, loneliness and calm. The game pushes you to go fast but to weigh every slash you make. It creates a lot of interesting short term decision making.
If I had one suggestion, it would be to replace the mini map by some sort of indicator that is closer to the center of the screen (as an arrow pointing in the direction of the water / the center), so that you don't have to juggle between what you are looking at.
Really great job on this, and thanks for the game 🌹
Nice little entry. I would definitely like to try it again if you were to polish it a little more and perhaps add more things to do in the game! I like the story because it shows that effort was put into some world idling. I tried using a paired PS5 controller on web player but it did not work for me. Will have to try it with a download.