This game is interesting. It took me a while to figure out what I should be doing (a typo saying pants instead of plants didn't help matters) and there didn't seem to be enough time to actually turn all the way around before the round ended so I kept losing, not sure what I was doing wrong. The art is nice though, and there is some decent sound design. A good effort for a weekend's work.

@historymaker118 Thanks for playing!

That isn't a typo, "pants" is a valid category to cull the creatures with pants on.

I'm planning to add a mouse sensitivity setting in a post-update, maybe it will help with being able to turn faster.

You can also save a bit of time by checking around while the prompt is up to prepare!

Loved the mood. Nice execution.
Timings are a bit harsh though and some items are maybe a bit hard to classify in some categories.
Very well done!

Thanks @alkemiste!

Indeed timing is a bit harsh as you only have 6.66 seconds to complete a level. Difficulty progression is definitely something that needs to be balanced more.

Some categories are intentionally a bit trickier, that said some might feel more confusing and unfair than others. Which one gave you trouble?

Great concept for a slashing game. Lots of fun, cute little guys are awesome.

I love the mood, visuals + sound design are superb! I feel like the game really needs better indication on how well you're doing in the round and how long you have, but it's understandable to not have it perfect for a jam game. Great job anyways!

Good game, very nice visuals and audio.

Some feedback:
1. Whenever I loose the game I am never sure how many targets I've missed. Maybe showing the amount of missed targets would help.
2. Game needs a timer. I see above that I have exactly 6.66 seconds(which is a great idea), but would be better to see it.
3. I am not sure if it's intentional, but sometimes objects spawn behind one another, so I am forced to destroy the one in front and get a BAAAAD BLOOOOD.

Apart from everything I said, it's a solid game. Good job!

this one was really cute lol. art reminds me of Keita Takahashi's work (some other games come to mind like Elebits, Pan-Pan, etc.) took me a second to figure out but i liked it a lot in the end!

Love the ambient and the voice lines! I think the game could display a timer, and maybe prevent too many object overlays - a couple of times the thing to cull was behind two other creatures, and I miss clicked haha. Win/lose conditions were also unclear to me - do you have to get "close enough" at least once to beat the round? Overall, it's a vey stylish execution, congratz!

@tevasliutauras, I skipped adding a timer since I thought there was so little time you wouldn't be doing anything differently if you knew exactly how much was left, but I understand how it would make it more clear. So we'll figure out something for this.

We wanted to make the sign beneath you indicate how well you are doing but ran out of time, that's also on the to-do list!

Thanks for playing!

@mnemosynevl Thanks for playing and appreciate the feedback!

I wanted to highlight the remaining targets somehow at the end or show you a ghost for the wrongfully eliminated ones but couldn't make it in the jam. Definitely planning on it!

Timer as well!

It is semi-intentional that they can cover each other, in those cases you can often slash carefully to only hit one target. We were thinking of adding an alternate action that would let you push the creatures away safely so you could access the ones behind but opted for keeping the game simpler. Might revisit that idea or tune the spawning to make covers even less likely.

@nick-blackwood we will definitely implement some form timer, also see my comment above about covers.

You win a round if you kill 66% or more of all targets. The needed percentage grows with each successful round. The percentage is calculated as "(targets_killed - non_targets_killed) / all_targets", so if you have lots of targets and accidently slash a wrong one you can still win.

@awr Thanks! At first, I was thinking about little creatures like candy people from Adventure Time or the characters from Dumb Ways to Die, but it became quite different.
I'm not familiar with the works you mentioned, but they look cool! I really like the color palette in Pan-Pan.

most unique and impressive game I have seen so far, feels so unique with the voice effects the camera movement, the slashing effect and the kinda doodle effect to the creatures

I could certainly play this for a long while, waiting for the easiest restrictions ... I found the "no pants" the hardest one lol ... the "only the flying" was the easiest I got

from the second culling onwards it seems it gets real hard you have to move crazly fast.

this feels really good, ... could also be a vr game I imagine.

The effect is terrible and give a unique identity to the game.
The concept is very original, but really hard ! We just have few seconds to cut with the condition that's too frustrating, maybe with a progressive difficult ? Or more time at the beginning to understand the control ?

@velvetlobster Thank you for the kind words!

Yeah, the "not the..." type of rules are definitely the most tricky, it's easy to miss it. Pants are pretty hard, that's giving me trouble as well ^^

I guess one even easier is "not the flying" as it's simpler to slash around the ground enemies. ;)

Actually the culls are fairly randomized, you can get hard ones right at the start with lots of targets and you can have just a few targets in later culls, the chance to get more increases but other than that it's pretty much the same. We definitely have to refine the progression.

It helps if you check around while the rule is up to save a bit of time on searching.

Really sick looking game visually, took me a hot second to figure out how to play it but it's really fun and satisfying to cut things up. I do wish there was a timer and that the results you get at the end were a bit clearer, there were time where I swore I cut everything that fit but still got 'Bad Blood'. Either way though, great entry!!

@drainkid thanks for playing!

It seems like a timer is something people really want so it will definitely be included in a future update!

Sometimes the rule says "**NOT** the ..." in which case you have to cut everyone except whatever fits the category. That might be what happened unless you've cut too many non-fitting ones as well.

It's a very interesting idea and I enjoyed the visuals A LOT! I wish there was like a timer, so that I know for how much longer I can have my analysis paralysis :D I wasn't able to progress further 3rd culling but that 100% on me, it's a cool game!

Omg at first I freaked out, the sound was too loud for me and everything was so unexpectedly moving :D

But several seconds in, it set into my mind and I liked it.

Very atmospheric thanks to sounds and trippy visuals. It's the only game here I can remember playing with such point of view.

Gameplay is a nice mix but again I like the most how it's all from the perspective of summoned creature and it's purpose.

Nice cutting effects!

I really liked the idea of having to quickly find matches, but the time limit was too challenging for me. Thanks for the challenge, great job!

Totally no idea what was going on but the art style is truly amazing. I got "bad blood" lots of times but still progressed? Maybe a little tutorial or description about what the goal is would help :)
Anyways awesome submission, definitely scoring high on some categories! :smile:

@momotiktik thanks! I implemented a kind of time indication yesterday so it will come in an update soon!

@konstantinreed thank you for playing, I'll keep in mind to include some easier mode or a less steep difficulty in the future!

@wouterk12 glad you liked the art! if you get "bad blood" it means you eliminated too many wrong targets, the game just automatically restarts if you lose, so it might seem like you still progress. If you complete a level you get "next cull" and a score that increases as long as you don't lose. We are thinking of some better indication of loss and some kind of summary of what you missed or wrongfully slashed.

I love the way you presented this game, and the way that the creatures are stylized. Instructions could be clearer and some of the prompts can be confusing. Otherwise, I had a "good" time when I finally got the hang of it!

It is:
1. Dead simple
2. As much simple it is it's also addicting

This was really interesting, and surprisingly difficult. Had me whippin my mouse around like a maniac cultist haha. I love the art and sound, and the design is super solid. Wish there was some means of keeping track of time or insight into what the level end messages mean exactly.

@Rincs thanks for trying out our game on stream and for your feedback!

@yogurtthehorse that description is exactly what I want to achieve so thanks a lot!

@chonibi we all deserve to be a little manic sometimes :) actually we just released a [post-jam update](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/55/the-culling/post-jam-cull) that addresses the steep difficulty, the lack of timer and improves the rules to be easier to understand.

Damn thats a good submission right here. Looks great, feels very polished and sounds great too. Just a bit too much time pressure for my taste is the only thing I can criticize.

All I can say is that it is really impressive. Loading screen, voice effects, creepy-cute characters, game loop. One of the most polished and stylish games I've encountered in LD55. Also as a colorblind, I appreciated the settings. Excellent job!

I enjoyed the visual design of this game! All of the trippy visual effects and animations made the game come alive.

I would have appreciated a timer in addition to some other visual effect to indicate when you're short on time left. And the messages on end screen could be a bit clearer. I don't understand why "Pure Evil" is the best result, while "Bad Blood" means I lost.

I was only ever able to get to level five. I'm colorblind so I couldn't consistently make it past any round that asked you to discriminate based on color.

@retrific Thanks, we added an easy mode with a bit more time in the last update, but I might need to consider a cozy mode too heh.

@krummsakura thank you, glad to hear the settings were useful! To be fair some of that polish only happened in the last week, you should rate us based on the "jam submission build" on itch.io

@zungryware thanks, the online post-jam version has a timer and accessibility settings to exclude certain colors from the goals, the endings should also be more clear, but "pure evil" means you got everyone matching the target and didn't slash anyone not matching it, "bad blood" means you slashed too many bad ones.

I really liked this! The graphics and mood are great and the effects help make the sprites seems 3D.

The controls are good and the slicing effect is very satisfying. It was fun having to think quickly a little bit on each category. It was really difficult though, and the waves are very quick - I think a more gradual difficulty increase would be nice. I might try the post-jam version with the easy mode!