Wickerman by Ivorius

[raw]
made by Ivorius for Ludum Dare 52 (JAM)

You play the lone pilgrim trying to survive. You live in the wild amongst the peaceful plant-folk. But the nights are cold, and the only warmth is coming from the towering idol standing alone on a barren meadow – the Wickerman.

During the day you could mistake the menacing giant for a statue. And if you decide to ignore the whisper calling for food, it might just be the last night you try to keep warm by its fire.

So keep to your wits and don’t let the innocent and peaceful nature of the food folk around you from following your egoistical lust for survival. Slay them to keep this old angry god satisfied and you warm at night. And don’t forget the Wickerman grows more ravenous every day. Wickerman is a 2D horror survival game. The goal is to live through as many nights as possible by slaying plant-folk and feeding them to the Wickerman. When night falls you can set the Wickerman ablaze for warmth to survive the night. If you have managed to slay and sacrifice enough plant-folk the Wickerman is satisfied and grants you his warmth. If you fail he will devour you. If you don’t light the Wickerman you will die of hypothermia.

Controls:

  • WASD to move

  • Space to attack

  • Enter to start / stop dragging a corpse

Presented to you by: Lukas Tenbrink, Sabrina Beersiek, Niklas Meffert

Ratings

Overall 555th 3.263⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Fun 635th 2.921⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 264th 3.526⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Theme 73th 4.263⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 378th 3.684⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Humor 489th 2.667⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Mood 269th 3.667⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Given 9🗳️ 21🗨️

Feedback

AppoxGames
08. Jan 2023 · 21:38 UTC
Impressive work for such a short amount of time!
Everything looks good, only feedback I have perhaps reduce the hp on the pumpkins.
Well done!
Mariavalcam
08. Jan 2023 · 22:10 UTC
It looks really good! I love how the crops are surprised when they see me. The music is reaaally scary!

Well done. Only thing I would add is some purpose to the game. Like kill 5 crops of each type as soon as you can. But really good idea overall.
🎤 Ivorius
08. Jan 2023 · 22:16 UTC
@mariavalcam I think you may have missed out on the "corpse dragging and sacrifice" mechanic :)
It's not explained very well I guess.
maymay
09. Jan 2023 · 02:47 UTC
Fun game! The music is really spooky and it's a fun way to work into the theme... everything has very autumnal vibes :) Side note, but The Wicker Man is one of my favorite movies
LDJam user 320211
09. Jan 2023 · 05:46 UTC
Great attention to detail! Although I wish moving around was a bit quicker. I think this was a novel idea and you executed it well, plus it was a very good interpretation of the theme. I think it was lacking a bit of variety, maybe if you had to grab a different tool for each different crop or something? Overall, a very good showing for a jam!
Linus Lindberg
09. Jan 2023 · 08:00 UTC
As a folk-horror fan I approve!

Fun concept, controls feels a bit slow and janky, Took a while for me to figure out the corpse dragging,mostly because the corpse doesn't start moving until you are quite far away from it. I really like the art.
🎤 Ivorius
09. Jan 2023 · 08:21 UTC
@appoxgames Thank you for nice feedback!

@twchapman Thanks for the kind words! Music (and sound) is the only thing we didn't make ourselves, but we appreciate the compliment on choice of tone nonetheless :)

@maymay Thanks, we also found the movie on Google, but interestingly neither of us have watched it yet, lol.

@linus-lindberg Thank you! I agree, corpse dragging might have worked better if you were able to walk on corpses and drag them more closely.
spacecadet
09. Jan 2023 · 16:49 UTC
Quite creepy atmosphere and the visuals are really nice. For me controls felt a bit clanky and dragging was bit confusing in the beginning as there was no indication that something was happening without moving. Overall a nice entry.
muhuk
09. Jan 2023 · 19:50 UTC
**You Enraged Wickerman. You didn't last a single day.**

This should be an achievement.
🎤 Ivorius
11. Jan 2023 · 17:57 UTC
@spacecadet Thanks for the feedback! Any thoughts on what felt clanky to you?
spacecadet
11. Jan 2023 · 19:55 UTC
@ivorius Yes I for me attacking felt a bit clanky. There is a delay between pressing the attack button and the actual attack happening in the screen which didn't feel very fluid. Many times the enemies ran away before the attack hit them even if I was close to them while pressing the attack button. I also think flipping the sprite would be nice so that the attack animation goes to the same way where you are attacking. Anyways those are not game breaking things. Hope this helps :)
🎤 Ivorius
12. Jan 2023 · 00:02 UTC
@spacecadet Ah right, I expected as much. Thanks again for the feedback!
XOREAXEAX
12. Jan 2023 · 19:03 UTC
Solid entry! Very creepy mood :D I like this interpretation of harvest. The art works are so joyful what makes it even creepier :D The dragging mechanic is a bit weird - I first thought it does not work beccause there is no visual feedback when you start dragging
Slush
13. Jan 2023 · 06:14 UTC
How bizarre, I liked it though. It took me a while to figure out how to drag.
EvilScotsman
13. Jan 2023 · 20:29 UTC
I liked the creepy sounds but felt the delay on the attack was really unsatisfying, infact the delay time felt random so I couldnt get used to it. Well done on the visuals, you might want to enable anti-aliasing though so the edges of the graphics don't 'flicker' so much.
Lemons
14. Jan 2023 · 04:34 UTC
The general ambience was amazing. I agree with the others that the delayed attack was unsatisfying, but it added to the mood imo.
I'd suggest adding more feedback to show that you're dragging the corpse, I ended up toggling it a few too many times by accident.

Art, sounds and gameplay were all great.
deadjolly
15. Jan 2023 · 02:50 UTC
Good concept. Not sure what I did wrong but couldn't figure out how to actually light the Wickerman on fire. I think the graphics and music help set the atmosphere. Seemed like dragging was a bit delayed, as well as attacking. Well-built mechanics; I enjoyed the blood trails and dragging objects to the sacrifice circle!
TildeCat
15. Jan 2023 · 10:39 UTC
Cool game! I like visuals.