Ancistroides Folus by soundgnome

[raw]
made by soundgnome for Ludum Dare 55 (JAM)

What a nice day to be outside and catch up on yard work! Too bad these annoying people keep summoning you. The exercise does allow you to mow faster, but if you spend too much time away the sun will go down before you finish!

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Ratings

Overall 987th 3.194⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1076th 2.861⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 940th 2.972⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Theme 412th 3.889⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 651th 3.639⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Audio 537th 3.278⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Humor 220th 3.694⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Mood 772th 3.389⭐ 20🧑‍⚖️
Given 12🗳️ 13🗨️

Feedback

MontyMoneybags
22. Apr 2024 · 00:01 UTC
The dialogue was clever, good job
Coda Highland
22. Apr 2024 · 00:58 UTC
Sometimes it's nice to have just a short, easy, simple game with an amusing premise -- this is one of those games.
aucguy
22. Apr 2024 · 03:16 UTC
The game was not challenge, but it was definitely entertaining. The idea of the demon that was getting summoned had to do the mundane work of mowning their lawn was funny. Also, I liked the different soundtracks taking place for different parts of the summoning.
Jeremy Ryan
22. Apr 2024 · 03:34 UTC
Nice short entry with a lot of character!

I really liked all the character designs and the funny premise of a demon who just wants to mow his lawn but keeps being summoned to fix others' problems. The gameplay itself is pretty simple but that's fine since it's secondary to the narrative.

I did have a couple small areas of improvement, mostly relating to polish:
- The character sprite on the lawn mowing section is scaled down, resulting in some artifacts. All the other sprites look very crisp so this one sticks out a bit.
- The transitions between scenes are a bit abrupt. It might help if there was a short crossfade for the audio and/or some kind of simple visual transition like a wipe or fade.
- The summoning situations were all very interesting, with fun characters and situations, but I didn't really get to look through them because I had to click through them so fast! It might be nice if it took a little while for the dialogue to read out, without being able to click through, so you could get the full experience without having to play suboptimally.

I liked the music, especially the contrast between the two phases, good job to the composer.

I drew a doodle of the grass demon:

![guest_4.gif](///raw/aba/3/z/64a90.gif)

Nice work for 72 hours!
BoxedMeatRevolution
23. Apr 2024 · 02:03 UTC
The art and vibes are on point. I played multiple times. One time I ignored all summons and got my best time (40ish seconds remaining). Another time I went to as many summons as I could, until the fish guy summoned me again. Even though the gameplay itself is quite simple, seeing the different summoners is a great reward, and the silliness of the world is delightful
UngarBlapp
23. Apr 2024 · 02:48 UTC
Really good fun concept!
Sure, it's not difficult, but it is great fun!
I loved the summons sound, and the characters
in the summoned and demon scenes, Funny!
I played a few times just to see more!

Overall, fun stuff! Great concept, lovely art
that suited the concept perfectly and nice sound.
Great Work!
![Screenshot from 2024-04-23 03-42-15.png](///raw/ba4/e5/z/64b70.png)
Air Dinghy
23. Apr 2024 · 07:36 UTC
Great audio and dialogue, fun little game.
WhenYouCantFindAFriend
23. Apr 2024 · 15:32 UTC
Love the graphics! The demons have a cute grotesqueness! I also like the comment on the demon's work/life balance. Don't know if this was your intention but I feel like supervisors can contact their employees constantly(even when the work day is technically over). Honestly can relate to our protagonist demon. Great audio too!
Jeffez
24. Apr 2024 · 14:04 UTC
Really funny lawnmower game. Take an other approach to the summon, as it is something that you don't really like. Maybe a mechanic to force you to go to the summon, for money or upgrade would be interesting to add. Enjoyed the game !
PaulDee427
01. May 2024 · 12:38 UTC
I liked the animations and the monster designs. It wasn't your typical run-of-the-mill pixel art graphics. The style reminded me of the Flash-era games.
As for audio, I liked the individual tracks, but given that the game jumps from scene to scene so often it was hard for me to truly get into their vibe.
One thing I think would be a great addition to the game would be some more advanced battle mechanic.
Also, I've beaten the game twice: one time always declining the jobs, and the other always accepting them and I've won both times, so maybe some balancing would also benefit the game.
Regardless, it's a good entry so good job!
tetrapteryx
02. May 2024 · 00:26 UTC
Very funny concept, and I love the art! One thing I would have liked is a clear difference between the mowable parts of the grass and the non-mowable borders around the edges and buildings. In those last few seconds it was a bit stressful having to go around the perimeter looking for bits I missed when it all looks the same.
Jonathan Lorenz
02. May 2024 · 08:45 UTC
Such a weird idea! I liked it! Could be cool to have the mowing mechanic and the battle mechanic complimenting each other. For example, the player could gain special mowing power by defeating ennemies and the mowing part could give battle bonuses when you reached a certain mowing objective. Good job overall!
Klemen
02. May 2024 · 09:43 UTC
I love the story, the textures are amazing and the gameplaz is nice! Good job, keep it up!