. . .Rip apart their straw-filled sacks . . .

July 30, 2004 6:47 AM

Help the scarecrows scare the crows in this beautifully done Flash game: A Murder of Scarecrows.
posted by ewagoner (22 comments total)

Now that there's some nice Gorey fun....
posted by Dagobert at 7:02 AM on July 30, 2004

It's done by Vincent Marcone, who does the most beautiful little sketches and hand-drawn lettering. You'll have to explore his site to see some. This is really charming - thanks.
posted by iconomy at 7:04 AM on July 30, 2004

Cool, thanks!
posted by ae4rv at 7:08 AM on July 30, 2004

150, but it seems like I'm awful at every flash game I attempt. Very cool, though, thanks!!
posted by scottq at 7:11 AM on July 30, 2004

One of the best little games I've ever seen.
posted by Witty at 7:24 AM on July 30, 2004

300 even
posted by jpoulos at 7:30 AM on July 30, 2004

Very nice animation here.
posted by Songdog at 7:32 AM on July 30, 2004

And turn on the music!
[this is great]
posted by WolfDaddy at 7:39 AM on July 30, 2004

Marvelously high-concept.
posted by Epenthesis at 7:40 AM on July 30, 2004

Oooohh... and I'm 77th on the high-score list. {wink}
posted by Witty at 7:42 AM on July 30, 2004

Cool game. It reminds me of Ferry Halim's Orisinal games, but without all that pesky cuteness.

And I second WolfDaddy's music suggestion. It's easy to miss the little asterisk-like symbol in the bottom right hand corner, but you might want to click on it and turn on the music. It'll launch a little radio window that plays appropriately spooky tunes.

The radio is from the Johnny Hollow site. I've never heard of him (them?), but the site is cool, if a bit hard to navigate. (Click enter next to the JH at the top to get in to the main site.)
posted by Fourmyle at 7:47 AM on July 30, 2004

Very cool. Thanks, ewagoner.
posted by Ufez Jones at 7:53 AM on July 30, 2004

Wow, Missile Command has never looked so good.
posted by Nelson at 8:09 AM on July 30, 2004

What's wrong with me? It won't let turn the string to aim downward; will only let me aim up or in other unhelpful directions. Feel bad and responsible for scarecrow decimation.
posted by onlyconnect at 8:19 AM on July 30, 2004

onlyconnect: don't try to aim straight for the scarecrows. Launch up in the air and let it fall onto them.
posted by jpoulos at 8:20 AM on July 30, 2004

Great game. Is it random or does level 17 always go for an agonizing 30 seconds or so without new seeds? It's frustrating as hell, but somehow in keeping with the autumn theme of decay and scarcity. I played till I broke into the top 100, then wisely quit... then went back again and got my lowest score yet. Oh well.
posted by soyjoy at 8:40 AM on July 30, 2004

Vincent Marcone and his band Johnny Hollow will be playing at The 360 in Toronto, 326 Queen West, on Saturday July 31st. Details
posted by Stuart_R at 8:58 AM on July 30, 2004

Ohhhhhhhhh. Thanks, jpoulos! (and ewagoner!)
posted by onlyconnect at 8:59 AM on July 30, 2004

And the title of the game is clever too.
posted by of strange foe at 2:18 PM on July 30, 2004

nice game. what's with the annoying screen resizing at the end of each level though?
posted by crunchland at 2:33 PM on July 30, 2004

crunch, I'm not sure it's the end of each level. My screen shakes/resizes when I manage to land a seed right on top of a scarecrow's head. He then thrusts his arms into the earth and creates a little quake that seems to act as a sort of 'smart bomb', dislodging all the crows ... but also knocking down some unused seeds. If you get a bunch of crows dislodged by doing this, you may be ending the level by doing so.
posted by WolfDaddy at 2:55 PM on July 30, 2004

I'm gonna retract my initial positive assessment of the game. It's gorgeous and admittedly addictive, but it just doesn't play fair -- if your scarecrows can randomly knock all the seeds down, there needs to be some kind of mechanism to make them come faster (say, if you make longer shots or if you have a low error rate). Otherwise you'll inevitably find yourself with no seeds and a deluge of crows no matter how good you are.
posted by Epenthesis at 10:02 PM on August 2, 2004