Comments on: . . .Rip apart their straw-filled sacks . . .

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

ewagoner — Fri, 30 Jul 2004 06:47:43 -0800

Help the scarecrows scare the crows in this beautifully done Flash game: A Murder of Scarecrows.

By: Dagobert

Dagobert — Fri, 30 Jul 2004 07:02:48 -0800

Now that there's some nice Gorey fun....

By: iconomy

iconomy — Fri, 30 Jul 2004 07:04:35 -0800

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.

By: ae4rv

ae4rv — Fri, 30 Jul 2004 07:08:00 -0800

Cool, thanks!

By: scottq

scottq — Fri, 30 Jul 2004 07:11:13 -0800

150, but it seems like I'm awful at every flash game I attempt. Very cool, though, thanks!!

By: Witty

Witty — Fri, 30 Jul 2004 07:24:27 -0800

One of the best little games I've ever seen.

By: jpoulos

jpoulos — Fri, 30 Jul 2004 07:30:12 -0800

300 even

By: Songdog

Songdog — Fri, 30 Jul 2004 07:32:32 -0800

Very nice animation here.

By: WolfDaddy

WolfDaddy — Fri, 30 Jul 2004 07:39:42 -0800

And turn on the music! [this is great]

By: Epenthesis

Epenthesis — Fri, 30 Jul 2004 07:40:13 -0800

Marvelously high-concept.

By: Witty

Witty — Fri, 30 Jul 2004 07:42:03 -0800

Oooohh... and I'm 77th on the high-score list. {wink}

By: Fourmyle

Fourmyle — Fri, 30 Jul 2004 07:47:22 -0800

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.)

By: Ufez Jones

Ufez Jones — Fri, 30 Jul 2004 07:53:48 -0800

Very cool. Thanks, ewagoner.

By: Nelson

Nelson — Fri, 30 Jul 2004 08:09:52 -0800

Wow, Missile Command has never looked so good.

By: onlyconnect

onlyconnect — Fri, 30 Jul 2004 08:19:12 -0800

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.

By: jpoulos

jpoulos — Fri, 30 Jul 2004 08:20:51 -0800

onlyconnect: don't try to aim straight for the scarecrows. Launch up in the air and let it fall onto them.

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Fri, 30 Jul 2004 08:40:47 -0800

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.

By: Stuart_R

Stuart_R — Fri, 30 Jul 2004 08:58:17 -0800

Vincent Marcone and his band Johnny Hollow will be playing at The 360 in Toronto, 326 Queen West, on Saturday July 31st. Details

By: onlyconnect

onlyconnect — Fri, 30 Jul 2004 08:59:37 -0800

Ohhhhhhhhh. Thanks, jpoulos! (and ewagoner!)

By: of strange foe

of strange foe — Fri, 30 Jul 2004 14:18:47 -0800

And the title of the game is clever too.

By: crunchland

crunchland — Fri, 30 Jul 2004 14:33:38 -0800

nice game. what's with the annoying screen resizing at the end of each level though?

By: WolfDaddy

WolfDaddy — Fri, 30 Jul 2004 14:55:34 -0800

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.

By: Epenthesis

Epenthesis — Mon, 02 Aug 2004 22:02:32 -0800

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.