Kill chickens for better art! by loveapplegames
This entry is a bit different. We decided to do something unusual, out of our comfort zone. We did a non goal directed "toy" style game. You create art patterns by arranging objects according to certain rules. You can't really win or lose. If you manage to find space to place all the objects, the level finishes, and hopefully, you will have created something pretty as a side effect :-)
Click to place a set of objects. Flicker indicates there is a collision with other objects. After placement, the next set appears. The sets eventually repeat themselves. Each level ends when number of moves reaches zero. To break these rules, you need to sacrifice a chicken. Sometimes, killing chickens makes better art!
As you might have surmised, we didn't really feel like following the theme. So we added the chicken sacrifice as a joke!
Press the M key to go back to the menu!
This is also Val's first try at electronic music.
Boris: game concept, game, graphics Val: game concept, sound, music

| HTML5 (web) | http://tmtg.nl/ludumdare/ld43/jgame.html?game=jgame-games/ld43/ |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/43/kill-chickens-for-better-art |
Ratings
| Overall | 363th | 3.6⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 360th | 3.46⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 94th | 3.833⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 998th | 2.3⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 503th | 3.54⭐ | 27🧑⚖️ |
| Audio | 311th | 3.413⭐ | 25🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 546th | 2.771⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 625th | 3.188⭐ | 26🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 36🗳️ | 8🗨️ |
However, I didn't hear any audio while playing, despite having the audio button in the game turned on.
Also I'm not sure if there is something I can do to go back to the main menu, other than F5.
You made so many pixel graphics in 3 days? That's quite impressive (for me).
The music gave it an interesting mood. Felt pretty cool to me.
I feel like the submission is just losely connected to the theme and the chicken-thing felt kind of tacked-on but that's fine, building patterns was still super fun and relaxing!
In the start screen, I thought this would be a game where I can change the graphics because the text at the top is really jarring. I am referring to the flashy, rainbow text at the top. It seems to be really distracting and almost the kind of text that you see being used in clickbait advertisements. It looks very out of place in this game but perhaps that was the point and your intention? The text also overlaps with the audio speaker button at the top left. This one doesn't look like it should be intentional - consider changing the placement of that button so elements don't overlap. Additionally, the cursor graphic also seems to have some tiny but visible white pixels surrounding the black stroke of the pixels that look very obvious against dark backgrounds. This looks like an anti-aliasing issue possibly? But this is more minor.
I really liked the flourish level. The branches very cleverly align to adjacent branches and the placement of the
object encourages me to try out a spiral effect which is different from the previous levels. The game actually gets cooler the more I play and discover.
It's also super funny to see "59 chickens were harmed in the making of this artwork." I really enjoyed making artwork with this. I think it would be nice to have a Save as PNG option (without the UI & text) for those who are really invested in the game and want to use it to create some interesting wallpaper art XD. But of course, I understand this is a jam. Still, I would have loved a button that toggles the text and UI off so I can take a nice screenshot!
Thanks for the game and the fun it has brought :)

I love games so I love the result I had with this pacman one. I think some of these results are wallpaper worthy.
and no strange things in the javascript console, perhaps it's an old browser. no biggie.
Lot of different stage well polished and nice music
special mention for the chiken ;)
Great jobs !
Some of the levels are more difficult than others, trying not to score negative *chicken points* that is, and some are outright jokes (anything in a grid!). I don't mind those as variety, having a bit of playful fun every once in a while is refreshing in a world of *oh so* serious business (and jam projects). At times the resulting patters are also pretty, despite the low fidelity visuals.
There are a lot of extra rules you could add to each level to make the packing action trickier. For instance:
- In *Flourish* only allowing branches to be placed next to other branches, only allowing flowers at the ends of branches, not allowing leaves to be too close to other leaves, limiting the placement area to the screen, and adding in some obstacles, would complicate matters immensely increasing the challenged thus fun.
- In *Traffic* the cars could move (and why cannot I place a frog in there!)
- In *Pacman Yoke*, ghosts could actually chase pacman if placed too close and then pacman could eat the pellets and the whole thing could get out of hand if careless with the placements.
- There are a lot of possibilities for an extended version, I tell you!
The ambient, electronic music is strange; a great match for the equally strange concept and visuals.
An interesting project this; hard to rate it, but I'll try.
Overall: *Good (4.0)*
Fun: *Good (4.0)*
Innovation: *Great (4.5)*
Theme: *Non-existent (1.0)*
Graphics: *Above average (3.5)*
Audio: *Above average (3.5)*
Humor: *Good (4.0)*
Mood: *Good (4.0)*