On the First Day Of Deerfeast My Shotgun Brought To Me…

On the First Day Of Deerfeast My Shotgun Brought To Me…

September is well and truly upon us. As retailers across the country will no doubt tell us, this can mean only one thing – Christmas is nearly here. So, in an attempt to fend off the inevitable advance of cheerful music and shiny baubles, today I’ve been reaching for my shotgun and hunting reindeer in the snow.

“It is time for the summer feast! Sadly village reserves are too low to feed all the visitors, you and your kinsmen pickup the automatic rifles and head to the deer pens”

The summer feast? Summer? In a land of eternal snow and silly hats, where hunting deer is all that stands in the way of your village starving to death, you can forgive me for feeling a little confused. But ok then, summer it is.

Detocroix’s Deerfeast Tribe was made as part of Ludum Dare 24, an insane competition to make a game under a predetermined theme in only 48 hours. Your task is simple – bring in enough deer to meet the voracious appetites of the village folk. By rapidly alternating the left and right cursors, you must maintain a constant rate of fire to obliterate the understandably angry oncoming herd.

‘But how does this meet this Ludum Dare’s theme of evolution?’ I hear you cry. As with all things in life, it is the weak and feeble deer that get slaughtered first. Trundling towards you at a slow pace, it doesn’t take much to thin out their numbers. However, with the weaker members of the herd whittled down, larger deer will soon emerge. Those beasts are fast – charging you down in seconds, they will tear you apart without even putting on the brakes, scattering puny human remains across the snow.

The instructions leave a chilling warning for the unwary:

“The deers come in 8-9 forms and the last ones will eat your soul.”

Somehow, I think the popularity of hunting would decline under these conditions…

What starts off as a fairly relaxing shoot soon descends into a frantic and desperate race for survival. Mistime a cursor hit and your gun will jam, taking just a moment to clear. But you don’t have a moment. When the deer start coming, even one mistake can leave you open to the brutal unstoppable charge of those antlered beasts.

I’ve never been a big fan of hunting and now I know why. When hunters are out proving their manliness by shooting the animals foolish enough to stand out in the open, what does that leave us with? Only the cunning, stealthy and elusive beasts, those who dwell in the dark and forbidding reaches of the forest and watch you from the shadows. Fear them.

Merry September everyone, and don’t let the reindeer consume your souls.

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