WooLoop is the game to bring out your inner granny. It’s a free-to-play (with optional paid DLC packs if you really enjoy it) artsy time waster that is a digital take on crochet. The idea is that you are given different coloured wool and loads of pins in a board to wrap the wool around to create artistic patterns, shapes and drawings. It is a lovely slice of wholesome relaxed fun that could see you lose hours to the wooly grind if it gets under your skin.
Firstly, how much content is there? Loads. There are over 100 patterns to get started on the free version and they are ordered into tenuously themed galleries that get more complex and longer to complete as you scroll through them. Each pattern has a collection of pins and loops. Loops are the actions you’ll take to wrap the wool around a pin and they start off around the 50 loops mark and go all the way up to the giant World Map pattern that’s almost 3,000 loops. Patterns can take anywhere from 2 minutes to 2 hours to complete and since you can’t save mid-pattern, you’ll need to choose appropriately and knock them out before you have to close the game down. It’s a great offering for a free game.
Gameplay is simple and mouse-based. By clicking on a wool endpoint you take control of it and pull it where you need to go next. It’s a “follow me” that WooLoop takes, pointing an arrow and highlighting the next pin to move to. In smaller patterns, this is often already on your screen and a curved arrow shows you the direction to wrap the wool in or tie it off to end that specific piece of wool’s journey. As patterns get bigger, the view zooms in and out a little to help guide you to where you need to go but you’ll be moving towards the edge of the screen to pan the camera. This does cause some issues though as sometimes you’ll stumble across a different pin in the way of where you are going and the game automatically returns you back to the previous correct move. Patterns, where you zig-zag across the board, can have an air of frustration to them at times because of this trait.
Aside from that niggle, WooLoop is a relaxing time-wasting joy to unwind to. I do think if you get RSI, the constant rotating of the mouse may not help you but if you do one every other day as a quick palette cleanser, I think WooLoop works a treat. A sublime warm piano soundtrack backs you every loop of the way and when a pattern is completed you can redo it and change the wool colours out for variations on the theme. The paid DLC packs are also inobtrusive too and totally optional. If you dig the main content, the paid DLC is much better themed (e.g. a space gallery) and very cheap to pick up. They are value for money.
If ever you were going to get your granny into gaming, or just unleash your inner granny within, WooLoop should be that game to entice them out. Enjoyable and wholesome.
WooLoop is out now on Steam.
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