The Sheep Are Sinking by Gremlin

[raw]
made by Gremlin for LD23 (COMPO)
The Sheep Are Sinking is a sheep-herding, terrain editing game that takes place on a tiny world that is slowly sinking into a tiny ocean. The sheep move towards the safety of the tower, but only if it's high enough. Collect all the sheep in the tower to advance to the next level with your flock.

Sheep can't climb high cliffs, and wolves and alligators appear in the higher levels. Save the sheep!

Made with Unity.

Controls:
A and D rotate
Left Mouse or Q - adds dirt
Right Mouse or E - remove dirt
W - call Sheepdog

Ratings

Coolness 100% 1
Overall 2.98 425
Audio 1.56 697
Fun 2.72 478
Graphics 2.72 535
Humor 2.31 381
Innovation 3.72 97
Mood 2.36 626
Theme 2.68 595

Feedback

matthias_zarzecki
23. Apr 2012 路 11:04 UTC
Lovely idea! I like hte zero-sum-terrain-deformation.
Zathalos
23. Apr 2012 路 18:53 UTC
Nice tech.
ComaToes
23. Apr 2012 路 19:06 UTC
Nice idea, well implemented.
馃帳 Gremlin
23. Apr 2012 路 20:06 UTC
Thanks! The zero-sum terrain thing was based on a suggestion from the friend I was jamming with. It really makes that part of the game, I think.
chartinboy
23. Apr 2012 路 20:41 UTC
Nice one!
I really like the mesh deform you've used, works well!

Though I can't say I like the sheep...is it wrong to want to be able to drown them?...

Nah, well done, I'm impressed you did this in 48 hours.
Beerman
23. Apr 2012 路 20:43 UTC
Simple but clever. I like it.
free_napalm
23. Apr 2012 路 20:57 UTC
Interesting idea, and nice visuals. I wish the sheep were faster though.
Despite of that, very cool puzzle game.
jami
23. Apr 2012 路 21:38 UTC
May the sheep rule terrain formation! Very good game!
ben
23. Apr 2012 路 22:20 UTC
Seemed kinda broken for me, the sheep wouldn't move and i didn't see any other creatures. Really cool concept though i'd love to see it developed further.
Lidfrid
23. Apr 2012 路 22:21 UTC
Good concept!! But it's very difficult! :)
uprightpath
23. Apr 2012 路 22:38 UTC
It's not quite zero-sum, or it doesn't feel that way if you manually lower ground by right clicking. Nothing else changed shape, and didn't seem like I got 'free lifting' somewhere else.
the8donut
23. Apr 2012 路 23:05 UTC
I like the style. Terrain editing works great. Good job!
馃帳 Gremlin
24. Apr 2012 路 00:42 UTC
@uprightpath No, sinking terrain doesn't give you anything back (that was too easy when I tried it).

I'd like to add some levels with different constraints on the terrain editing tools, though, like one where the ground is rising, or one with a different water depth.
馃帳 Gremlin
24. Apr 2012 路 00:42 UTC
@ben If the sheep aren't moving, it usually means that they can't see the tower. Raise it higher and they'll come running.
liger13
24. Apr 2012 路 00:50 UTC
fun idea. Wish the sheep moved a bit faster though.
True Valhalla
24. Apr 2012 路 00:57 UTC
Unexpected! Cool concept and decent execution. Good job overall.
馃帳 Gremlin
24. Apr 2012 路 01:16 UTC
@liger13 &@free_napalm
Yes, I think my first move after the competition is over will be to increase the sheep's speed. (If you want them to move faster right now, you can raise the tower higher, which makes them go faster in certain circumstances.)
R3ason
24. Apr 2012 路 04:41 UTC
Good game. Dumb sheep. :D But no, in all seriousness, the game was a blast (of course, in all seriousness, sheep really are kinda stupid creatures!). This would have worked well for the indirect control theme too... Thanks!
johanp
24. Apr 2012 路 13:35 UTC
Interesting concept! Sometimes the sheep didn't really behave like I expected. But maybe that's just sheep. Extremly smooth and cool looking terrain modification. Thumbs up!
DSidhion
24. Apr 2012 路 13:41 UTC
Interesting concept and great mechanic. I love deforming the terrain only to see it deforming! :)
Evgis
24. Apr 2012 路 18:27 UTC
Neat concept, cute little game!
bms
24. Apr 2012 路 20:59 UTC
really innovative game! well done!
derosa
24. Apr 2012 路 23:52 UTC
Fun concept! I tried to drop a sheep, but well :)
jeroenimooo
25. Apr 2012 路 11:16 UTC
Cool idea!
castor
26. Apr 2012 路 21:19 UTC
Really like the mechanics of dirt adding and removal. Reminds me of populous. Great game.
AlwaysGeeky
27. Apr 2012 路 18:30 UTC
I thought this had a good implementation of the terrain deform and I also had fun playign it! Great stuff :)
Square Particle
27. Apr 2012 路 19:40 UTC
Cool use of height mapping!
Ranoka
28. Apr 2012 路 19:42 UTC
Nice game! The controls can get a little fiddly when you're trying to move the dog to scare wolves and draw paths to save sheep (and rotate the camera). I like the idea, it's really fun! The sheep don't seem to drown though?
Thotep
04. May 2012 路 14:27 UTC
I like the overall idea, but it's too glitchy to be fun. On every level I ended up with far too much water, and the sheeps acted somewhat weird.
Tom 7
05. May 2012 路 21:46 UTC
Hmm, I love editing the terrain and it's very smooth, but the sheep don't ever come when I press W. What's goin' on? They just sit there, whether on land or on water...
azurenimbus
06. May 2012 路 03:31 UTC
This was pretty neat, I never saw anything like this! If you polish up the graphics and sound, this could become amazing, I think. It was actually a lot of fun in this state too. Congrats!
rvmook
09. May 2012 路 18:00 UTC
Cool idea, had fun playing it. With a bit more polish this could be really great.
TyrusPeace
09. May 2012 路 19:40 UTC
A neat game with good usage of terrain deformation, I just wish the sheep were a bit smarter. There were a good few times where I nudged all around and they'd stay stubbornly stuck on a particular bit of sand until I raised the terrain right under them. It was definitely a solvable problem, I just wish it wasn't one in the first place :).
馃帳 Gremlin
09. May 2012 路 23:02 UTC
@Tom 7
'W' is to call the sheepdog. ;) To call the sheep, you'll have to raise the tower.

@TyrusPeace
I wanted to add better pathfinding, but didn't have enough time. Maybe later...
MrPhil
10. May 2012 路 21:57 UTC
I'm impressed how you used the terrain feature in Unity as a game mechanic.
gavin5564
11. May 2012 路 22:35 UTC
The was fun. Love the world editing concept to play the game.