Sheep without Shepherd by navot

Basic Instructions:
Get your sheep to the safety of the fenced pen
Don't let your sheep wander into the forest, where they will get lost
Get your sheep into the pen before night time, to avoid foxes
Foxes can't enter the pen, Sheep can't leave the pen once they're in
Controls:
WASD: controls the dog
R: restart level
Space: next level, only works if you have finished the level with a decent score
| HTML5 (web) | https://navot.itch.io/sheepwithoutshepherd |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/sheep-without-shepherd |
Ratings
| Overall | 76th | 3.872⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 68th | 3.91⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 84th | 3.776⭐ | 40🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 51th | 4.179⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 81th | 4.026⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 259th | 2.971⭐ | 36🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 167th | 3.423⭐ | 41🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 33🗳️ | 22🗨️ |
I'm going to have to look into your Boids implementation as it felt muuuuuch better than mine.
I loved the fox mechanic, I wanted to add that as well but ran out of time.
Graphics were really nice too.
I also made a herding game. While its not as good as yours I would love to know what you think of mine.
I love how this turned out in the end. The sheep design and day/night cycle work very well. I'm impressed how robustly you implemented the flocking behavior. Controller support is appreciated.
Unfortunately there is no sound at all. Maybe you didn't have enough time but putting together some simple sound effects in bfxr or even recording some voices yourself would have improved the experience immensely.
Overall a short sweet game that feels very polished.
I also usually put off composing to the last possible moment as I always feel it's the weakest aspect of my games. Sound effects on the other hand are really easy to make using tools like bfxr or chiptone (http://sfbgames.com/chiptone/) Maybe head over there and play around with them to see whether you find something you like?
As for music. I guess even a simple ambient sound is better than silence. It adds so much atmosphere. I think in your case it might have been sufficient to load up any sound tool, get a vst that produces an atmospheric sound and just play really long notes without any real melody, then make the notes fade in and out.
It has the potential to become a bigger game if polished. :clap:
My score was 272.
My keys stuck sometimes, but I very much suspect that's the laptops fault, not your game. Also the I got stuck in the fence once, but at that point there was only one sheep left.
Brilliant idea, well implemented and, like the others said, good job on the flocking!
I remember your crazy asteroid game from a previous LD, and this is another one with an interesting movement/interaction mechanic. At first I got right up next to the sheep but then I realized this disperses them too much. I started to keep a further distance and I found I could corral the sheep better this way. But wowzers that level with 200 of them! It was cool to see the rippling wave of my influence fighting against their natural tendency to have elbow room.
A surprisingly compelling system emerged from very simple rules here, which is a credit to your design. The controls were snappy, the feel fluid, and the art was very nicely done and felt cohesive. It's a shame that there is total silence, as not having any sound makes the game feel less real and further away, whereas all the other elements were strong enough to make a game that could draw me in.
Very well done!
The keyboard controls I found a little frustrating, the dog controls more like a car than an animal with its wide turning circle. Seeing one of the other comments that you could use a controller, I tried that instead and found it much more intuitive to control with an analogue stick. I can't see it stated anywhere that controllers are supported, so you might wanted to publicise that fact a bit more. It's a real shame there is no sound, just a "woof" and a "bah" noise would have really added to this and even injected some humour too.
Anyway, I reeally liked the sheep mechanics. At first it seems overly simple, but as others have pointed out, the sheep will kind of assemble, then spread out for 'elbow room,' or they have a personal bubble. Their movement is a little bit complicated, which is nice! I was happy to see you could scare away the foxes also.
I only have a couple things: the HTML5 seemed a bit laggy on controls, and I wanted some sort of new element to be added, I dunno, like maybe a run/fatigue system. But those are minor, this is really a unique idea, well done, and great art! Nice work!