LudumData

For the Herd! by Mascoll

[raw]
made by Mascoll for Ludum Dare 58 (JAM)

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Collect your herd in a safe sleeping-spot before the day is over!

Sun is slowly rising over the horizon. Just as slowly, the herd awakens and starts to graze the plains. There to guard them is dog. Dog needs to bring every ram, sheep and little lamb to safety by the end of the day to ensure that no-one gets lost in the wild.

instructions.png

Screenshot 2025-10-06 at 21.40.06.png

Round up your herd by moving close to the sheep and coax them towards the safe zone. If they don't listen, bark a little to get them moving.

Screenshot 2025-10-06 at 21.11.05.png Sprint and slide your way through the meadows and find every little lamb before dark.

concept art vs real.png early concept sketches brought to life

collected sheep.png

Game Development:

This game was developed by seven members of the Dubious Potions indie collective.

Special thanks to Nevyn and Milestone!

All of the aspects of the game where developed within 72 hours of Ludum Dare 58, from idea to final build.

All assets in the game were made by the team.

We had an amazingly fun time doing this! <3

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DoggifLRG2.gif

Link https://ocwal.itch.io/for-the-herd
Link https://ocwal.itch.io/for-the-herd
Link https://ocwal.itch.io/for-the-herd
Link https://ocwal.itch.io/for-the-herd
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/58/for-the-herd

Ratings

Overall 81th 4.026⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Fun 212th 3.649⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 58th 3.986⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Theme 13th 4.5⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 84th 4.405⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Audio 69th 4.054⭐ 39🧑‍⚖️
Humor 211th 3.444⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Mood 71th 4.208⭐ 38🧑‍⚖️
Given 23🗳️ 40🗨️

Feedback

Ira Baciu
Oct 05th · 21:56 UTC
I can't enter the game :((![Screenshot 2025-10-06 005638.png](///raw/3cf/56/z/6d14d.png)
cardsnapper
Oct 05th · 22:46 UTC
Please fix the link! This looks really cool!
🎤 Mascoll
Oct 05th · 22:55 UTC
@ira-baciu @cardsnapper - Link should be up now! Thank you for your interest!
Note: We're experiencing some issues with sound not looping in the web-build so I recommend the executables for now! Hopefully we can fix this during the cleaning tomorrow. :dog:
Maytch
Oct 05th · 23:39 UTC
Takes a while to get the hang of! I managed 39 sheps before the end of the night!

There were some audio issues like my borks didn't always bork when I borked, but otherwise no other problems.

The way you display the time of day on those shadows is excellent, love the shadow effect you have going on there!
AppoxGames
Oct 05th · 23:51 UTC
Wow this is really well done, i enjoyed it. Only feedback i have is that the little buggers should stay in the circle. Watching them run away after bringing them there made me twitch :)

Well done on this one! I see some potential in it.
D_omino
Oct 06th · 00:14 UTC
Charming herd-collecting concept with fantastic atmosphere! The day/night cycle via shadows is brilliant, though stubborn sheep AI can be frustrating. Really captures that village vibe - great author execution!
logicalinsanity
Oct 06th · 05:11 UTC
So great. Cozy game play and theme. Challenging and innovative. I only wish there was some more cozy chill ambient music while playing.
🎤 Mascoll
Oct 06th · 13:35 UTC
@logicalinsanity the music loop in the web-build should work now!
LDJam user 268934
Oct 06th · 21:32 UTC
There is some talent here! Like the shadow casting.
Music is super nice too. Did you do the voices yourself ( beeehhh ). They sounded (good) funny 🤣!
LiuZhiKai
Oct 06th · 22:00 UTC
Ha ha ha, did you record this sheep bleating yourselves?
🎤 Mascoll
Oct 07th · 10:05 UTC
@senso @liuzhikai - All animal noises where voice-acted by the team (and connected family)! :D
With a good sized team like us, we always strive to make all assets during the jam! <3
LDJam user 268934
Oct 07th · 10:12 UTC
Nice bet you had fun doing them :)
liumeishan
Oct 07th · 11:58 UTC
omg it's so cute!!!!great job!!!
mahc
Oct 07th · 20:59 UTC
loved the shadows and setting sun!!
Keys Presser
Oct 08th · 16:39 UTC
What a great game and a great idea! I also really liked the graphics, especially the cool shadows — they turned out truly magical
danicoredj
Oct 08th · 18:32 UTC
relaxing game cool
BorodaOlen
Oct 08th · 19:37 UTC
I really liked your game. very nice graphics, very nice art.
Martynas Dargis
Oct 08th · 19:42 UTC
I loved your game. It's very pretty and I had lots of fun playing it. I did get all the sheep in the circle, but it said there's only 35 :c - I could not find any more sheep outside the circle (I know that there are white dots indicating where the sheep are)
kuggenhoffen
Oct 08th · 19:53 UTC
What a fun game! Awesome work on the sounds.
Sharky3188
Oct 08th · 22:32 UTC
A great take on the theme, very much appreciate the fact that the sheep gather to the centre once they hit the circle. Great atmosphere.
naru
Oct 08th · 23:03 UTC
I like the style! Gameplay is pretty hard but well polished
Bobap
Oct 08th · 23:29 UTC
Art is fantastic and herding might be the best use of the theme I've seen yet. The shadows were interesting, but I'm not sure made up for the 3D overhead associated. Probably could have just gotten away with a darkening overlay. I definitely liked the art more than the 3D assets and think it could have been more cohesive with a singular style instead of some bits being outlined and others borderless. Not sure what caused it but at one point I ran 2 lambs down from up top and when they got close to the safe spot they just disappeared. At first the controls were frustrating, but quickly came to love the difficulty of them and the mastery of them. The splash art is the best I've seen yet, nicely done.
🎤 Mascoll
Oct 08th · 23:38 UTC
@bobap - Thank you for your feedback! We've also noticed some bugs popping up after the jam deadlines that sadly didn't make themself known during the jam - like the lamb black hole thing and also some issues surrounding Godot and audio when out of the editor.
Note that there are no 3D assets at all in the game it's all 2D with overlays.
The splash art is all by our amazing illustrator [Elli](https://ldjam.com/users/ocwal)!
Bobap
Oct 09th · 00:04 UTC
If it's all 2D then it's really well done. You did a great job with the shadow casting then. I had a stutter at one point that I thought might have been caused by loading the packed sheep in the safe zone when panning back over them, but that's definitely not the case if they're just 2D assets.
Andreadbx
Oct 09th · 11:35 UTC
The style is amazing, love the care for details like the doggo bending when turning :D As for gameplay, it plays very smooth, but at the same time it's very unnerving having to get constanly back because the herd leaves the spot, so maybe some fences to help with that? great job!
Iriska
Oct 09th · 18:50 UTC
The style of game is incredibly attractive💜 ⭐ 💜
Trevor Mäe
Oct 09th · 20:25 UTC
Amazing game, just wish the sheep would stay in the circle. Otherwise loved it!
Hank Ather
Oct 09th · 21:00 UTC
This is such a killer interpretation of the theme, so well executed. Bummer about the audio bugs, we were having trouble with that too. Godot is weird sometimes.

Really loved the feeling of zipping around the field herding the sheep. The feel of the player was really great, buttery smooth.

I couldn't find all of the sheep- best I could do was 34. Seems like some disappeared into the void somehow.

Really love the game tho, I'd be curious to see where you could take this mechanic from here.
Caer
Oct 09th · 22:27 UTC
Such beautiful graphics! :sob: I love this spin on the collector theme--and one day, I hope to be competent enough to actually control the velocity of sheep.
Fupi
Oct 10th · 00:51 UTC
Beautiful game very cozy visuals, but wow is it stressful! :sweat_smile: The most I got is 25, I don't understand how I'm supposed to keep herding them when they keep escaping! Maybe if the controls were normal 8-way movement or mouse based instead of tank controls it would be easier, I get the difficult controls are the point but right now it feels kinda cramped on my hand. Anyhow I think this was very charming, and I could definitely see myself trying it again sometime!
xlambein
Oct 10th · 16:29 UTC
Finally got around to trying it out, it's fun to play a game with a similar concept to mine! I loved the graphics and general mood of the game, and the sound design made it quite fun. Definitely wish my game had this level of polish :>
dasMaichen
Oct 12th · 10:12 UTC
Very cute game <3, but for me it was to hard to control ^^' - but I had fun :)
l6ria
Oct 12th · 13:53 UTC
Very cute and cozy. It was a little bit hard but it was very funny. Sheep's sound is so perfect.
MikroPiru
Oct 12th · 14:07 UTC
Not only did we have the same idea, we were also a team of six. :-D I really liked the graphics, especially the menu art and the smooth animation of the gameplay, topped by those shadows. I also enjoyed the music and (somewhat funny) sounds a lot. The sheep escaping the circle was slightly annoying but I wasn't doing that good of a job anyway so can't really blame that. :-D The sheep radar on the screen edges was a nice touch! Great entry!
PieRo_PBeS_studio
Oct 12th · 16:05 UTC
Good interpretation of the theme but not at all my kind of games because it's super hard, these sheep don't listen to anything! But the realization is cool, I really like the illustrations too.
anaticula
Oct 13th · 02:43 UTC
Really cool idea and execution! I loved your attention to detail and that you even managed to design itch page! Great job! It was hard for me to play cause I suck at this kind of controls but I enjoyed it anyway, cause it feeled peaceful to roam among the sheeps not trying to chase them into the zone!
INGVIILD
Oct 16th · 16:15 UTC
You've created a damn addictive game! It's atmospheric, and it gives you plenty of time to get the hang of the controls. I'm hooked :)
hunttis
Oct 18th · 11:20 UTC
Nice work on a similar idea! I loved the cartoony graphics. Much better than what I made :laughing: Really nice atmosphere, liked the shadows, too.

I didn't get along with the controls very well, since I managed to get only a handful sheep into the ring and all the other sheep very far from each other :laughing:
stumbi
Oct 18th · 12:38 UTC
Such a beautiful game and a greate gameplay idea! Came here from the other herding game :D While i love the art work and the idea, I was expecting a more herd-like behavior of the sheep and found it quite hard to place at least some sheep in the target area.Also I found the controls a bit wonky