FoonLudum Dare ExplorerLD40 → The Shepherd

The Shepherd

By thetophatnoob

View on ldjam.com

CategoryRankScoreCount
Overall4763.1124
Fun3713.2024
Innovation3993.0024
Theme2273.6524
Graphics5262.7924
Audio3053.0223
Humor4202.3921
Mood4452.8722

Comments

asellio 2017-12-04 19:47

Pretty fun game. Tho because of how big the map is wouldve been nice if you added an arrow pointing towards the nearest sheep.

move127 2017-12-04 19:59

Praise

It's not the first herding mechanic I've seen in this jam, but I like the added requirement that you protect the sheep from wolves.

Suggestions

Either make the map smaller or add more things in it. A pointer towards the nearest sheep would be nice as well.

thetophatnoob 2017-12-04 20:09

@move127 I definitely agree that I may have made the map to big. Originally I was going to have hundreds of sheep but for performance and gameplay reasons I dropped that. You can actually get up to 150 sheep so I kept the map big but thinking back on it the pacing does not justify the map size. Like the previous commenter said I should have added an arrow or something. I thought the far-out view would solve that problem but I realize now that l should have added an easier way to find sheep without resulting in opening your map every few seconds.

ham-and-swiss 2017-12-04 20:13

Edit: lol wrong game.

move127 2017-12-04 20:15

@thetophatnoob

One possible solution for a post-compo release would be to have the map increase in size as you gain more sheep. This would give the game a nice feeling of progression.

6smith 2017-12-04 20:57

neat concept! i wish the wolf-hit-with-stick sound was slightly less cacophonous, though. definitely fits the theme.

thetophatnoob 2017-12-04 21:11

@move127 that would probably help fix what in my opinion is the greatest flow of the game right now, pacing. I was also thinking about changing the amount of sheep you get each day and such. But overall I think changing the map/map size would help accomplish the same thing.

papacheech 2017-12-05 00:00

I like the art style of this actually. I love herding games :) Good work!

dave-siegel 2017-12-05 02:14

I dug the music a lot, but wasn't too hot on the other sound design. I'd rework the sound that plays when you hit a wolf. Your sheep work pretty well, and I enjoyed balancing the herding with fending off wolves. There is good tension between those two things.

jandourek 2017-12-05 07:05

I like this game, especially the music.

gwolf86 2017-12-05 10:12

Great work on this entry. The herding mechanic worked well but the map was a bit too large and empty, so it was difficult to find the sheep before the wolves came. I like the fact that you included an instructions screen and the background music was really nice.

elemel 2017-12-05 14:05

I liked it! Hard to keep track of the sheep, though. Didn't make it through day three. Those poor sheep.

Suggestion 0: Lower the volume of the sound effects.

Suggestion 1: Implement flocking simulation so that the sheep stay together most of the time, and move a bit smoother.

Suggestion 2: Sheep dogs!

Suggestion 3: Sheep can fall into pits or get stuck in bushes. Fish them out with your staff.

thetophatnoob 2017-12-05 15:33

@elemel I agree on all of those things. I was working on implementing suggestion 1 and 3 but only managed to get near but not finished with 1. Sheepdogs is a new idea though and I like it.

slavicgames 2017-12-05 23:02

Well, we had similar idea :) Your concept is more natural, I like it.

kkneville 2017-12-06 03:22

I love this, it's do idyllic. What a great application of the theme.

number6406 2017-12-06 18:14

I like the mood of this game, when wolfs spawn. First I didn't notice the timer so I was like "hey, it's pretty easy", and then wolfs started to kill all my sheep :sob: I had few difficulties to hit the wolfs, but that's not a big problem.

querk 2017-12-26 23:40

It is gives a lot of fun . I love idea :D Good job :D