Keep on rolling sheep

[davidn]

Inspiration is such a strange beast. It's great to have it back in some form after being away from MMF for a while, but I feel I'm going to have to announce once again that all the projects that I've been promising to finish for ages are now on hold because I'm busy making a completely new game once more. The new prototype has been granted its own folder now - surely the mark of some confidence.

I really love the idea, and I'm really happy with how the look is coming out - apparently I have suddenly learned how to draw things to an acceptable standard - but this game is still a bit of a mystery in that I'm still not sure where to go with it or what strategy really exists. You can roll around, learn how to align yourself and eat the flowers - is that what the game's going to be? Are puzzles with multiple sheep necessary or desirable? What other elements do there need to be - platforms you can only use once, gates that only work in one direction? Which ones of these make the game interesting and not overly restrictive?

Potential names: Sheep Roll, Sheep Tumble, Tumblesheep, Tumblemunch, Rollysheep, Fat Sheep, Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Sheep. (I'm amazed enough that "Sheep Roll" doesn't produce a game on Google already...)

Comments

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

EEEEEEE you added the baah.<3 XD

As much as I love the background 'decoration' tiles, I'm tempted to suggest they should have a different pattern, or a different scale or something -- it's a tad confusing, at first glance, since they seem to fit so well. (At first I thought you were going to be able to roll onto a different level or something!)

Tumblesheep sounds adorable. (Tumblemunch sounds pornographic..)

[davidn]

Yes, I like the walls of the green tile set much more than the yellow one, because they're so much more distinct with the different pattern - I'll change those... (different levels, though! A little spring to punt you up a level, that doesn't roll you/rolls you twice? Multiple sheep that have to form bridges for each other on different levels...? So many things that this game could have, and I don't know yet what goes into it...)

Thank you for that name guidance ;)

[xaq.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised you didn't go with some sort of a "TumBAAHle" pun.

[crassadon.livejournal.com]

How about Sheep Rattle and Roll? Maybe you could have multiple levels of elevation, so it would kind of have a 3d effect. Maybe there'd be little elevators to carry the sheep up, and then the sheep can only roll down, and not upwards.

How about moving platforms, that only move when you do, so you'd have to roll the sheep around to get the platform to line up so you could board it.

I don't know about platforms that break after use. I think that would make players angrily and instantly reset the level every time they made a mistake. Maybe a few breakable platforms, that aren't in every level, could enhance the game.

Anyway, I think the game should start with more "open" levels, like what we saw in the first demo, so players can get used to rolling the sheep around. Maybe introducing just one flower that takes thought to get to in a level, and building up to the puzzles shown here. In it's current form, my reaction was [mostly] to just randomly roll the sheep around until I found the solution. I think I thought about what I was doing more in the previous version. :P

[premchaia_pre4]

“Ewe-Turn”?

[premchaia_pre4]

No, might be bad for marketing. “Sheepsy Daisy”… no, maybe not…

[(Anonymous)]

There's a wee problem on the last level - if you roll to the level you can roll into the sky and off the board!

It's Pamela but I can't remember my password...

[davidn]

Oh, so you can! The game never checks for you going outside the borders of the level... I'm not sure how I missed that.

[tamakun.livejournal.com]

Wow, my knowledge from playing Endorfun came back to me quite quickly.

By the way, despite no text, those levels you concocted are the perfect way to get a tutorial together, forcing the way with a limited moving area. Nice work!