Sheepdogs at Work
A puzzle game. Let sheepdogs guide the sheep into correct sheepfolds.
A puzzle game co-produced with Kuriko at the 2021 CiGA Game Jam. Kuriko was responsible for visual design, Ayu for music and most of the programming, while the rest was a collaborative effort.
The theme was unsurprisingly a picture again, although it was getting really abstract.
A night’s discussion led to the decision to draw inspiration from the Pipes (FreeNet) puzzles and add the “guides at crossroads” mechanic to fit into the “pulling things to get them on track” interpretation of the image. The player lays out paths and place sheepdogs as guides at crossroads, directing the sheep to their correct sheepfolds.
The time-related puzzles turned out surprisingly deep, with a bunch of not-so-simple puzzles produced with my own brain racked. Playtesters later reported that they indeed seemed quite difficult, but on further consideration, it appeared better to have puzzles too hard than too easy, as excessive difficulty would be easily compensated for by a few hints 
The production process was filled with twists, with lots of mechanics discussed and decided upon while lying on the playground. Late-night rushes led to quite a few updates between the submission deadline and the online live video session. After it was done, Kuriko suddenly came to realize that the originally planned “black sheep that go contrariwise” was forgotten, which became a little regret.
