Over a year ago I started making a small prototype in which you played a blue box that herded small white boxes around a black playing field. “Herding sugar cubes,” my ex called it, and she was very fond of the gaming mechanic. That’s when I thought I was on to something: if the prototype was an amusing toy, it would surely become a fun full-fledged game!

I’m of course talking about the beginning of my illustrious little game Sheeplings.

About a year ago I wrote a design document for the game; the document was wildly different compared to what can be played today. I originally wanted to make a simulation game in which action levels would feature as interruptions. “Oh no! On the way to Woolyville a nasty wolf attacks; prepare to defend your sheep,” and things along that line. The action levels would be randomized, and the main focus would be on the simulation parts. Unfortunately I decided to scrap that idea due to budget constraints: it would simply cost too much to have someone draw all those locations. Instead I went with an action-based game with hand-crafted levels instead.

Why all this nostalgia? Because I am finished with Sheeplings v0.5, and this is also something I call Release Candidate 1.

Download it here (Windows 2000/XP/Vista, 7.5 MB)

Requires Windows 2000 or higher, 1 GHz CPU or better, 256 Mb RAM, DirectX 7 or later, and 16-bit or 32-bit color mode.

View more screenshots here!

The observant reader might note that this post is a very poor excuse for a post mortem, and that’s totally correct; that’s why it’s called a pre-post mortem. After all, I wouldn’t call a product at version 0.5 finished. I’m planning on making a proper 1.0 release in a little while, and after that it’s time to make a properly retrospective analysis of what went right and what went wrong in the process. All in all – given my limited resources – I’m fairly pleased with the game as it is, even though I hope to make many improvements still before I completely leave it.

So, in this pre-post mortem I’m simply looking forward to being able to look back on the project.

Or – possibly – I just wanted a more intriguing title than “Sheeplings v0.5.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 22nd, 2007 at 12:28 am and is filed under Indie Games, Sheeplings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.