Happy Sheep - (by Ivan Vasilyev)

[Echoseven]

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[BohemianCoast]

OK, I think I'm prepared to give this one a go. I remember a game I played on MAME from the earliest days of video games, called, slightly dodgily, 'Chicken Shift', which was a chicken sorting game. I played that game *far too much*, and I think that sorting is an underused mechanism. I'll be back once I've shed 69p and had a go.

Edit: I remembered the other sorting game I put too much time into -- Swapper. So yes, I think I can safely say that I am a sucker for sorting games. Any other recommendations, people?

[wrammy]

This game looks pretty solid... definitely worth a try. Especially for only $.99!

[MasterChief3624]

Originally Posted by BohemianCoast

OK, I think I'm prepared to give this one a go. I remember a game I played on MAME from the earliest days of video games, called, slightly dodgily, 'Chicken Shift', which was a chicken sorting game. I played that game *far too much*, and I think that sorting is an underused mechanism. I'll be back once I've shed 69p and had a go.

Awesome to hear! Please post some impressions when you get the chance I'm quite interested in this one

[BohemianCoast]

Ok, very quick first impressions. Graphics are cute and polished, with lots of sheep animation, and the sheep sometimes act in unexpected ways when rolling on the conveyor. The 'knitting' that builds up behind the scene is a fresh way of showing level progress.

It is a sorting game, like the egg-sorting levels of Chicken Shift; and I think that's an underused mechanism, so that's quite nice. I certainly can't think offhand of an iPhone game that uses this mechanic.

I *think* there are 20 levels. The first two were trivial, and then I failed repeatedly on the third level. Ooops. Having finally struggled through it (I don't know, maybe ten goes?), I'm currently having the same issue with the fourth. When I did finish the third, it said 'Perfect'. But it wasn't perfect, by any manner of means; I'd lost loads of sheep. So I'm not quite sure how that works. I *think* this means that it has a bit of a learning curve issue; not uncommon with this sort of game, but I would prefer a slightly more gradual slope.

You lose some health for dropping sheep off the edge, or into the wrong bucket, or for blowing them up with a bomb; you gain health as you sort sheep.

It's a cute game; not a bad use of your 69p. It's not universal which is a bit of a shame; I do most of this sort of gaming on the iPad.

I'll post a bit more when I've played a few more levels.

[MasterChief3624]

Originally Posted by BohemianCoast

Ok, very quick first impressions. Graphics are cute and polished, with lots of sheep animation, and the sheep sometimes act in unexpected ways when rolling on the conveyor. The 'knitting' that builds up behind the scene is a fresh way of showing level progress.

It is a sorting game, like the egg-sorting levels of Chicken Shift; and I think that's an underused mechanism, so that's quite nice. I certainly can't think offhand of an iPhone game that uses this mechanic.

I *think* there are 20 levels. The first two were trivial, and then I failed repeatedly on the third level. Ooops. Having finally struggled through it (I don't know, maybe ten goes?), I'm currently having the same issue with the fourth. When I did finish the third, it said 'Perfect'. But it wasn't perfect, by any manner of means; I'd lost loads of sheep. So I'm not quite sure how that works. I *think* this means that it has a bit of a learning curve issue; not uncommon with this sort of game, but I would prefer a slightly more gradual slope.

You lose some health for dropping sheep off the edge, or into the wrong bucket, or for blowing them up with a bomb; you gain health as you sort sheep.

It's a cute game; not a bad use of your 69p. It's not universal which is a bit of a shame; I do most of this sort of gaming on the iPad.

I'll post a bit more when I've played a few more levels.

Thank you for the impressions! So how does the gameplay work? Do you move the conveyor belts around? Do you tap them systematically to direct the sheep?

[BohemianCoast]

Sorry, should have said. The conveyor belts are fixed, at least so far -- but you tap on them to switch the directions in which they're moving. So the game is to juggle your sheep so that they're on the conveyor belt that drops them into the relevant basket -- except also the baskets move (but are constrained by the other baskets; they're in a row and can't switch over). Later there are bombs; if you're not pretty sharpish managing your conveyor belts a sheep will hit a bomb.