This is a highly polished concise experience well executed!
Summary:
Adherence To Theme
- Fits the Theme well enough, calling a group of Sheep pack is a bit of a stretch, (In the way you wouldn't describe a group of Crows... A murder of Crows as a pack of Crows) but that's just semantics at this point!
- You incorporated the grouping part of a pack deep into the Gameplay, well done!
Game Design
- Pretty straight forward mechanic, you hold up your Shepherd's staff to force the sheep to not go full Lemmings.
- It was a tiny bit unclear as to the exact effect the staff had on the Sheep, they seem to prefer diagonal movements in a game where the obstacles are all horizontal and vertical, which makes sense, for more of a challenge, however, in game it sometimes felt a bit random. This became frustrating on Level 3, where the difficulty ramps up quite significantly. No major gripes here but a point worth looking into.
- The idea of being able to close off the herd before they try to get out again and possibly fall off the cliff to their untimely demise is an excellent addition to the simple design, as it adds an extra layer of depth.
- I'd like more of these little mechanics, maybe stationary Shepherd dogs, that have the same effect as the staff or a pack of Wolves that might eat the Sheep in an area to disrupt the play-style a bit would make for a welcome change of pace.
Originality
- Extremely original idea. Haven't played much like this before. It got me this Dungeon Keeper feeling of being this overlord over Minions that act on their own terms, while I have some influence over them but they tend to act in accordance to their personality after a while anyways. Maybe this could be another feature of different kinds of sheep having different behaviors.
Style
- Very clean UI's and Graphics, the sounds and music fit excellent. It was clear as to what will happen with any given object from the get go.