Indie Game of the Week 396: Sheepo

Hey. Look. I promise this will be the last explormer review for 2024. Not that I'm practicing any self-restraint; I'm genuinely running out of the things. Maybe that's something to ask from Santa. This week's subliminal cry for help is Sheepo, the first (Steam-published) game from Kyle Thompson. He was the one behind semi-recent IGotW subject Islets (#373)... and will probably appear here again before too long with his most recent game, Crypt Custodian. I was very impressed with Islets—stylistically it had a real chill vibe thanks to its wonderful soundtrack (from Eric Thompson, who I assume is a relative and also did the music here) while mechanically it did some fascinating navigational stuff by having separate maps combine into a bigger one—so I've high hopes for this earlier effort, though with some degree of tempered expectations given most developers traditionally tend to improve with successive games.

The story of Sheepo sees the titular vaguely sheep-like thing Sheepo visit an alien planet in order to collect the eggs of endangered native fauna, all of which are guarded by massive "queen" members of their respective species. In addition to the important conservation work, each egg allows Sheepo to temporarily borrow the form of any creature of that type, all of whom offer some sort of traversal upgrade to Sheepo's default double-jumping and wall-jumping combo. The initial longbird, for instance, grants the power of flight for a few seconds while the burrowing spineworm provides access to an underground network of tunnels. Added to that are a set of hard-to-reach collectible feathers (real unfortunate Assassin's Creed II flashbacks there) that can figuratively and literally open some doors for you, albeit of the purely optional variety.

The game touts itself as a pacifistic game, as you have no means of attacking enemies (nor enemies to attack in most cases) and kinda have to trick the infrequent bosses into defeating themselves instead. That, plus the simple gradient-filled aesthetic and the chill ambient music really gives the impression that Thompson was inspired by the Indie developer Nifflas, who created many games in this same relaxed style such as Knytt Underground and NightSky (both of which I reviewed many moons ago). That we're starting to get into a generational thing with Indie game development is a pretty remarkable reminder that this tier of game development—at least in its current form, as those sold digitally through Steam or XBLA, rather than going even further back to shareware found on diskmags—are already close to a couple decades old. But hey, so many of them feel even older given their predilections for the classic 16-bit genres, so I'm not going to let myself dip into a whole spiel about the inexorable march of time again; we're all quite familiar with that song and dance already.

So I'll go back to praising Sheepo for already having a keen sense of how games like this ought to control, with a speedy and flowing approach to traversal right off that bat that would normally only come about after several hours of acquiring acrobatic upgrades, and yet every egg and its concomitant shapeshifting ability still has a meaningful effect on how much more of the world you can explore. It's certainly not a long game—as an inaugural commercial project for an Indie dev, it's often best to pace yourself with something small that can then go on to fund the next, bigger thing—but one that, like the best explormers, has some meaningful level design with a few surprises here and there as you learn more, contextually, about the sorry fate of this dying planet and meet its few remaining sapient lifeforms dancing in the ruins of their broken world. But, you know, more cheerful than that. I mean, just look at that Sheepo dude. That's someone who knows how to chill and doesn't get hung up on all the egg theft and expediting extinctions he might be doing. Good for that guy.

I'll go ahead and still say Islets is the better game, if only to reassure the developers that they're continuing to improve, but there's plenty about Sheepo that is worthy of merit beyond that it gave the devs the experience and confidence they needed to make its more ambitious successor. The application of the shapeshifting conceit shines in how most of those powers would break the game wide open if they didn't go away after a few seconds but as they are they work better in self-contained instance puzzles like flapping around a maze of spike walls or quickly burrowing through windy subterranean courses before the upgrade wears off and you end up buried alive (which is a little terrifying, not gonna lie). Its map is small but still feels intimidating to explore in full owing to how almost every screen involves a challenging platforming puzzle—I really hope to unlock a fast-travel system soon—and since I've always enjoyed Nifflas's games for their serene and unhurried vibes (if not necessarily an equally tranquil difficulty curve) I'm heartened to know he has fans in the same line of work. Sheepo's nothing too extraordinary or revolutionary as explormers go but it's a strong foundation for a developer that evidently was able to build on the lessons learned here.

Rating: 4 out of 5.