The Grand Adventures of Fluffy Cuteykins

A lot of people told me to put my rpgs on hold for a bit so I can release some games that are closer to completion or easier to design. So here is announcing The Grand Adventures of Fluffy Cuteykins! This is a casual game where you herd your sheep: Fluffy Cuteykins, Silky Fleecysides, and 3 other unnamed ones. Your enemy in the game is a wolf named Chuckie Crankypants (see picture below).

You have a 4x5 hex-grid where you can put blockades in there to change which direction the sheep is going. The block types are: 1. irrigated tiles that the sheep drinks from, but slowly drain into the ground. 2. rolls of hay that the sheep eats, but otherwise stay permanently. 3. a lure (as of now does not have a graphic) that the sheep runs towards and lasts for 2 rounds. and 4. a fence that is permanent (not implemented yet). I have a feature in there where if the sheep gets trapped, the surrounding blocks are destroyed (maybe I will call it a baaburst or baabomb lol). That needs to be play tested more to see if it is feasible.

The map consists of many connected 4x5 boards. If the sheep leaves board A1, you appears on board A2, etc. The entire map contains 5 general areas: normal land, wetland (no haystacks), dry land (no irrigation), cold land (no hay or water), and your farm. The object of the game is to herd your sheep to your fenced in farm. You play as the shepherd and need to strategically place your blocks so you can get the sheep all the way home. Irrigating has infinite uses, so you can continue playing even if you run out of supplies, but it would be very difficult since the water drains away after a few turns.

You can lose if the wolf gets your sheep. Right now I have it that Chuckie Crankypants (I had to say the name again hahaha) chases you through two boards. He can jump into water/hay and vanish while he is hunting the sheep. This is good and bad. His movement slows by 50% while invisible, but you do not know where he is. I need to have correct locations for his spawning while chasing you (i.e. appear at the top of a board if he chased you south). His animations have been created, but not implemented into the game, yet.

I am not sure if I want to sell the game or have it free. Also, I have not decided on ads or in-app purchases. Any suggestions would be awesome.

Things to complete before release:
Implement animations for Chuckie
Create graphic for lure and fence
Add fence blocks into the AI detection
Add new sheep spawning so you can herd all 5 sheep on later boards
Adjust wolf spawning
Streamline transitions into the different areas/boards
Create the farm area and figure out the winning condition (i.e. random location of the fence or static)
Create an arrow or minimap showing which direction you need to go.
Create a silo in the dry map area where you restock on hay rolls
Create a food truck (or something) to restock on lures
Have a small restock function when you get a sheep to the farm for when you go to the next sheep
Create a few tutorial map layouts
Create mid-ranged map layouts
Finish the full map layout
Play test like crazy to balance boards/maps/ai/wolf/restocks
Publish

Do the boards get harder as you complete them? That may make in-app purchases more worthwhile.

I would like to make the levels more difficult, but I cannot think of a way around it without making it too repetitive.

I don't quite get it (why does the sheep have to eat and drink, for instance?), but its a fairly interesting-looking game at a glance. Hope it goes well for you.

The eating and drinking is there to both help you and hurt you. If there is a hay roll in front of the sheep and you want it to go in that direction, the sheep could eat it. Eating and drinking also slows down the sheep to give you extra turns to create proper blocks to herd it. On the flip side, the sheep might eat a block that you didn't want it to or the last of that type of block you have in your inventory. When the wolf jumps into a block, the sheep might eat that block and allow the wolf to move freely. Similarly, the sheep eating will use up his turn, while the wolf is chasing him down.

Even though it is a casual game, you have to use some strategy. You know that the sheep eats and drinks, so place your blocks accordingly. I will need a bunch of play testing to change how often the sheep eats/drinks or to adjust when he becomes hungry/thirsty. The hungry/thirsty scale is part of the AI. Whether he eats or drinks is a random number based on whether he is hungry or thirsty. The lure is another strategic block because it can override the sheep wanting to eat/drink (i.e. a sheep will come running if you have sweet feed in your hand).

Edit: And thanks for the feedback. I will definitely give great focus to the eating/drinking while play testing.

Was playing around around with some music for the game. I don't think I'll use this, but I definitely think it will be used in another game. Its short, but sweet

Took a longer break from this one that I wanted to, but that's ok. I think I can still get it released before the holidays.

Some updates:
Fences - There is now a corral entrance screen. I need to change the graphics, but at least the mechanics work. It was funny, I tested the game without having the fence recognized by the AI. I thought it would be broken, but the AI just skips it as a valid direction and moves on. Instead of adding it in there now, I am going to try leaving it off. The only problem I can foresee is if you somehow get the other 5 spot filled up with blocks, the sheep might run into the fence. I'll need to test that out.
I was going to have the fence as a block type that the player can use - one that cannot be destroyed by the sheep. However, that would definitely mean it would have to be included in the AI. I would also need the wolf to recognize the different block type and run around it. Upon further reflection, I came to this conclusion: if you were going out to herd your sheep, you could pretty quickly throw down a bale of hay or splash some water. Setting a fence would take quite a bit of time and you would not want to waste the resources out in the middle of an open field. Long story short, the player will not have the option to place fences.

Herding/Losing - Once in the corral, the sheep get counted as being herded. The old win screen now congratulates you for getting Fluffy McCuteykins home. When you click, if that was the last sheep, you won the level. If there were more sheep, you go back into the field and have to get the other(s) in. I plan to have some of you supplies recharged each time you get home. I will need to play test it some to see what an appropriate number will be.

Level design - I have a few levels planned out. The first few will be an introduction. #1 will just have you on the corral stage where you place a couple of blocks and the sheep gets in. Two will have a 2x2 map where you need to get the sheep 1 right and 1 down or 1 down and 1 right. Boards after that will introduce Chuckie Crankypants and the other sheep. Each level will have 1 to 3 stars. In early levels, the number of stars will be based on how many materials you used. Later levels will be based on how many sheep were lost.

Chuckie Crankypants has animations now, see one of the sprite sheets below. His mechanics still need to be worked out, i.e. when/where he spawns when he is chasing your sheep and how long or how many screens does he continue chasing. Another issue has come up: what happens when he catches a sheep. I made the surrounding tiles turn red as the screen fades out. Since I would like this to be a casual/family kind of game, I think that the red may be over the top. So what should I do instead, just switch screens right when he wins?

Just trying to get my thoughts together on this.

Bugs
1. Sheep sometimes walks two squares
Fix: Send the probe back to the sheep upon a failed probe direction set

2. Wolf can walk into the grass when it enters into a screen
Fix: Fine tune the x,y coordinates for detection

3. Sheep does not always run towards the lead
Fix: Fine tune the x,y coordinates for detection

4. Sheep respawn after win should be inside the board and not at the edge.

5. Wolf collision has stopped working

6. Sheep AI is not looking for the new irrigated block animations
Fix: Add more detection behaviors

Graphics
1. Lure graphics
2. Eating animation for sheep
3. Fence graphics
4. Bottom row of vanishblock should not show water flowing over the edge
5. Have sheep animated entering the next screen like wolf
6. Swipe into next scene
7. Animation of hay roll forming

Sound
1. Music should be light and airy
2. sfx of thunder on rainy stages
3. Wintery and Dry/dusty sfx for other stages
4. Eating/drinking sfx
5. Wolf sfx

Thoughts
1. Wolf attack blood vs. no blood, family game vs. animated violence
2. Stages already predetermined vs. rainy/dry/snowy conditions that take over
3. Minimap vs. General direction arrow vs. Herding blindly

Stage 1
1x1 corral with two sides blocked.
Player would only need to place a couple of blocks to the south side to prevent escape..
No lures, no water, 10 haystacks

Stage 2
2x2 with corral at 2,2
Start at 1,1
The Top of left sides of 1,1 are blocked
The top and right sides of 2,1 are blocked
The left and bottom sides of 1,2 are blocked
The bottom of 2,2 is blocked

Stage 3
3x3 with corral at 1x3
Start at 3,1
Bottom of 2,2 and 3,2 are blocked

Stage 4
4x4 with wolf

Stage 5
Rainy
No hay stacks

Stage 6
Rainy
Wolf

Stage 7
Dry
No water

Stage 8
Dry
Wolf

Stage 9
Snowy
No irrigation or haystacks

Stage 10
Snowy
Wolf

Unlock 2 new modes

Mode 1: Multiple sheep
Play through the game herding 5 sheep instead of 1
Recharge some supplies each time you herd

Mode 2: Free mode
5x5 map
Random corral spawn???
Random wolf spawn(s)
Five sheep
Supply recharge stations for hay and lure

I keep reading the name kinda like Grand Fluft Cute-o...