Winter is nearly over! With your trusty sheep dog Jess, search the hills, round up your sheep and bring them down to the safety of the farm. Watch out for ravenous wolves and deep icy lakes!

Shepherdy! was inspired by the Herdwick sheep, an ancient hardy breed farmed for centuries in the English Lake District. The sheep are taken up to the high fells (hills) for the winter. In spring the shepherds round up their sheep and bring them back down the valley.

You need keyboard controls as well as mouse, so play on laptop or PC. Enjoy!

>>> Play Shepherdy! <<<

The game is an experiment in flocking algorithms. The sheep and wolves are governed by two different flocking behaviours. Basically, each entity moves towards the center of the herd and keeps an optimal distance from neighbouring entities.

For graphics we used Tinyspriteeditor and Gimp. Game sounds were created by us (mainly vocalisations and abuse of household objects), recorded on a smartphone and processed with Audacity. Music was done in the last hour before submission using LMMS.

Herdwick sheep have long thick fleeces and come in several colours including grey, inky blue and brown. During winter they wander the fells at heights of over 3,000 feet (around 1000 metres) and take care of themselves by foraging. They can weather the bitter winters and have been known to survive being buried under snow for days by eating their own wool. They were farmed for meat as well as wool. Herdwick mutton (meat) was served at the coronation banquet of Queen Elizabeth II.

The name comes from Old Norse herdvyck, meaning "sheep pasture". It’s thought they were brought to England by the Vikings.

The ewes teach their lambs which area of the fell (heaf) they should stay in. Herdwicks are still farmed today; thankfully the breed survived the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease that hit England and Wales in 2001.

We first thought the sheep dog should be a border collie but then chose a Rough Collie (like Lassie). Rough Collies originated in Scotland and Wales and have also been used for sheep herding in traditional hill farming. In the 19th Century Queen Victoria made the Rough Collie popular as a fashion accessory!

However the Graphics Gremlin threw a spanner in the works and our Jess ended up as some kind of mongrel terrier!