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10/10 can pet dog

dont mind me just giving it a bunch of 5 stars because it's pico 8, it's creative, it has an absolutely atrociously obtuse control scheme (hilarious) that's really fun to master, and you can pet the dog.
Fun game!

Took me a bit to understand but super cool and creative!

Interesting! I'm definitely not very good at it, and also got a runtime error though :-(

Love the concept and the take on the theme, the art and sound are pretty cool too! I always wanted to make a PICO-8 game. Nice job!

I am getting the same runtime error in most attempts though, and found the whistling mechanic kind of hard to understand. Maybe a few more tutorials or an indicator of what exactly was happening after certain whistling combos would have made it easier, but perhaps it's just something you didn't want so hey.

Overall awesome game!

The idea seem fun, but I am still not sure I totally understands the gameplay.

Love the novel idea and the pico 8 theme! Would be nice to have the whistle combinations on the screen while playing... I kept forgetting the combinations, which made the gameplay really hard to pick up and master.

What a beautiful game! Loved it, a bit hard to get the controls but this just makes the game more fun!

concerned with the reports of runtime errors. If anyone could tell me what platform you're seeing it on I'll try to fix it along with other feedback for a post jam edition.

It took me a while to actually understand that it was sheep and dog that I was playing with haha. The controls are pretty hard to get used to for me, I always forget them when on the spot. There is an annoying crash when your dog go too far away I think. Anyway, the idea is really cool and I had a laugh when I saw that in "hard" mode you just have that tiny zone you can move in, it's super cute, but it will really takes some expertise to beat I think. Thank your for making the game, keep up the good work!

Very fun game!

Btw I have found a bug, which hard crashes the game. Here is the screenshot if it helps.

YAY another Pico-8 game. And YOU CAN PET THE DOG!!! 🐶 🐶 ♥️ ♥️ It's trickier than it looks at first! Nice game!

Thanks @happyglitch, that tells me everything I need to know. That's such a glaring error I'm amazed that never came up in testing.

Oh, that's amazingly tricksy. I did the tutorial and regular level, realized what "hard" would entail, and noped out, but I had a big smile on my face when I did.

Such a cute use of theme, and really evokes the feel of herding.

Thanks again to everyone who pointed out the runtime error, I've now fixed that on my website/itch page, but obviously I can't just change my competition entry, so judge it on the version here, but if you enjoy it, play the version there.

I didn't quite get the idea of the game, but I liked the sounds in it

I am very bad at this game *but* this game is very fun.
Really nice just having a play around with the mechanics even if I wasn't really able to herd any sheep particularly effectively. Incredible how much you communicate with so few pixels!

A fun little game, only hit the error a couple of times and managed to complete the practice level

Really liked how the word "Summon" is interpreted in this game, had fun time trying not to get a runtime error and after about 10 minutes of exploring unique mechanics completed the tutorial

Nice on, the practice level is really hard from the beginning or maybe I dont know so far, how I get sheeps where I want. But nice minimal art style and love the unique Idea!

Nice game! A bit hard, but very unique and reminds me of atari 2600 games. Sound design and graphics are cool! Great job!

The game is very hard, but I still like it! The graphics are hilarious, the animals are cute and the audio matches the action. I believe the controls and AI need adjusments if you want the game to become easier. Would definitely enjoy it even more. Good job!

I wasn't able to figure out the mechanics. Looks interesting though

Keeps crashing on me when I think dog is going too far or something.

Kinda started to get a hang of controlling the dog but the last level is stupid annoying still and constant crashing doesn't help either. And for the earlier level(s), it's just easier to ignore to do completely.

The dog controls are a bit too much to handle. It was really confusing at first too, distinguishing the dog from the sheep wasn't easy. It was only after the tutorial was complete that I actually realized that one of them was a dog and that's the thing I was controlling with z/x. I think a simpler control scheme would have worked a bit better. Maybe something like z to toggle between alert/sneak and x+arrows to forward/back/circle left/circle right. I guess that'd be a lot easier to remember. And at least having the button legend be available on other levels too would have been nice.

And of course there is the thing about the amount of content. There is quite little and the difficulty spikes hard as it pretty much just throws everything at you at once. More gradual increase would have been approachable as it could introduce different mechanics one by one and let players learn them more easily.

And I loved that you end the level by patting the dog 💁‍♂️🐶

Good job! 👍 Shame about the crashing...

edit: Had to go back for a one more try. Beat it at least though let quite a lot of sheep get away...

edit 2: Okay, a bit better now. 😅

Can pet dog 10/10. Would pet dog again.

That's a very efficient use of minimalistic sprites ! It's also a nice concept to only be able to interact with the sheep with your dog through whistling :) It's crazy how you managed to pack a game that feels like a simulation in a such a small format ! Well done !

The control scheme was a bit confusing as on PS5 controller the O and X the control scheme refers to are inverted. Really neat idea, would have liked some additional element to create a sense of urgency, like a wolf that comes to kill sheep or something. Overall very creative and well done.

Did Learning and Practice modes first, and it seemed a lot easier to just use my character as a sheep dog. Then I tried Hard, and... that strategy stopped working xD

Controlling the dog felt pretty natural after a bit of play. First time got all 30 sheep in on Hard mode by sneaking around the sheep and blasting them from specific positions, but trying to do that with speed was a lot more difficult. Got a best score 2:35 (all 30 sheep):

This is a really cool idea and enjoyed it once I understood how to play. But it was still very hard to play for me, even at the tutorial level. It is very clever, though and I much prefer this use of the summoning theme over what most of the other entries do. The art and sound really took me wayback :smile: . Fantastic job!

Took me a while to understand the controls and I thought I needed a special controller to play at first haha but oh my gosh this game was adorable I love how you work together with your doggo and the behavior of the sheep! The dog is only 2 pixels wide but is filled with so much personality! And of course 11/10 can pet the dog! Fantastic work!

That one was cool to play! Pretty fun, hard as hell though!
I may have found a small bug, if the dog leaves the screen while rotating, its distance to you increase a lot while offscreen. Good job!

Wow what an original idea and a very cool one at that. I also love the very low rez graphics look. It really fits the game. Very hard but very innovative.

The general idea is cool and the I really like the graphics.

PICO-8 always has its own unique aesthetic👍.

Love the retro art style and the music, everything feels coherent :) Good job!

yeah pico 8 lovers, a really good interpretation of the theme, really original... besides the whole game is very original, a little too twisted for me but I recognize the work and the uniqueness

awesome theme interpretation, art style, and feel to the game! Fun gameplay too, but a little tough to peel my sheep from the edges of the level and hard to remember dog commands. overall great job!!

@jdah worth remembering that, when running, the dog can jump the fences - even the outer borders.

Good game! I loved these TINY sprites.

I noticed a bug (I’m not entirely sure if it’s a bug) - the sheep in the second location are able to jump over the fence and run away. This happened to me when the dog ran far to the northwest. Some sheep at some point suddenly ran to the southeast and jumped over the fence in the corner.

I love PICO-8 games, even though I'm always terrible at them. And this one is no exception. :D

There's a lot of stuff to unpack here, congratulations on managing to complete so many things in the compo time! Having a separate practice level was really good, tough it almost felt like a trap :). At first I had some trouble with getting used to the controls, so I used my character to direct the sheep... Which was brutally taken away from me in the hard level :P. The controls are pretty difficult to get used to, and really difficult to master. Some more feedback on the actions would definitely be a nice thing, like maybe showing small icons for current action? Few times I got my dog out of the level bounds and couldn't really remember which combo was to call him to come vs to go away, so some form of marker would be useful.

Also, the timing needed for the double commands feels maybe a little bit too short, and quite often I found myself apparently taking too long to press the other button, so instead of moving the dog just changed its stance. This might be a skill issue, though, as I think with more practice I'd be using the controls much quicker, but I think it could use some tweaking to make the practice a bit smoother.

The audiovisual side is great. As with all great PICO-8 games the graphics are simple, but clean and easily distinguishable. The sounds on actions match pretty well, though I must say I wasn't entirely certain about the "pet the dog" sound. When I first heard it, I thought you might have added both petting the dog and accidentally stepping on it, which made me feel terrible for a moment. The title music is fun, kinda wish it played during the levels, too.

Overall, it's a well made compo entry! I've had a lot of fun playing it. :D