While you first boot up Okomotive’s newest sport, Herdling, it might look like the paranormal vistas you encounter are one thing out of fantasy. However that’s not the case. The improvement staff drew inspiration from hikes they took whereas creating the sport.
“We went on a number of hikes within the Swiss mountains, earlier than and whereas growing Herdling,” Herdling artistic director Don Schmocker tells GameSpot through e-mail. “From Medels to the Suretta Lakes, three picturesque mountain lakes situated near the Swiss and Italian border, or up one of many better-known Swiss mountains, Mount Rigi. They had been all the time inspiring and acquired us away from our computer systems for a bit.”
Hikes alongside the Suretta Lakes and up Mount Rigi impressed Herdling, a magical journey the place gamers information unusual, legendary creatures throughout magical mountain landscapes. The staff’s aim was to seize the sensation of wandering and exploring whereas herding–and to make it really feel pure somewhat than mechanical.
“After we determined to develop Herdling, we had been intrigued by the fantasy of guiding unusual animals by way of the mountains,” Schmocker added. “However we knew that the very first thing we had to determine was the unique herding gameplay. We constructed a number of prototypes to check out completely different approaches. Some had been extra direct however felt too mechanical, and a few had been too unintuitive. One other downside we would have liked to unravel was making the animals really feel pure and animal-like, with out interfering with gamers’ intentions.”
Okomotive finally discovered a gameplay type that felt fluid and intuitive. To maintain motion clean, the staff appeared to video games like The Pathless, Journey, and even racing video games like SSX–making certain herding by no means felt like an escort mission or a puzzle.
The sport’s visuals additionally combine fantastical and real-world influences. The Calicorn creatures are impressed by Bulgarian Kukeri costumes, whereas movies like Pan’s Labyrinth, Spirited Away, and The Final Guardian knowledgeable the magical tone of the world.
“Within the FAR video games we use environmental storytelling to inform huge tales in regards to the world and previous occasions,” Schmocker mentioned. “In Herdling we inform a extra private story that’s centered round protagonist Through and the herd.”
The sport will be accomplished in a number of afternoons–roughly three to 5 hours–but you may take a bit of extra time exploring its mixture of mountain-inspired landscapes. The journey inside Herdling resonated with GameSpot’s Mark Delaney. He known as it a sport about discovering one’s function.
“It is a journey I will keep in mind for a very long time because of its depiction of animals as distinctive people who, very very similar to us, are mainly looking for love and security,” he wrote in his GameSpot overview. “It was certainly one of my favourite experiences in video video games to assist them discover that security and to really feel that love.”