Well, the Big Fish folks were wrong about most of it, but right about 1 thing. Better instructions would make this game more attractive. In any case, the easy setting gives you 5 minutes to figure out the level. It's 1 minute on the hard setting. I've only played the 1st 6 levels. The key level is #2, which shows how to point the arrows in the correct directions. It's somewhat clumsy. You left click to place an arrow and it needs to go on a square that the sheep will pass over. DO NOT LIFT YOUR FIGURE OFF OF THE LEFT BUTTON, or you'll have to start over in most cases, though sometimes I think I've been able to move an arrow that I've already placed, but maybe not. The arrows seem to always point left. Or leftish to be more accurate because the mazes are usually oriented on the diagonal, but the arrow usually points somewhere towards the left side of the screen. On the second level you'll see an animation that shows you what to do - if you can grasp it - and it's this kind of implied rather than clearly spelled out set of instructions that seem to mark this game. In the case of rotating the arrows, with the left button still down, you move the cursor outside the block you've dropped the arrow in, and then you make a circular motion in either direction to get the arrow to point the way you want it. If you click in the block that has the arrow in it again, the arrow goes away. As I hinted, you might be able to go back outside the arrow and left click and start your circular motion again, or maybe not, the movement mechanics are less than responsive, a touch sloppy, so it's a bit hard to be sure.

Another example of instruction by inference is a symbol with numbers below the maze and another in the right hand corner that has a plus sign and a number. The 1st is how many sheep you need to liberate in a total of, well, what? Are there sections? I didn't flip ahead in the levels to see if they're grouped somehow. But you need to save 55 sheep at the beginning in, again, how many levels, I have no clue? The symbol on the right turns out to be how many arrows you can drop per level. Although - again not explained - you can remove old arrows by clicking on them and your count will go back up. On level 4 (or 3?, i forget, but it's not relevant), you see an animation that shows sheep and a sort of light fountain. This is an accomplishment that you must at least partly accomplish or the sheep can't escape. These energy lights/fountains occur, so far 1 at a time, and you've got to get the sheep to run over it. In fact, on that 1st level they occur - 3 of them - you have to run over the 1st 2, or the escape method, a teleporter that's present on the earlier levels, doesn't appear. Though on the 1st level this happened I didn't get max. credit 1st time as the teleporter appeared before the last light fountain and I missed having the sheep run over/into it.

The moral is you'll have to watch for the animations and ferret out their meaning, as well as the meaning to any other symbols/occurrences or you'll have to be either a psychic or a genius to avoid getting lost, which is why I suspect so many of the Big Fish commentators gave up. One tip: at least with the easy mode, place your arrows backward and work towards the sheep from their destinations, setting up as much of the route as you can and until you place the arrow closest to the sheep and watch your sheep escape, assuming you've done it correctly. Much like playing tower defense, in that respect. To do it the standard way instead, sheep to destination, you have to be very quick to avoid leading your sheep to fall off the maze and into endless space. Of course, you can only go so far with these accomplishments and escape teleporters popping up while your in the middle of trying to place arrows.

I had one glitch with it: while trying to change the resolution in the settings screen - not a necessity at all, just thought matching my monitor's resolution might make it run smoother on this old computer - I clicked the button too fast and the resolution numbers went away and the tiny window with them in it went black, and them showed a 5, then blank, then a 9. I clicked when it was on the 9, and, fortunately, it just went back to a standard full screen anyway, and I went back into settings and the default resolution appeared in the window again, and I was able to set it to about my resolution with no further trouble. Not sure that really means anything, it was maybe just a 1 time glitch.

My impression is that this game, if you can divine and keep up with the mechanics, will probably attract the maze fans. Although, I'm not sure how all but the very best are going to be able to go through the hard - 1 minute only - levels successfully. One suggestion is that you might try moving the difficulty back and forth - working out the level on easy and then switching to hard to try and repeat the pattern you've, hopefully, memorized fast enough to beat the 1 minute clock. Not sure if doing it that way would effect the enjoyment of some players, though. It hasn't quite grabbed me yet - playing a few levels on easy, trying to discover the mechanics, fumbling with the arrow movement - it hasn't moved from being a slight chore to an exciting challenge yet. Potential very good game design, but what motivated them to make figuring out the mechanics into a detective story, so to speak, is beyond me. Perhaps they couldn't or wouldn't get a good English translator. If they had, this might have been more of a winner.

Going to pre-post here because I want to try this, but reading the reviews on Big Fish, the key concept expressed is "challenge". From everything I read there, this is NOT a casual game. So may take me a bit of thrashing around before I can get a fair take on it.

The reviews on Big Fish are polarized. Love or hate and this is all based on the level of challenge. Apparently you have to watch carefully for instructions, partly detect some of the techniques from clues, and fail quite a few times to get the hang of it. Apparently the timer is quite an obstacle for some, if not most players. I kept reading that all the levels required you to complete them in one minute.

Of course, this, and any subsequent review I might write may end up on the board so late that they won't be helpful, but that's the current state of affairs. If you see this, hope it helps.

You also have a limited amount of time. I wish there was an option to disable this (relaxed mode) for us elderly. I'm sure the later levels get extremely complicated.

Running Sheep is an comical action puzzle game that requires logic and strategic thinking where you rescue your flock from interstellar aliens. It was developed by ladia group and published by Big Fish Games, first released on February 29 2012 but has never been given away before on GOTD. A sequel Running Sheep: Tiny Worlds was later released that took into account some of the feedback from this first game and similar to Sheep's Quest they also released which that one had very positive reviews overall to check out.

The game is a puzzler consisting of small labyrinths which are filled with various obstacles. The player’s objective is to safely lead the sheep through these labyrinths over 61 levels with many hours of gameplay. However after the abduction, all the sheep can do is to run! yes, probably due to shock and a sudden change of familiar settings of course. Even their instinct of self-preservation is gone, so they can easily fall of a platform running all the time without turning on their own, or even jump into the tentacles of an alien monster. The game reminds slightly of the classic LEMMINGS game in this way since they are always moving and going to get themselves in trouble if you dont interfere.

To save them we just need to arrange the arrows on platforms to point the sheep in the direction of the exit teleports...sure is strange that the aliens did not turn them off :) Anyway, you have to direct sheep with a limited number of arrows available which is displayed in the lower right corner of the screen which you place on the floor toward the teleport exit; if you want to place more than you have available, you pick one of the others up first you no longer need using the same easy left mouse click on the arrow. To control this you only use your mouse and click and hold the left mouse button over the arrow, and drag your mouse to the square NEXT TO the arrow, in the direction you wish the sheep to go without releasing the pressed button. Sometimes there is no teleport available right away until you collect 'lights'.

As a hint when you get to level 3, look carefully when the level starts and you will see walls around some of the platforms including where the sheep start - these prevent the sheep from falling off and the sheep will then turn on their own, but in the second part of the level there is a center part that has no walls at all in the center, and therefore sheep will go straight and fall straight off the platform if an arrow is not placed there. Perhaps the walls could have been more visible to the player or explained better along with some of the arrows were not always visible when placed due to the environment and maybe could have shown the direction when the cursor hovers it. You could also place two arrows facing each other after a few blocks sometimes to keep sheep in a safe area and from wandering as you figure things out. More levels in the early stages should have had a safe area to start initially vs having to make one yourself.

The levels all have time limits. The time limit varies as the levels increase. If you play the game in Easy mode when you start the game, time isn't a big problem I found. Although the graphics are good, there simply isn't enough time sometimes however to adequately figure out the puzzles, collect ALL the lights to receive all the , and direct the sheep where they need to go. Some levels you have time to plan, other times you don't. When you don't, learn from the mistakes you just made and start the level over. All in all its worth a try, some may like this game alot and its sometimes brain challenging play if you get good at changing the arrows on the fly, while others may find the faster pace more difficult and frustrating understandably compared to others out there like a Colorful Recolor or Quell so its not likely to appeal equally to everyone.

Rating: C+

Hi. For anyone interested, wanting to understand the game play before downloading, I looked for a video and I believe this is the same game.
https://youtu.be/I4t5pJ5xeVw

It doesn't appeal to me but thank you anyway for this giveaway, I am sure others will enjoy it.

This isn't my sort of game, but here are some tips and info. (culled from other online reviews of this game) for those of you who want to try today's GGOTD:

• There are 61 levels to solve (no idea why 61 and not e.g. 60!).

• Difficulty — i.e. time allowed to solve each level — is adjustable, but seems to default to one minute (!). Expect to take numerous attempts to figure out each level!

• There is no text Help, but there are a few mini-animations to "explain" some things in the game, which you may (or may not!) find useful.

• In some levels, you will lose a few seconds while the sheep enter the playfield. That is, the sheep aren't always "on screen" at the start of a level; so you won't know where they'll enter from when you first see a new level. Hence, don't expect to solve every level first time (see "Difficulty" above).

• In most levels, the number of arrow tiles is limited (typically to five arrows), so expect to have to pick up and place arrows you've already used. In higher levels, you have an unlimited number of arrow tiles.

• TIP: To change the direction of an arrow tile, click and hold the left mouse button ON the arrow tile, then drag your mouse to the square NEXT TO the arrow tile, in the direction you wish the sheep to go. This takes a little getting used to, but is faster than (for example) clicking the right mouse button three times.

• Good strategy involves isolating your sheep in a safe location, then getting rid of your enemies.

• At certain points (perhaps levels 20, 40, and 60?) you can't progress to the next level until you have "perfectly" completed the current level.

• Although both games are from the same developer (Ladia Group), this is a very different game from Sheep's Quest, so don't expect a similar experience.

Hope that help you and enjoy the game: and thanks to Ladia Group, BFG, and Toomky Games for today's GGOTD.

Today's game is a bit of a strange one but it's a strategy game. The game begins by showing you a cut scene of how the sheep get abducted.

The game then starts out on the first level and a sheep is placed on the playing field. Studying the playfield you have to get the sheep outside to safety by placing markers ton the playing field to have them go into the direction you want. Guide the sheep to safety and the level completes

The first two levels basically teach you the basics of the game but after that you are on your own and puzzles get complex. Consequences of not doing good include sheep falling down off the screen etc if you place the markers in the wrong area and don't act on the screen with multiple sheep.

You also have a limited amount of markers per level to place on the maps, if you run out you'll simply start out the level again. It seems the game has a rating system for in level of how you did out of a possible 3 stars.

Overall this game is a nice little diversion from the other games we've received on this site. Worth a try for its unique gameplay.