Notices

time travelling wazd! thats great
overhead will work better for a simple style game.
if you could remove the gate however and have that as simple transparent pngs or svgs then they can be laid down as required.

level 1 1 sheep, 1 gate, 1 dog 1 sly fox randomly appearing
level 2 2 sheep, 2 gates, 1 dog 1 sly fox randomly appearing
level 3 3 sheep, 2 gates, 1 dog 1 sly fox randomly appearing

etc

also, does it specifically need the accelerometer - i know it will be good, but could something similar to this be played on the n8x0?
would be nice to see if there is a playable variation for all devices

Wow wazd - what do you come up with when you're not busy? That's great!

I understand too little about software and hardware to know what's needed from here. The base idea was to move the sheep around by tipping the device (like Bounce) to get then to go where you want. will that work on earlier models?

(theres' also something similar in my head now about Finding Maemo...err Nemo by swimming round obstacles and past sharks.. My head is a strange place to be sometimes!)

@lcuk, we could have a regular: touch-to-scare-them-away control. Works on everything with touch, but is sooo common.
I'm thinking about jiggle-the-screen-to-attract-them. Force needed depends on the character of a sheep.

Then, we have a regular shepherd dog approach, that can be controlled with keyboard/screen control. In this case I have been playing with a new idea of on-screen control buttons for a while, it could be a nice test-field ( ). The cons is that it is not so casual as using accelerometers or even touch screen.

Maybe a hybrid solution?

I like the idea of a hybrid.

The original plan was to use the acceleromoter and simply 'tip' the sheep into the pens (like those old games with ball-bearings). I'm reluctant to lose that idea: part of me knows that as a non-gamer, that's something very accessible to people like me. It is also useful for developing delicate sensory-motor skills, whereas conventional games are good for developing fast reaction times.

Could a hybrid use different forms of input, different ways to chase/pen your sheep, in different levels? So the first task of each level would be to work out how to chase your sheep? Then the maemo4 version of the game would simply leave out the accelerometer levels. If say, level 1 and level 4 were dependent on tipping the device, level 2 used a dog to round up your sheep level 3 did something different again... each time with more sheep...

Am I getting too complex here?

(Oh, and I'm working out how to get some random 'baas' recorded.)

the none accelerometer part was just a suggestion.
different levels could have different capabilities - variety is the spice of life

Here's my take on the graphics A bit cartoon like.

http://pixelpipe.com/item/15a55fc7-2...9-4dbc63e16394

@markusm, nice ones, I like the pens.

Could someone of the designers post some single elements (sheep, pen) so we could see how they work in motion?

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2240466/Maemo/FieldNew.svg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2240466/Maemo/Sheep.svg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2240466/Maemo/Fence.svg

Need to pick a style for the game Cartoonish the way I'm doing it or more the way wazd is doing. The graphics wont match unless we have a set style.