View Full Version : Dreamcast: Have You Herd the Good News about Cool Herders?
No, that's not a typo, and no, I'm not trying to be sheepish. I am trying to be a punny man, though.
Cool Herders is now available for preorder for the Dreamcast. To some, that sentence must seem odd: a Cool Herders tech demo was released forever and a day ago. However the GOAT Store managed to fanagle one of the creators to flesh it out into a full game, and the modern Cool Herder was born.
Cool Herders is an addictive 2D multiplayer game that pits you against up to three friends in a game that can only be described as "Cool." Your goal is to collect the most sheep in a round, either by herding them yourself or by bashing your opponent and stealing his or her sheep! On top of the multiplayer fun, story mode will put you in the shoes of Zeus as he makes his way through level after level of challenges to get his herd back from the evil clutches of Iskur. The going won't be easy – Zeus will have to travel far away from his homeland of New Zealand to complete challenges and compete against herders in various locations before taking on Iskur himself in a battle to restore peace in the pasture! Will you and Zeus with the day, or will Iskur horde the herd for himself?
The game is due out "sometime before Christmas." As a stoic supporter of the Dreamcast, I most certainly will be collecting this title soon. :)
Preorder Page:
http://www.goatstore.com/info.php?id=810012
Official Game Site:
http://play.harmlesslion.com/products/cool.htm
GOAT Store Publishing:
http://www.goatstore.com/publishing/
And to think that the silly general public actually fell for the rumour that the Dreamcast was dead! Fools!
I play mine everyday. In fact, It's just after 5am and I'm firing up Phantasy Star Online while the kettle boils.
JJNova
11-19-2005, 05:28 AM
I could of sworn that I burned Cool Herers the game last month. Yes, yes, there it is.
The Dreamcast may be dead, but the homebrew scene isn't. As for a release, it does surprise me. Will it be online orders only? And what is this downloaded Cool Herders that I have from DCHomebrew?
The Dreamcast may be dead, but the homebrew scene isn't. As for a release, it does surprise me. Will it be online orders only? And what is this downloaded Cool Herders that I have from DCHomebrew?
Online orders only, though through a number of online places.
The Cool Herders that you have is a tech demo that was released years ago as an example of what Dreamcast homebrew can do. The new Cool Herders is a complete game with dozens of new stages, characters, graphics, themes, etc. Basically, a "full and realized" version of the first release's potential.
kainemaxwell
11-19-2005, 08:41 AM
What's the single player game like?
le geek
11-19-2005, 02:32 PM
Cool, I may pick this up as the demo had lots of potential :)
goatdan
11-22-2005, 03:15 PM
I just noticed this thread... I have been waiting to actually start promoting the game too much because the freshly opened GOAT Store Publishing section is still being revised on basically a daily basis, and I'm still awaiting a final date the discs will be returned to us from the factory.
Cool Herders is a professionally created game, on professionally pressed discs. It will be available from the GOAT Store, LLC, Lik-Sang and through Joe's store :) so far, with more to come.
It can be preordered through our site now. If you pre-order with the GOAT Store, there will be a special thing included with your order. We're working on finishing it up and announcing it, but the only way to get it will be by pre-ordering the game.
And yes, the Dreamcast is far from dead. The biggest thing about putting together the new Publishing site is that we can start previewing games before they are released. We have at least four games that will begin to benefit from this within the next few months, so do bookmark the page.
As for an actual description of the game, it is some sort of cross between Bomberman and... I don't know what else. You're trying to herd the most sheep possible. Single player mode takes you through a story with various challenges, one unique one per level such as "collect X number of sheep" or "avoid the other herders for X seconds" and one multiplayer level. There are two different story modes, with two different stories.
There are also unlockable levels, characters and more. Zach Meston will be doing a preview of the game at some point soon, and he will go into a lot more detail about what it all includes. From my own personal playtime with it, it is so unique that it has become one of my favorite games to play.
And compared to that original version of the game that was a tech demo? This is MUCH, MUCH more advanced in every way. In fact, it has already received some serious attention from a large publisher about the possibility of them publishing it for a modern portable console.
As for an actual description of the game, it is some sort of cross between Bomberman and... I don't know what else.
Chu Chu Rocket.
Griking
11-23-2005, 07:57 AM
Does the game come with a jewelcase and inserts?
Perkar
11-23-2005, 08:46 AM
Does the game come with a jewelcase and inserts?
if it's anything like the previous 3 goatstore releases, the answer is yes. very professionally done.
anyway, i just pre-ordered mine :)
always happy to support the dc homebrew scene, and excited to see what's next...
goatdan
11-23-2005, 09:46 AM
As for an actual description of the game, it is some sort of cross between Bomberman and... I don't know what else.
Chu Chu Rocket.
Actually, that's probably about as close as it could get, although the game mechanics aren't very similiar at all...
CYRiX
11-23-2005, 10:20 AM
I just wanna know if these are GD-Roms or CD's because I don't want to mess up my Dreamcast's laser.
goatdan
11-23-2005, 12:31 PM
I just wanna know if these are GD-Roms or CD's because I don't want to mess up my Dreamcast's laser.
All of the current releases are pressed on CDs. This does absolutely no damage to your Dreamcast laser. That was a fabrication by Sega to try to curtail piracy. If CDs damaged the laser, the Dreamcast wouldn't have been made to play music CDs either. It was. In fact, the MIL-CD backdoor that was left in the system that allowed the piracy that eventually killed the system was left in because Sega wanted developers to be able to burn a CD and have any user stick it in their machine without having to send out much more expensive dev units.
The MIL-CD inclusion was a "feature" that greatly backfired on Sega, but allows the continued legal professional production of games without their direct involvement.
We actually have had the option of turning these into direct GD-Rom games, but it is EXTREMELY cost prohibitive, as there is only one GD-rom pressing place still in existance, and there is no difference in results.
Finally, as I've stated before, this is a professional game production. The games are not burned like what you would do with a new game, but they are instead sent to a manufacturing plant, pressed, and then sold. It is the same process that has been done for every disc system produced. We have sold well over 3000 games worldwide already, and we haven't yet heard of one problem with them, either from a Dreamcast not being compatible with their system or anything else.
Sorry for the long-winded response, but I've gone into this discussion before and I always try to clear the air on it. Getting one of our games will in no way hurt your system. Burning a new underground title to check out will in no way hurt your system. And (sadly, although it is true) pirating titles won't hurt your systems. Sega created and propegated this rumor because they wanted to curb the rampant piracy that eventually helped lead to the Dreamcast's downfall.
Griking
11-23-2005, 10:29 PM
In fact, the MIL-CD backdoor that was left in the system that allowed the piracy that eventually killed the system was left in because Sega wanted developers to be able to burn a CD and have any user stick it in their machine without having to send out much more expensive dev units.
I still don't buy the fact that it was piracy that killed the console. If Sega had invested even a little money into advertising and promoting the console it would have gone along way.
kainemaxwell
11-23-2005, 10:34 PM
Single-player game worth playing if you don't have many changes for multiplayer mode with friends, etc?
goatdan
11-23-2005, 11:32 PM
I still don't buy the fact that it was piracy that killed the console. If Sega had invested even a little money into advertising and promoting the console it would have gone along way.
You don't have to buy it, but there was a lot of stuff that went on behind the scenes that were never fully revealed with that system, and a lot seem completely unbelievable. I have very solid reasons to believe that piracy was ultimately behind the death of the Dreamcast, but I can't go into details as to why without breaking trust with some of the parties that have explained things to me.
The lack of advertising near the end definitely didn't help matters.
Single-player game worth playing if you don't have many changes for multiplayer mode with friends, etc?
I have been playing the game a hell of a lot lately, probably having logged more than 25 times through story mode, and once it gets pressed I want to play through it again. There are technically three story modes.
The first is normal mode, which is pretty easy to beat once you get the hang of everything. I now can beat it usually without having to continue my game.
The second is hard. This mode is definitely harder to beat. This is a sort of old-school challenge for the gamers that really want to prove they are good. I've beaten every level in it, but it takes a LOT of time and practice to get it right. You also have to really devise strategies, which only halfway comes into play for normal mode.
Last is Omake mode, which if I remember right is the hardest game setting where you try to play through one of each level with no continues and no real story. I've beaten level 1 in this, but that's as far as I have gotten, and I think that I'm a pretty decent player.
Besides that, you can play multiplayer against the computer. It isn't quite as good as playing against three friends, but it is decent.
Like I said, I've played the game a lot recently and I think that when it comes to an arcade style gameplay, it definitely has enough to keep one player busy as well as multiple players. We're hoping to get some previews up that are more in depth from third party sources over the weekend. I hope that helped though.
As I've mentioned before, if you preorder we will be sending out a special thing with those packages. We will be announcing this soon, and I'll make sure to post on here too.
Thanks for all the support everyone! Cool Herders is already shaping up to be the fastest selling Dreamcast game's we've produced so far!
goatdan
11-28-2005, 02:41 PM
I'm giving this a little bit of a bump because we have figured out what the pre-order goodie will be exactly, although we're putting the final touches on it before publicly announcing it. Here is what our first version looks like:
http://www.goatstore.com/cool_herders_poster.jpg
It will be on 8.5 by 11 inch high-gloss poster paper in full color on the front (black and white back) and shipped unfolded to everyone that preorders, and they will be marked as a special poster. After preorders, we will never offer these posters again. We will use a different design for promotional material.
We're looking for input though on what people want for the second picture -- do you want it to be the character select screen (as shown in the mock up above) or do you want it to be of an in-game screenshot? More screenshots of the game can be found here: Screenies (http://www.goatstore.com/publishing/index.php?content=ch-ss-051121)
As was noted in the most recent issue of the DP Wire, the game is scheduled for release on 12/13. I will actually find out if that will be the final date later today, but I fully expect it will be. Thanks to everyone who has supported the release by preordering already!
goatdan
11-28-2005, 02:42 PM
Oh, one final note -- the preorder poster is only good through the GOAT Store. There are other vendors who are selling the game online, and we are only able to provide enough posters to people who preorder through us.
tylerwillis
11-28-2005, 04:11 PM
Pre-order placed. Good luck with the release, Dan.
Jive3D
11-29-2005, 04:36 PM
Wow! This looks pretty cool.
It's Bomberman, meets Chu Chu Rocket, meets Sheep!
...Yeah, there was a GBA game called "Sheep!" Published by Capcom, I loved it back in the day, check it out, worth a play.
Considering that I just dusted off the DC when I bought a complete Seaman last week for 5 bucks in Harlem, I'll totally be getting this!
I keep saying it over and over, and I hope I never stop saying it: Long live Dreamcast sucka!
goatdan
11-29-2005, 09:13 PM
Wow! This looks pretty cool.
It's Bomberman, meets Chu Chu Rocket, meets Sheep!
...Yeah, there was a GBA game called "Sheep!" Published by Capcom, I loved it back in the day, check it out, worth a play.
Yes, you're right! That game also came out for the Playstation... I have it (first Playstation game I bought, actually) and it's awesome, and even I didn't remember that one!
Jive3D
12-01-2005, 01:15 AM
It was on PSone too!? (Sheep)
I must hunt it down!
goatdan
12-01-2005, 02:22 AM
It was on PSone too!? (Sheep)
I must hunt it down!
Yup!
DP Guide Link (http://www.digitpress.com/DP/cmf/game.cmf?gameid=27303)
As far as I understand it, it is similar to the GBA version. I loaned it to a friend (I still didn't get a Playstation until about a year after I bought it) and he just gave it back to me recently, and I've been stuck on other stuff... Can't wait to give that game another shot :)
snes_collector
12-03-2005, 01:13 PM
I'm giving this a little bit of a bump because we have figured out what the pre-order goodie will be exactly, although we're putting the final touches on it before publicly announcing it. Here is what our first version looks like:
http://www.goatstore.com/cool_herders_poster.jpg
It will be on 8.5 by 11 inch high-gloss poster paper in full color on the front (black and white back) and shipped unfolded to everyone that preorders, and they will be marked as a special poster. After preorders, we will never offer these posters again. We will use a different design for promotional material.
We're looking for input though on what people want for the second picture -- do you want it to be the character select screen (as shown in the mock up above) or do you want it to be of an in-game screenshot? More screenshots of the game can be found here: Screenies (http://www.goatstore.com/publishing/index.php?content=ch-ss-051121)
As was noted in the most recent issue of the DP Wire, the game is scheduled for release on 12/13. I will actually find out if that will be the final date later today, but I fully expect it will be. Thanks to everyone who has supported the release by preordering already!
Will the cover be the same as the pic on the poster?
goatdan
12-03-2005, 03:37 PM
Will the cover be the same as the pic on the poster?
Yup, that's the case cover.
The poster will be slightly different. The official press release about it will be happening this weekend.
Six Switch
12-03-2005, 04:08 PM
looks cool,i'll have to preorder it for the poster soon.
I cast my vote for this screenshot:
http://www.goatstore.com/publishing/images/game/game5_photo004_thumb.jpg
goatdan
12-06-2005, 10:28 AM
Two new announcements about Cool Herders!
First off, the game's official release date will be 12/15/05. This means that if you order it, you can get it in time for the holidays!
Secondly, if you pre-order the game up until 12/15/05, we are offering a special poster. This poster is offered from the GOAT Store web site *only*, and *only* if you pre-order the game.
This is what the front side of the poster looks like:
http://www.goatstore.com/cool_herders_poster.jpg
We will be doing special promotions for the last three games that we did also with posters like this, as well as continuing the promotion in the future. The next game that will get an actual poster will be Maqiupai, probably starting in January, so make sure to watch for that!
For all of you that have already preordered, thank you very much for your support! We'll be having many more Dreamcast announcements on the GOAT Store Publishing site at http://www.goatstore.com/publishing/ in the future!
goatdan
12-06-2005, 10:29 AM
I cast my vote for this screenshot:[/img]
As you probably noticed, nice choice ;)
kainemaxwell
12-14-2005, 09:15 PM
Nice poster! Very tempted to order now!
goatdan
12-14-2005, 10:15 PM
Nice poster! Very tempted to order now!
Well, if you want that poster you've only got about 26 more hours to do so! Preorders close tomorrow night at midnight Eastern.
For those of you that preordered, expect a shipment soon as they were almost all sent out already! :)
I preordered this game and received it today (yesterday, technically; late night/early morning post you know).
First the poster is really nice. Full color and the largest size most standard copy shops will do. I accidentally got a portion of it wet due to condensation from a milk carton, but thankfully damage was minimal. I blame fast action and quality printing. ;)
As far as the game itself goes... damn it, stop pestering me! Do you know how hard it is to get things DONE around this time of year? I mean, it's like taxes come and bite you in the ass (double for me as individual and business), presents galore need to be bought for birthdays, let alone Dec. 25th, and let's not forget lousy car registration.
And do those who make the decisions in the game industry give us a break? NOOOO! They decide, "You know, there's not much going on during the last three months of the year, and people really seem to like buying things at that time. Here's an idea: let's release 80% of our titles during this timeframe!"
These days you can't make a simple game either. A game needs to take a certain amount of time to get from point A to point B, so let's stretch it out. Let's fill it with ass-fulls of unlockables. Let's make it so they have to play through the entire game an umpteen billion times. Let's make the levels IN ACTION GAMES so long that there needs to be a half dozen or more checkpoints throughout ONE STAGE!
...The New Year's Eve party this year is going to be a lot of fun with Cool Herders and Karaoke Revolution. I've dubbed my Dreamcast "the party machine" since it will be the main player in my stable of gaming for the event. I imagine Chu Chu Rocket, Bomberman Online, and at least one SNK game will be showing up that night. :D
goatdan
12-21-2005, 01:03 PM
I preordered this game and received it today (yesterday, technically; late night/early morning post you know).
Oddly enough, it seems like a ton of our orders took forever to get there. A few people told me last week Thursday they got it, and then I didn't hear anything else until Monday night. Since I sent over 100 copies in the first round on Tuesday, I was expecting more people to get it by the weekend. Glad you got it though!
First the poster is really nice. Full color and the largest size most standard copy shops will do. I accidentally got a portion of it wet due to condensation from a milk carton, but thankfully damage was minimal. I blame fast action and quality printing. ;)
We're extremely happy with how those posters turned out. We're planning on doing future releases with the same sort of method, and also doing promotional things to give away posters for the previous links. We got a pretty good deal going with the printing, so keep your eyes out for more :)
I'm very curious to see what everyone thinks of this by the way. It was a huge hit at our office Christmas party, but beyond that I haven't really herd about people playing it too much. Anyone else on here get it? Thoughts?
Last night (morning, damn it!) I got around to getting some sheep action in. (Note to self, phrase differently next time.)
The game can be fun, but you need to know what you are doing first. The online manual (meaning "on the disc" for you newbie types) is helpful in outlining the basics of control, but does nothing to educate in the way of proper strategy. This is compounded by the fact that the font of the game is very hard to read, with o's and a's that look like e's.
The play field is surrounded by a large "empty" border. I mention this because the sprites are very small. This can make it hard to tell who is who and where at times. If the outside border were removed the sprites could have been made much larger.
But enough about the gripes (I'll save those for a full DP review) let's talk about what is good. First anyone that loves the style of the sprites from the SNES Final Fantasy games will be happy because Cool Herders uses that same deformed style. Another smart thing the game does is with the VMUs. If you have them plugged into your controllers it displays which number the player is on the VMU screen. Very useful for multiplayer.
The story mode is told with lots of hand drawn still graphics. This helps enhance the game's storybook feel. But like I said, the font makes reading the story and goals difficult.
Each stage in story mode has a different goal. Sometimes a goal is the most points, the most sheep, getting a set amount of sheep within a time limit, finding something, or another challenge.
One thing this game has in spades is content. I played this for about two hours this morning and only succeeded in unlocking 11% of the unlockables. The VMU save actually states the percentage complete, which I think is a great feature. So if you want to go by my figure, I'd say that it will take about 20 hours to complete.
The heart of this game lies with the multiplayer. While I have yet to test this feature, I am sure that my annual New Year's Eve party will be all the more fun with this.
Drawing from past experience playing the long forgotten alpha version of this game, I can say that my friends had a great time playing this with me in multi mode. As for myself I didn't know the optimum strategies at the time so I felt more helpless than anything. Now that I've spent time with the game proper I feel that I will be able to hold my own once we commence again.
Cool Herders is a worthy addition to the GOAT Store Publishing lineup. While I still consider Maqiupai king of the hill in regards to these games, Cool Herders is definitely king of the multiplayer games. Inhabitants and Feet of Fury have multiplayer modes as well, but Inhabitants is more of a strategy game than pick-up-and-play and FoF is intimidating for those who have not played a "dance and rhythm" game before, not to mention the costs of a proper setup with actual dance mats. Cool Herders can be played with standard Dreamcast controllers with no necessary learning curve, making it the best choice for parties.
Anyone else play this yet? Maybe have it for a Christmas present?
So Cool Herders went really well at our New Year's party this year. People kept complaining that they kept losing track of which character they were, so we started sticking with the same characters for ease. Another trick was to momentarily stand still so you knew which one you were. Additionally, I am really glad I played through parts of the story mode before we played at the party, or else I might have been sans any stages to play in since the multiplayer stages must be unlocked.
Otherwise though the game was a resounding success. We played it in both score and sheep-based scoring modes and both were quite fun. Cascades of laughter always came when I complained of being "sheep raped," and we kept accusing the winners of rounds of "experience with sheep."
I hope the GOAT Store sold a ton of copies of this game. It really should be marketed by it as a "party animal game."
And Dan, if you're reading this, my friend and I managed to unlock another level in Maqiupai. 22 and counting!
Tursi
01-03-2006, 11:59 PM
Hi there! Tursi here, I'm the programmer of Cool Herders. :) I wanted to thank you, NZ17, for your comments. Obviously it's too late to do much with the gripes, but it's good information to know for the future.
I signed up mostly because I'm baffled by the fact that you have an unused visible border. Are you playing on an NTSC or PAL Dreamcast? (I'm told the PAL mode displays a border, but I don't have a PAL machine...) The game itself runs at the full 640x480 resolution and I've not noticed borders on any of the systems I was able to test with. Any chance of a photo?
Thanks very much for your positive comments, too, of course! I'm glad you guys had fun with the game, since ultimately that's the point! :)
A lot of people are misunderstanding what I mean by borders. I am not indicating any "black borders" like one would see with a widescreen movie or other unusual aspect ratios. What I mean is the actual, intended borders around the edges of the screen that form the outer perimeter of the playfield, as seen in the screenshot I link to below:
Screencap Courtesy of GOAT Publishing (http://www.goatstore.com/publishing/index.php?content=ch-ss-051121&view_photo=6)
As can be seen in that screen, there is a large border which envelopes the outside. If that border were removed the concept of the edges of the screen being the limit would still be there, but the sprites could have been made much larger.
As I have said though, fantastic game all-in-all, and the single player experience is very challenging!
Tursi
01-05-2006, 05:44 AM
What I mean is the actual, intended borders around the edges of the screen that form the outer perimeter of the playfield
Ooooh, okay, I understand!
The large border is there for the sake of the 'safe text' area of television, and the spacing was worked out experimentally working with a couple of different TVs... and was the best compromise between them (on some very old TVs which cut offf more it's actually still difficult to read the scores).
I'm a bit relieved though, I thought you'd found some terribly odd glitchy behaviour on me! ;)