Counting Sheep was also a project I didn’t set out to develop intentionally—it sort of happened by accident. For years, I had wanted to create a puzzle game with sheep, as they’re such an iconic and relatable theme. I tend to start with ideas that are immediately recognizable, and flocks of sheep seemed like a perfect fit. BTW, one of my favorite digital games for The Playroom (based on one of my ideas), also includes sheep (Dream Kitten), although the game mechanics are completely different.
A concept I explored a few years ago included a game board divided by fences into different sections with sheep on the puzzle pieces. What would have made this game special was that the puzzle pieces could overlap different meadows and depending on their orientation, sheep could end up on either side of the same fence. The only reason I didn’t pursue this idea any further was because it turned out to be technically impossible. Unless I made the fences removable, there was no practical way to slide parts of the puzzle pieces with sheep underneath them. And I didn’t want to use removable fences because I already created a game with these in the past (Smart Farmer) and I don’t like to repeat myself. That’s the downside of having developed more than 130 SmartGames so far. Often there are elements in the gameplay or theme I already used before, making it harder every year to come up with something original.
The idea sat on the shelf until one of my colleagues began working on a concept that shared some similarities. It didn’t involve sheep, as it was intended to be an abstract game. I didn’t like it at all—not because it didn’t look good or the challenges weren’t interesting, because they were. The problem was the product name, which I found completely mismatched with both the game’s aesthetics and its gameplay. And honestly, I also felt the concept was too niche, aimed at a very small audience. Time will tell if I was right or wrong about that. I often am wrong, because the games I personally love tend to be the ones that don’t sell very well. Anyway, I told my colleagues that I had better ideas than the abstract one they were working on—ideas that I hadn’t developed because I didn’t think they were good enough yet. Of course, when you say something like that, you have to back it up. So, I started digging through my old files and picked up my sheep game. While revisiting it, I instantly had an idea for solving the original technical problem. If I replaced the fences with water, there wouldn’t be any practical issues with positioning the puzzle pieces, because the dividing parts would be below the pieces instead of on top of them. Water is commonly used to separate meadows in the Netherlands, so it wouldn't look out of place either. Once that was figured out, everything else quickly fell into place. The idea of "counting sheep” was always part of the initial idea so this became the game’s objective. The fences in the original concept would have had the thickness of a line. This didn’t make sense with water, because such a thin stream would never keep the sheep separated. But the introduction of the water suddenly created new areas on the game board where you were not allowed to place any sheep. This resulted in some unintentional similarities with Camouflage North Pole (especially in the starter level), although this is a side-effect of using the water as an element to divide the game board into different meadows and was not part of the initial concept. There are still a few fences in the corners of the game board, but their purpose is purely decorative. Without them, the game would have lacked color and felt a bit empty. There’s also a puzzle piece in the shape of a shed and another with a ram, both of which are used in certain challenges to provide additional hints. In earlier versions the ram wasn’t part of the game; it was supposed to be a black sheep. Had we kept the black sheep, it would have saved us some money, as both the white and black sheep could have been produced using the same mold—only a different color of TPR material would have been needed. However, my colleagues from the US felt that a game with a black sheep might be negatively perceived by some of their customers. For me, creating a cute, quality puzzle game was more important than causing any controversy, so we decided to change the black sheep into a grey ram. I just hope no one is offended this time by the fact that the game now features one male animal surrounded by a dozen females ;-)
BTW, there’s a special link between this game and the city I live in. People from Lier are known as "sheep heads." The story goes that in the Middle Ages, the town had to choose between establishing a university or hosting a sheep market. Let's just say, they didn’t make the smartest choice. As a result, if you ever visit my hometown, you’ll often see images of sheep being used for city marketing although the sheep market is long gone.
Example of an JUNIOR challenge (left) and solution (right) for Counting Sheep
Example of an MASTER challenge (left) and solution (right) for Counting Sheep
GAME RULES COUNTING SHEEP
1) Choose a challenge from the challenge booklet. The game board features 4 different islands, separated by water.
Earlier challenges show the position of some of the puzzle pieces with sheep. Place those pieces as shown in the challenge. Some challenges indicate the exact position of the wooden shed on one of the islands. The position of these pieces cannot be changed.
2) Fit ALL the remaining puzzle pieces on the game board:
A) Sheep must always be placed on land.
B) Only empty parts of the puzzle pieces can cover the water.
C) Some challenges give you additional information about the required number of sheep on a specific island.
D) Some challenges indicate which island includes the grey ram with horns, but you have to figure out exactly where on that island the ram is placed. If the challenge includes information about the number of sheep on the island with the ram, the ram is included in this number.
E) The number of sheep on an island can be from 0 to 7. If there is a question mark shown in the challenge, you don't know how many sheep are on that specific island.
3) There is only one solution for each challenge, which can be found at the end of the challenge booklet.
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