Herding Dog

PRE-BETA/RELEASE REVIEW
Please know that what I say in this review may NOT be in the final release of the game!
Now that thats out of the way
Please ignore the hours, for whatever reason steam didnt wanna record them.
Hearding Dog-What is it?
Hearding dog is a game that is meant for a younger audience. Being myself as a 17 Year old male, probably didnt reflect to the fullest due to my age, BUT I knew that would be an issue so I brought in my brother to play the game a bit. Il get into that later.
Welcome to the dog life, where you catch birds. Chase pigs around and stop those pesky Fox's and Wolf's from harming your animal friends! Your dog has no name, this is where the creativity comes in for you or your child. Name your dog as you play. Make sure its something with meaning. If your kid cant remember what they named it write it down. Better yet, take an ingame screenshot from the pause menu and print it out for your child to hang on the fridge. As you or your child progreses through the game they will learn to bond with it. Even for me, I needed to make sure that I got all the tasks done and done right.
I played through it and enjoyed it very well. So since I knew this was meant for a younger audience, I called my little brother over, sat him on my lap and watched him learn how the game mechanics worked. We plugged in his xbox controller and it worked like a charm. His eyes bounced on the screen as his mind conquered the little tasks that the game asked for him to do. As the joysticks clicked, so did his mind! The ingame tips helped him here and there as he did'nt fully understand why the other animals were running away from him. I had to explain to him that you were supposed to put them there and so on. Then the in-game tip showed up and he understood immediatly, After beating his first level that required and used this game mechanic he squeeled with excitment and continued to play. Thanks to the easy and basic menu layout, he was able to travel to the next level with ease. Did he care that the map was a little wonky here and there? Not at all. He just wanted to play with spud (Thats what he named him after catching his first bird) again. He knew that spud needed him to complete the task, and (What I told him) spud needs my little bro to complete his task. The perfect duo.He completed multiple levels before I went up and made supper, when I came back down he was 2 level farther then before. Almost to the end I knew, so I got him off to eat. While we ate he talked about him and spud were able to get passed certain obsticles, and how spud was chasing the pigs around the house for awhile ( Level 5 I believe ). He honestly enjoyed this game I can tell. He asked to play more and I simply said " I need to tell more people about this buddy, maybe after if it isn't close to your bedtime"
So, from a childs perspective he loved it. Found it brilliant for his mind, and it definatly told him about loyalty and teamwork.
Of course I did not have this experience as a teenager at the age of 17, but it was good enough for me to play to the end right?
Pros
CHILDREN WILL LOVE THIS GAME
Teach kids about teamwork and self being
A fun and simple game meant for a younger audience, not many on steam!
Good gameplay and works well with a microsoft liscenced controller
You dont need a heavy PC to play this. I belive all the settings are auto configured for your PC
Ability to in-game screenshot
Simple yet affective game menu. Little bro whipped past it with ease
Spark convorsation with family, along with possibly getting a real dog for the adventures to continue!
Fun music that fits perfectly with what your playing
Achievements GALORE. Kids love seeing that pop up after completing a level!
Cons
Will lag a bit here and there, nothing to serious but may be something fixable
The world map when changing levels is a bit wonky
Chasing pigs and the other animals can become a pain due to them not going the right way, maybe have some sort of auto-lead to the objective or a closer pull in radious of some sort
Using the WASD keys has ALOT of input lag, would recommend only using mouse or gamepad
As I find more for the review I will add it in!
Please keep in mind that this is a PRE-RELEASE review and does not condone the full end game. When the game releases hopefully most of the bugs and issues here and there are fixed. Not many have been found!
I would also like to personnaly thank Juan ( The creator of the game ) for giving myself and my little bro the chance to play this game. He gave me the chance to review the game along with giving away a few copies for my group that can be found here
It turned out to be much better then expected and I hope to see some DLC come out of it!
Thanks alot for reading this ENTIRE review, as I hope to bring in more sales to this amazing Dev!

This game is really nice and my children love it, especially youngest. It's relaxing and fun. While game is in active development new patches are coming from developer regularly, bugs are fixed, new features introduced and that is very good. I've been playing this game on mobile before and it looks really good over there too.
Music is fun, but repetitive although in the newest update now you can choose what to listen. I'm sure more and more tracks will be introduced, and may be ability to "randomize" playlist.
As the game is in early access, so reviews like mine are not good representation of the current status of the game as more and more bugs are eliminated, reviews are outdated quickly, that why I'd recommend this game but not white about bugs :D

Simple and nice game that has fun looking style. There is some bugs and animals clip through map. This would be better mobile game but for achievement hunters this is very good because they are fast and easy to get!

I actually really enjoy this game. Very calming (unless you fucking have to stop like 3 foxes from eating your pig men) and gots a soundtrack to kick too. I got half of the achievments the first time I played. Maybe it was glitch. The game gets some updates with fixes and even more music everytime.
Buy it if you enjoy dogs or herding. If you dont you should they're great cultures

This game is uber cute and has a nice style to it. And it has a doggo. it cute. I enjoyed playing what little I did of the game. When I wrote this review, I had like... 12 minutes on record? Not too sure. The music (some of it) is relaxin' and fits the mood. Not sure if there's a way to keep it at one song?
Although the game is really cute and awesome and has a "bark bark" button, I do have some complaints.
My complaints are:
- The doggo stops every now and then when you're movin' around. No bueno. Fix that.
- The intro to the game. Call it a nitpick if you will, but those smilies in the beginning are atrocious and have no business of being there. I believe simple grunts would work fine. And why does the dude just lay on the ground in front of the door? C'mon.
- The hud seems kinda... I dunno. Generic? Livin it up a bit.
I guess that's about it. The last too don't necessarilly bug me THAT much, but those are my complaints. Definetely look into fixing the movement though. Please.
bork bork

Edited Review:
Since the developer fixed the ability to run with a controller I find this game much more enjoyable
Original:
Any game that involves a dog usually gets my attention. Herding Dog is a colorful game with a cute block-like style. However, the downfall of this game is the controls. I play using an Xbox One controller and the controls are far from responsive. I could not find a button for run which makes it hard to play on the fourth level. The fox/wolf is too fast to keep up with and it got frustrating.
Despite that it is a cheap, time killer.
I would not recommend this game as of current but if the controls were fixed I would highly recommend this game.

Interesting concept :) specially my nephew will enjoy this a lot. It's really catchy and it takes time to manage all the animals in your "farm" :)