Herdling sees you guide cute animals towards a mysterious peak

Unexpected things happen in life, like when one of the recipes in my Gousto box (basically Hello Fresh) doesn’t come with a key ingredient: a single red pepper. Devastating, especially since it’s only happened to me once. Anyway, this is a long but equally meaningful segue into a game from Okomotive, the developers of Far: Changing Tides and Lone Sails, that was announced at this year’s Geoffcom show. It’s called Herdling, and it has nothing to do with sailing through a decaying universe and everything to do with mountain exploration and friendly creatures. Very unexpected.

As the name suggests, Herdling is a single-player game where you “guide, protect, and love a herd of colorful Calicorns.” Calicorns are these big bison-looking things. The journey will involve guiding your furry friends across mountains, “mist-shrouded forests,” valleys, and snowy plateaus, all while improving your herding skills.

While it's not entirely clear what exactly will challenge your herding abilities, the game does include “threats” and “light environmental puzzles.” By light puzzles, I mean there'll be a huge hole and you'll have to tell your Calicorns to poke a piece of wood to close the gap. I can also see a section where you'll have to guide them through dangerous darkness and toward pieces of light; the pieces of light are safe areas. That's the way of video games: I'd bet a box of Gousto containing five meals that this is true.

Elsewhere, we know there will be “rushing sequences,” which could just mean a gust of wind and a few soaring strings to go with it. I expect Herdling to be an emotional hit, maybe like The Last Guardian , but where you bond with a whole family of furry babies.

Herdling is expected to be released in 2025 and you can find the game on its Steam page.


For all the latest news and previews from Gamescom 2024, visit our Gamescom 2024 hub.

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