Herdling is an adorable indie about looking after cute creatures, and I love it

Herdling. Have you heard of it? Or rather, a herd of it? I wanted to come up with a jaunty angle for a feature about this game, but honestly, it’s just a really nice time. Billed as an ‘atmospheric adventure’, it’s made by Okomotive – creator of Far Lone Sails and Changing Tide – and boy, does the studio really nail it.

Starting off in a blustery, dreary city (which I didn’t honestly expect), you find yourself embodying a young person armed with a magical crook. No, not the criminal, the wooden stick that shepherds have. Soon, you find your very first Calicorn and befriend it after pulling a bucket off its head. Then, you can name it by choosing from pre-made suggestions or going with your own vibe. For instance, my tribe has Mince and Floff, among others.

Calicorns are the fluffy, vaguely quadrupedal animals you’re now in charge of herding. They kind of resemble goats, sheep, and some of the more exotic species of cow, but no two are identical. Mince and Pince, in my group, are almost identical, but have different horns and colors, so I can still tell them apart.

Using that aforementioned crook that they conveniently respond to, you can herd your creatures. You’ll be behind them, aiming them forward, and you can give them a nudge to sprint across open land, or halt and wait for you. This isn’t the most intuitive of mechanics, but it gets the job done, and lord knows it’s easier than trying to wrangle real-life animals.

After picking up a couple more Calicorns in the city, you break out, and you’re running free across a field of flowers. Then you head into a forest, up the mountains, and further into a snowy area (don’t worry, your Calicorns are fuzzy enough to stay warm), before settling down by a campfire surrounded by your herd.

The game isn’t very long – about four to six hours, depending on how you play – and is just a lovely time where you corral creatures for a while. There are a couple of puzzles to figure out, but it’s still a very relaxing experience. The music is by composer Joel Schoch and really adds to the mood, with more instruments joining the sweeping score as you sprint, and each area has a different sound to really make you feel the environment.

I played on Nintendo Switch 2 – though the game doesn’t have a dedicated Switch 2 version just yet – and found it wasn’t the crispest experience, but intricate graphics aren’t the main pull here. What you want to look at is the sweeping vistas and the fuzzy butts of animals bumbling in front of you. No one needs 10k pixels to see that. There may yet be an update for Switch 2, though according to the game’s developer, it hasn’t had access to a developer kit for the console just yet.

If you’re in the mood for a laid-back, easy game, or something vaguely to do with being a farm game, I do recommend Herdling. Then you can join me in wanting your very own giant Calicorn to look after. Whatever you do, just make sure to pet them, please. And clean them – trekking across lands unknown can be dirty work.