Flockfjord is a sheep herding game for Android where you guide a border collie with one finger and the flock does the rest exactly the way real sheep would. Lead your flock on a journey through the northern fells: over mountain passes, past deep lakes and rocky fields, from pen to pen, as far as your skill carries you.
Open beta, install it now on Google Play
A sheepdog game built on real herding research
Most herding games treat sheep as balls that roll away from you. Flockfjord doesn’t. Its flock AI is modelled on published sheepdog research: sheep have a flight zone, they read your dog’s intent, and they panic when pressed too hard. Walk calmly behind the flock and it drifts ahead of you like water. Sprint at it, and it shatters. Come in too close, and the group splits in two. Pressure is a resource and a calm hand wins.
Your border collie works in two authentic styles, switchable at any time: the strong-eyed dog controls the flock quietly from a distance, while the loose-eyed dog drives hard up close. Every stage is a fresh procedurally generated fell, new ridge, new pass, new lakes and the biomes shift from green summer meadows to autumn colours and windswept highlands.
How it plays
- One-finger control: your dog runs where you point. Everything else is reading the sheep.
- A journey, not levels: one flock, one score, stage after stage. Lose too many sheep and the journey ends.
- Real danger: sheep can’t swim for long, and they can’t be driven forever. A panicked flock near a lake is a shepherd’s nightmare.
- Sheep tire. Held under hard pressure for too long, a ewe is spent and lies down where she gave out. You move the others on and leave her behind. The warning comes in good time easing off saves her.
- Weather that matters. Wind, rain and fog cut how far a sheep can see you and how far your bark carries, and the light fades as the journey goes on. The last stages of a leg are worked at dusk.
- Two ways to win: race the clock, or herd calmly for the Calm Herding bonus. The stress meter keeps score of your style.
- No sign-up, no energy timers just you, the dog and the sheep. Play Games sign-in is optional and only used for the leaderboard.
- A leaderboard for one clean journey. Play Games leaderboard and twelve achievements, entirely optional.
- Stop whenever. Pause mid-stage, or leave to the menu and pick the journey up later. You lose the stage you were on, nothing more.
Frequently asked questions
Is Flockfjord free?
Yes. Flockfjord is free to play with optional ads. A single one-time purchase removes interstitial ads permanently.
What makes it different from other sheepdog games?
The sheep. Flocking, flight zones, vision blocking, stress and recovery are all based on animal behaviour studies. Herding feels like reading a real flock, not pushing objects.
When is it released?
Yes. Flockfjord is in open testing on Google Play, which means anyone can install it, no invite, no waiting list. It is a beta, so expect rough edges, and telling me about them is the most useful thing you can do. Bug reports and herding pedantry both welcome at info@nordicartisan.fi.
Why didn’t my score reach the leaderboard?
A journey continued by watching an ad doesn’t post to the board. The score you died with was already submitted, only what you earn after the continue is left off. The list is there to measure herding, not patience with adverts. Start a fresh journey and it counts normally.
The open beta is live on Google Play, anyone can join and play. The journey runs past the first twelve stages into grazing grounds, shedding work and one very stubborn ram. This build is about seeing what the flock is telling you: a sheep on the edge of giving out is now marked on the ground, and the tutorial no longer talks over the animals it is teaching you to read. Feedback from the beta shapes what gets built next, so tell us what breaks.
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Seeing the sheep that is about to give out
Sheep have been able to be worked to a standstill since 0.1.9, but the only warning was a line of text, and it never said which animal. Now the one in trouble carries a ring on the grass beneath her that tightens and reddens as she tires, you can see who to ease off, and in time to do it. The tutorial card has moved off the flock to the top of the screen and fades once it has been read, because it used to sit exactly where the sheep go when you drive them away from you. And a few animals in every flock now never quite settle to the dog however calmly they are worked, which is how it goes with real sheep. Thanks to the working handler on r/WorkingBorderCollies who pointed that out.
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The leaderboard arrives, and a way to stop
The Play Games leaderboard and twelve achievements have been in the build for a while, but the button only appeared after a successful sign-in so most players never saw it at all. It is there from the start now. A run continued with an ad does not post to the board: the score it died with was already submitted, and only the surplus is left off, so the list measures herding rather than patience with adverts. The game can also be paused and left now a pause button, the back key, and a quit that costs the stage in progress and nothing more. And a spent ewe stays lying on the hillside where she gave out instead of vanishing; you move the others on and leave her behind, which is what actually happened.
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A flock you can wear out
The stress meter has been on screen since the beginning, and until now it only paid a points bonus. Held under hard pressure for too long, a ewe is spent and can go no further the warning comes in good time, and easing off saves her. Losing sheep no longer needs water. Also fixed the shape of the journey: shedding stages no longer land on the same stage as a river crossing, and groves appear on short stages too.
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Two more commands, and flocks with character
Out widens your dog without letting the flock go use it when heads come up and the group is about to break. Look back turns the dog off the flock to fetch the one left behind. Light hill sheep now move easily and scatter easily where heavy lowland sheep are stubborn but hold together, and every flock has a point of balance of its own: the line to the pen is rarely straight, and the right place for your dog is no longer automatically directly behind them.
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A tutorial that teaches position
The guided first stage now teaches where to stand rather than only how to move, with hints that advance as you actually do the thing. The goal is visible from the first second too an edge arrow, a taller flag, and an opening framing that shows you where the journey is going.
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Weather that bites, dusk that hides
Wind, rain and fog stopped being scenery. Each one now cuts how far a sheep can see you, how far your bark carries, or how well the flock holds together — and the day cycle does the same as the light goes. The journey sets out at dawn and reaches the sea at dusk, so the last stages of a leg are worked in failing light.
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Real shepherding submitted to open testing
The biggest update yet, and the first public one. Three real herding commands: come bye and away to me swing the dog around the flock, lie down drops the pressure to zero. Some stages end at open grazing grounds a pressed sheep will not eat and later ones ask you to shed the marked sheep into a second pen, straight from trial rules. A stubborn ram joins the flock and will charge a dog that pushes too close. And every sheep is now an individual: quick young lambs lead from the front, heavy old ewes stay calm and lag behind.
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The full journey, dawn to dusk
All twelve stages of the first journey are playable. The route now climbs from the valley over the high fells and down to the fjord coast, with a day/night cycle tied to the journey itself you set out at dawn and reach the sea at sunset. Added river fords, isthmus crossings and rock chicanes, plus a lot of handling polish around gates and water.
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A flock that behaves like a flock
Rebuilt the herding model on the 2024 study of real sheep and a border collie: sheep track only a few neighbours at a time, bold individuals lead from the front, and flanking the dog now turns the whole group as one body instead of shattering it.
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First internal build
Endless journey, procedural fells and lakes, the pressure and stress model, and the two working styles — strong-eyed and loose-eyed.