Herdling

The game features no dialogue or traditional storyline, focusing on exploration as the player guides the herd to its final destination. The studio's largest project to date and its first three-dimensional game. Panic had partnered with Okomotive since August 2022. The music is composed by Joel Schoch. It received generally positive reviews with a praise for its visuals, music, and emotional connection with the calicorns, though some faulted the lack of storyline, short playtime, and the Switch version's controls. Herdling won the SGDA Swiss Game Award in 2025 for Best Entertainment Game and received nominations in the Golden Joystick Awards, Deutscher Entwicklerpreis, Indie Game Awards, Unity Awards, and D.I.C.E.

• Title — Herdling • Developer — Okomotive • Publisher — Panic • Platforms — * Windows • Nintendo Switch • PlayStation 5 • Xbox Series X/S • Released — August 21, 2025 • Genre — Adventure, puzzle • Programmer — Lorenz Kleiser • Composer — Joel Schoch • Modes — Single player • Director — Don Schmocker Goran Saric Isabelle Roesch • Designer — Fabio Baumgartner Philipp Stern Denise Meier • Engine — Unity • Border — yes

• Illustration — Via, holding a magic stick, takes the calicorns to the snow-laden mountains. Herdling is a single-player puzzle adventure video game played from a third-person perspective. The player controls Via, who controls a herd of calicorns with a small magical stick. The herd's movement is inversely tied to the player's: when Via moves left, the herd moves right, and vice versa. The herd generally leads the way. It can also be commanded to speed up, slow down, or stop through specific button inputs. Waving the stick changes the herd's trajectory, holding a button slows the herd, rapidly pressing the same button speeds it up, and double-tapping another button stops it. Each calicorn can be named individually, and interacted with by removing twigs and branches from their coats, playing fetch, and adorning them with harnesses and baubles. Stealth is essential for avoiding predators such as the "winged terror" and the "murder owl". Players can enable a "calicorn immortality" option in the settings to prevent deaths. In certain situations, the calicorns assist the player by providing boosts to cross ledges or by breaking open gates. The calicorns vary in shape and size and react to three colored flowers emitted from the magic stick. Blue flowers fill a gauge for stampedes used for traversing slippery terrain. Red flowers initiate or extend stampedes. Yellow flowers pollinate the calicorns' coat with an energy that reveals memories of the relationship between ancient calicorns and shepherds. Progress is saved by resting at campfires, which are typically found near shrines and also serve as spots to bond with the herd; ways of bonding include playing fetch using baubles and adorning them small trinkets, all which are found near campfires. After a calicorn's death, it may appears as a ghost at campfires or during stampedes. The game includes a built-in photo mode with simple controls for capturing screenshots of the scenery and gameplay.

Set in a grimy city, Via, a young girl sleeping on a rough mattress in an underpass, wakes to the sound of a blaring car alarm. Investigating the noise, she finds an abandoned parking lot where a large furry and feathered beast has its face stuck in a trash can. Using a wooden stick, she frees the animal, a calicorn, and befriends it. She rescues other calicorns from similar dangers around the city. Together, they leave the city and embark on an adventurous journey in a mountainous landscape with foggy forests, snowy plateaus and hidden valleys. While herding them, Via learns that the calicorns respond well to jewelry and affection. She guides the herd using a magical stick to control their direction and speed. Along the way, more wounded calicorns are found, healed, and added to the group. Via protects the herd from falling off cliffs and from predators. At the end of the journey, she leads the animals to their natural habitat at the top of the mountains.

Following the success of Far: Lone Sails (2018) and Far: Changing Tides (2022), Okomotive sought to create a new intellectual property centered on a story about herding unusual creatures on a journey through mountains. Herdling is the studio's largest project and its first fully three-dimensional game. The studio partnered with publisher Panic in December 2022. Panic had previously published titles such as Firewatch (2016) and Untitled Goose Game (2019). The project was led by Okomotive founders Don Schmocker and Goran Saric, with game design led by Fabio Baumgartner, programming by Lorenz Kleiser, animation by Martina Hugentobler, and music composed by Joel Schoch. Baumgartner, in a pitch with Game Developers Conference 2025, stated his team was "inspired by the Alps and other mountain regions, along with classic atmospheric indie titles". Okomotive's development team consisted of 12 employees. A trailer was released on the digital distribution service Steam, followed by a demo in the second week of June 2025. The Nintendo Switch version's release date was revealed during Nintendo's Indie World showcase. The game was released on August 21, 2025, on Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. It was available on Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass from day one.

• Awards — Date — Category — Result • Deutscher Entwicklerpreis — 3 November 2025 — Best Audio Design • Best Game Design • Best Indie Game • D.I.C.E. Awards — 12 February 2026 — Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition • Golden Joystick Awards — 20 November 2025 — Best Indie Game • Indie Game Awards — 19 December 2025 — Best Music • Swiss Game Awards — 18 December 2025 — Best Entertainment Game • Unity Awards — 9 December 2025 — Best 3D Visual