Come Bye: A Sheepdog Simulator

Come Bye is a pastoral herding sim about working sheep with a dog. You're a contract shepherd, hired by local farmers to move their flocks: out to fresh grass, down the lanes, through the gates and into the right field. You never control the dog directly. You whistle, it works, and the sheep have their own ideas.

A whistle and a dog

Every command is a real shepherd's whistle:

• Come Bye and Away send your dog round the flock, clockwise or anticlockwise
• Walk On pushes in, and Lie Down takes the pressure off
• Steady slows your dog and eases it back from the flock
• Look Back sends it for a second group of sheep
• That'll Do calls it back to your side

Whistle twice and your dog works harder. And yes, you can pet the dog.

Sheep will be sheep

On a good day, herding is calm, quiet work: small adjustments, a steady flock, a gate shut behind them. Then a car honks, half the flock bolts, and the other half discovers the community garden.
Push too hard and fear ripples through the flock until they scatter. Ease off and they wander away to graze. Stragglers bleat and go looking for the gate the others went through. A ewe with lambs will square up to your dog and chase it round the field. When all else fails, you can wave your arms or pick up the last stubborn sheep and carry it in yourself.
It will go wrong. Getting it back is the fun part.

Real hill country

Every season brings a new stretch of farmland to work: rolling hills, or real surveyed hillside at Bowmont Water in the Cheviots. Dry-stone walls, lanes with a gate into every field, copses, ruins and hills that hide stragglers from your dog. The village has a park, a building site and a very tempting community garden.

The job

Farmers hire you to move flocks of up to 200 sheep between distant fields. You get paid when every last one is in and the gate is shut. Give up early and you pay for every sheep left out. Let them eat someone's garden and you'll get the bill.

Learn from an old hand

Tam, an old shepherd, teaches you the whistles with a pen of sheep. Optional aids show your dog's next move, where the flock is heading, and which sheep are frightened. Switch them off once you can read the flock yourself.