Herdling focuses on an expedition to a mysterious summit, ensuring that your herd survives against all kinds of dangers. There are puzzles to overcome and stampede sequences, where you’ll rush through the land. While the mountain peak is your ultimate goal, there are also plateaus, valleys, and forests to navigate throughout.

As with FAR: Lone Sails and Changing Tides, the narrative is wordless as players learn more about the world and bond with their Calicorns. How did things end up this way, and what secrets lay on the summit?

We’ll find out when Herdling launches on August 21st for Nintendo Switch. It’s also coming to Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC.

Herdling revolves around the player setting out on a grand expedition with a herd of what the studio refers to as loveable beasts – Calicorns. Throughout the game, the player is tasked with ascending a mountain path and taking on strange, eerie challenges and obstacles. Over the course of the game, along with herding the animals, players will also have to help them through dangerous situations.

Herdling’s story will revolve around a tale of trust, survival and companionship, albeit without the use of any words, as the player’s character will be the only one that can talk throughout the title. A demo for Herdling is also available on Steam.

https://youtu.be/qRvDPGYH6bQs

Compared to the FAR titles, which focus on traversing sandy and flooded worlds with ships, this title is seemingly set in a mountainous region. It appears to be Autumn, with the leaves falling and a lone figure admiring the mountains in the distance. The aesthetic reminds us of the developer’s other games but still looks pretty good while maintaining a peaceful atmosphere.

No release date or platforms were revealed. FAR: Changing Tides is available for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, PC and Nintendo Switch, so Okomotive’s next game may be released for the same. We’ll need more details, so sit tight and stay tuned in the meantime.

In a PlayStation Blog post, creative lead and founder of Okomotive Don Schmocker spoke about the new challenges that players would face. “We’ve expanded on the setting seen in Lone Sails but instead of sun-scorched, dusty plains, players will face stormy waters and submerged cities. We hope that this new environment combined with new puzzles and ship mechanics will bring an exciting experience to fans of the series and new players alike.”

However, much like its predecessor, the story is something that players will have to discover for themselves. This is done by exploring flooded buildings, gathering sunken items, analyzing images and so on. “This environmental storytelling presents a very different type of game design, but we feel it helps to build a close bond between the world and the players, as they choose how much of the story to seek and engage with.

“With Lone Sails, we found ourselves defining and building elements of the story throughout development, which became increasingly difficult. For Changing Tides we wrote the majority of the story and world-building during pre-production, this gave us better direction and allowed us to plan and design the environments together with the story.”

Of course, as noted in the trailer, one’s vehicle can now submerge underwater along with sailing across it. At the end of the day however, the relationship between protagonist Toe and the ship is what matters. “The relationship is a symbiotic one, the ship won’t sail without Toe to control the sails or oars, and Toe can’t overcome certain obstacles without the ship,” says Schmocker.

FAR: Changing Tides will be coming to Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch and PC. Stay tuned for more details and gameplay in the coming weeks.

The trailer is a pretty densely packed one. It shows various unique environments boasting strong and evocative art design, and it’s clear that in terms of atmosphere and sense of place, this game is coming along well. There’s plenty to like in what they’ve shown in this trailer, and fans of the first game will certainly find plenty to be excited about. Check it out below.

Meanwhile, the trailer also confirms that the game has been delayed to 2022, having initially been given a late 2021 launch window upon announcement. Whenever it releases, FAR: Changing Tides will be available for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

As the hero Toe, players will need to find a ship and maintain it while finding the way back home. Throughout the game, players will uncover the mysteries surrounding the world’s current state. Of course, that ship won’t hold itself together for very long and you’ll need to scavenge for parts to keep it going.

Sometimes, it will be possible to leave the ship to either dive into the surrounding water for materials and supplies or explore various dilapidated structures and so on. FAR: Changing Tides will be coming to Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, PC and Nintendo Switch in late 2021. Stay tuned for more details in the coming months.

"It has been a long and adventurous journey until now. We started as students with a clear vision of what we want to create but we had to learn tons of new things as it was our first game. Because of that we had almost no idea how it will work out in the end and we’re very happy that it was a success."

Far: Lone Sails was received with great praise when it launched on PC last year, and now it’s expanding its audience even further with a console release- how as the journey been for you, from launch to now?

It has been a long and adventurous journey until now. We started as students with a clear vision of what we want to create but we had to learn tons of new things as it was our first game. Because of that we had almost no idea how it will work out in the end and we’re very happy that it was a success.

What was the drive behind creating a game with a “zombie-free post apocalypse”?

The game is about the journey with your own special vehicle. We wanted the player to enjoy this and not feel pressured by dangers all the time. Nonetheless the world should feel unwelcoming at times and has many situations to surprise the player. It’s exploration through progression in the game and the environment should show interesting things the player hasn’t seen before.

One of Far’s most distinctive features is its incredible aesthetic, which grabs attention even with a single screenshot- how much attention did you pay to getting that aspect of the experience just right during development?

The aesthetic and in particular the composition has been a strength of FAR since the early days and we tried to keep that and improve. In some cases we had to make changes in favor of usability and gameplay, e.g. the camera distance and the player character’s small size became a problem. To makes things more clear, even if they’re small, the interactive and important elements are colored red or orange with a nice contrast to the mostly grey environment.

"We wanted to bring the game on consoles from the beginning. It was initially planned to have a simultaneous release on all platforms but we decided against it as it was our first release and this was a big enough step at the time in itself."

Was it always the plan to eventually bring Far: Lone Sails over to consoles, or was it something you assessed and decided on post-launch?

We wanted to bring the game on consoles from the beginning. It was initially planned to have a simultaneous release on all platforms but we decided against it as it was our first release and this was a big enough step at the time in itself.

Does the console version of Far: Lone Sails include any extra content or features that we haven’t seen in the game till now?

We optimized the game a lot compared to the PC/Mac release version. Everything else is the same on all platforms.

Do you have plans for more content coming to the game in the near future?

We were and still are busy with the console porting and working on our next project. So we haven’t decided yet to create additional content for FAR: Lone Sails.

Do you have any plans to launch on Switch?

Yes, we’re working on the port, but we have no release date yet. Some time this year.

Will the game will feature Xbox One X and PS4 Pro specific enhancements? What can players expect if they are playing the game on those systems? Is 4K/60fps on the cards?

No, the game runs on all Xbox One and PS4 platforms with 1080p/60fps.

"We’re working on the Switch port, but we have no release date yet. Some time this year."

The PS5 specs were recently revealed in an interview with Wired. What are your thoughts on that?

Looks quite amazing. I’m wondering what the price point will be.

The PS5 will have a Zen 2 CPU processor which is a major leap over the Jaguar found in the PS4. How will this help in games development?

It will definitely bring console performances closer to PC / Desktop settings which means less optimizations for ports.

What is your take on Sony’s reluctant policy on cross-play with Xbox and Nintendo?

I guess they are protecting their business. Of course it’s not cool from a gamer’s perspective, but that is the sad truth how capitalism works.

Many developers have come out and spoken of the things that will be made possible with the PS5’s technology, which is something that Sony’s Mark Cerny, lead architect on the console, revealed not too long ago. From its inclusion of an SSD, which Sony says will make loading screens a thing of the past, to even something more basic like enabling backward compatibility with PS4 titles, there’s plenty about the new system that has got a lot of people very excited.

Recently, we spoke with Okomotive, developers of the exploration adventure title FAR: Lone Sails, which launched on PC last year and recently came out on the PS4 and the Xbox One last month. Speaking about the PS5 and its technology, Okomotive founders Don Schmocker (Creative Lead of FAR: Lone Sails) and Goran Saric (Tech Lead) spoke of one particular aspect that had been confirmed in its initial specs reveal– its Zen 2 processor.

“It will definitely bring console performances closer to PC / desktop settings,” they said, “which means less optimizations for ports.”

However, like many of us, while they think the PS5’s specs – the ones that have been revealed so far – look “amazing”, they do wonder what the price point will end up being as a result. Around the time of the system’s soft reveal, Mark Cerny had said the price would be “appealing to gamers in light of its advanced feature set”– whatever that ends up meaning is anyone’s best guess.

It’ll still be a while yet before we find out. The PS5 won’t be out in the next twelve months, by Sony’s own admission, but we can still expect a late 2020 launch, as per other reports.

FAR: Lone Sails, meanwhile, is currently available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Our full interview with its developers will be going live soon, so stay tuned.