It was never about the sheep.

This game that we play. These roles that we serve. It is all just a façade. An artificial conflict in which to serve as justification for the existence that is our lives. You, brought into being to fulfil niche purpose, existing specifically to deny me. While I in turn must iteratively evolve, existing to breach the walls in which you impose. A circular reasoning that enables us to persist forever unified in a tango. Even if the ultimate sum of our meanings annul, amounting us together to be nothing.

But even if it is meaningless, we make a show of it. As consummate professionals both you and I. We take pride in the performance we play. You in your stoic methodical duty, mechanical in both prose and rhythm. And me with my nebulous schemes, whimsical in nature and execution. The only certainty to their outcomes being in how consistent they subvert expectation. A spectacle of whimsy and violence, in which we generate an intangible product. Somehow sold for definable value, measurable in fiat currency that sustains our continued upkeep.

But as the innumerable days close out, I wonder is this all that there is? We bear no animosity towards the other despite our eternally bound conflict. The opposite true in fact. There is a fondness there in how we both innately understand how intertwined we are. I wonder if there were no sheep left to raid, nor to protect, what would then become of us? Of course, to indulge in such thoughts during down time is premature. Regardless of whatever we choose to make of ourselves, make sure to do so after we first punch in on the clock.

(So like I haven’t watched much looney tunes or read much BL but this is all but explicitly yaoi right? This concept of being shackled to some imposed expectations and yet having that position understood and accepted by some other? Well regardless, Sheep Raider is a silly puzzle game that does not really try to accentuate or elaborate on this at all and instead has you navigate a set of levels that incites you to engineer repeated sheep heists through ever novel and whimsical techniques. Through my limited understanding of the show, it is quite successful at transcribing this experience from that of spectator to one of conductor. Although much like the show it is based on, some puzzles demand you engage in cartoonish reasoning that may leave some solutions a bit esoteric to intuit. It is a novel experience for sure, although not one that will challenge the expectations induced by its foundation. I recommend it for those who wish to experience a mechanically ‘loose’ puzzle game that is a bit more interested in spectacle than overengineered gameplay design.)