Mouton

Mouton
http://module801.com/mouton/
Release Date	17th-20th April 2015
Platforms	Unknown

Mouton is a Module 801 game about sheep and blood. Part of Ludum Dare 32 (17th-20th April 2015). Theme: An Unconventional Weapon. (Lodum Dare)

In Mouton, your goal is to make it to the other side without being killed by the shepherd. Your best bet it to use your fellow sheep as "bait" by letting them go first, while keeping an eye on the clock to make sure you can still make it. Each sheep gets a use of one helmet each round which makes them invulnerable for a few seconds.

The shepherd for the round must try to kill all sheep before they make it to the fence. To keep the game from getting to 1-sided, the shepherd often gives the sheep a fighting chance. shepherds have 8 (random) total traps they can use each round, with each trap only being used once.

There are a total of 8 traps, with 4 across the ceiling (C1-C4) and 4 across the floor (F1-F4).

Each player is given a random "weight" at the beginning of a round that slows them a certain amount. This is important as a group of sheep all attempting to from point A to point B will slowly spread out, causing some sheep to end up further ahead or farther behind. This "weight" is hidden.

Surviving

So long as there is a competent shaman in charge, surviving can be very hard. However, some common tactics are:

• At the beginning of the round, move to the left to avoid a possible Guillotine or Wrecking Ball on the top-left.
• Use other sheep as "bait" for the shepherd; no reason to risk yourself pointlessly.
• Keep track of used traps. While the traps used each round is random, their placement / count are not. If traps T1 and B1 are both used, you know you can safely move forward (still beware of a Guillotine or Wrecking Ball from the "next" ceiling trap if it hasn't been used yet).
• Tease the shepherd. While this is risky (especially against ceiling traps), sometimes you will have no other choice. If you've been keeping track of traps and know where the next one is, you can purposefully move a little ways into the danger zone, but then jump and move backwards out of range, with the goal being to trick the shepherd to activate the trap harmlessly.
• Don't use your helmet preemptively! Ideally you should try to keep your helmet unused until the last trap, and then activate it on a final dash to the pasture. But a helmet is no use to a dead sheep, so don't be to sparing with it.
• Use sheep as bait, but also work as a group. While you should let impatient sheep run ahead to the slaughter, you will eventually find some sheep who play with the rules above. When you've identified these sheep, work together with them when possible; if they've used a helmet to survive a trap, use yours to make the shaman trigger a different trap (if it's the last or second last trap).
• Keep track of the timer! Sometimes it's better to do something stupid/brave and potentially win / let others win than just lose by default.
• Don't use your helmet to early into a trap! Some traps are wide enough that if you use your helmet just before you go through, you won't make it out the other side.

Killing

• To activate a trap, you have to click on the art of the trap, not the spaces around it; this can make it tricky to activate some (such as the Bear Trap), so make sure you don't waste time firing a trap to late, wasting it and letting the sheep get through.
• Keep a cool head. if a sheep gets through, don't mindlessly fire all traps just to kill 1 sheep; if possible, skip ahead 1 "column" of traps and try to kill them that way; odds are most of the sheep are a little behind, allowing you to go back and fire the traps in the previous "column" you skipped.
• When possible, keep your cursor away from the trap you plan on using. This allows you to add some surprise, especially if the sheep haven't been keeping track of what traps were fired. You can even potentially "trick" unwary sheep by moving your cursor in a way that makes them think there's a trap still there, and may potentially trick them in wasting a helmet (risky trick to depend on).
• Use your traps intelligently. If there are 10 sheep and 5 traps left, don't waste them all on 1 brave sheep. instead, let the sheep make it a little way / as far as possible, kill them, then kill the other sheep (all bunched together) trying to get through while you are distracted.
• Don't waste time on Bear Traps and Blades if you have better traps available. These two are hard to click on, and don't do nearly as much damage as other traps (especially Blades.

Controls

Action	Keys	Description
Left	← / A	Move left
Right	→ / D	Move right
Jump	↑ / W	Jump up
Helmet	Space	Protect yourself from anything once per round for a few seconds.

Traps

Ceiling Traps

Image	Name	Description
	Guillotine	Swings back and forth once.
	Wrecking Ball	Swings back and forth once.
	Crusher	quickly moves up and down, crushing sheep below it.
	Acid

Floor Traps

Image	Name	Description
	Bear Trap
	Blade
	Fire Wall
	Spikes

Trivia

• Mouton is a term for sheepskin.
• Game was announced by Tig in the Transformice chat on the day of release.

Gallery

Getting squished (in "shaman mode")

Sheep