Sheep Crossing is an implementation of a classic logical puzzle. I know the puzzle as wolf/goat/cabbage; this game’s version is bear/sheep/cabbage. Either way, the logic is exactly the same. There’s little to the game besides this puzzle, but that little is implemented to the hilt, with minimalist responses that are somewhat poetic, occasionally bizarre, and often hilarious. I enjoyed the game; my twelve-year-old son absolutely loved it.
The objective is to take the bear, the sheep, and the cabbage across a river in a boat that can carry only you and one other object at a time. The difficulty arises when you leave certain pairs of objects on one side of the riverbank: If the bear and the sheep — or the sheep and the cabbage — are left unattended, then someone’s getting extra breakfast. I won’t spoil the solution for the (perhaps?) few readers who haven’t seen it before, but it’s a standard logic puzzle. It’s also appeared in IF games at least as far back as Zork Zero.
It didn’t take my son and me long to solve the puzzle and win the game. But we spent way more time with Sheep Crossing afterwards, because it seems just about every reasonable thing you could do with a bear, a sheep, a cabbage, a boat, a river, and yourself is implemented. Nearly all of these result in you losing the game (even occasionally in your death), but they are just so funny — and far more interesting than the main puzzle for someone who’s familiar with it. Here’s a sample exchange.
> EAT CABBAGE
*crunch* *crunch* *crunch*
It tastes like guilt.
Or another, when you leave the sheep and the cabbage alone on one side of the river and return, only to find some scraps of leaves upon your arrival.
> EXAMINE LEAVES
The fate of your cabbage slowly dawns on you.
A minimalist but well-implemented game, Sheep Crossing hit my son’s funny bone in just the right spot. I enjoyed it as well. It’s probably a good game to play with someone else, too; my son and I kept tossing out things to try, just to see how Sheep Crossing would respond. All in all, a fun way to spend half an hour.
An Exercise for the Reader 