SHEPHERD

About SHEPHERD

SHEPHERD is a horror game by CYTea and MaiyaKe, made for Scream Jam 2024, where it ranked 1st for aesthetics and 6th for story. It is free on itch.io, playable in the browser or as a Windows download, which since 2025 also includes Chinese. The makers give its length as 15 to 20 minutes, with multiple endings.

Field Team A513-2, codename Shepherd, is sent to retrieve data from a closed military laboratory. It should be an easy job for Jody, Nova and Cooper. You play Jody Sima, the handler, and never enter the lab: you guide the others from a cluttered desk with a radio, a live positioning map, a photo receiver and a field manual.

As they go deeper, things stop adding up. Teammates are separated, clock readings do not match, and the team disagrees over the order of events. Photographs come back of things they should not have found. You have to decide whether to call everyone back as a precaution or carry out the mission and find out what is going on, and whether it is all equipment failure or something stranger. Who is the real Shepherd, the makers ask, and who is being herded?

Players praise its comic-book art and its slow build of dread, from watching things play out at a distance. It suits players who like operator and radio horror such as Below Rusted Gods or 10-103.

How to play SHEPHERD

1. Play it free in the browser on itch.io, or download the Windows version (which also has Chinese).
2. Look around your desk with the mouse and inspect the radio, map, photos and manual.
3. Press Space to advance the team's radio conversation.
4. Move the live positioning map with WASD to track where each teammate is.
5. Decide when to call the team back or push on; your choices lead to different endings.

Tips

• Check every photograph the team sends back; the details matter.
• Keep track of the times the team reports; the inconsistencies are the story.
• Play more than once to see the other endings.

Questions