Bailey the Brave is a new homebrew game for Genesis/Mega Drive in which you assume the role of Bailey, a sheepdog who loves to herd up sheep. The game has a rather charming backstory that makes it stand out from the herd…
The inspiration for Bailey the Brave was the developer’s sadly deceased real-life pet dog, Bailey, as he explained on X, saying that: “One year ago, we had to put down our beloved collie Bailey after him being part of the family for more than 12 years. He was quite unlucky with a severe injury when he was only 5 and chronic gut problems. Yet he was a wonderful family member.”
Bailey the Brave’s developer further explained: “Shortly after, I wanted to do something to remember him, and what better way than to make a video game for an almost 40 year old console. While the real Bailey mostly just ignored sheep, I quickly had the idea of a sheep herding game,” Going on to say: “he fact that I had no experience with the C programming language, let along with SGDK couldn’t stop me. I’ll spare you the trials and tribulations of the next year and instead get to the finished game.”
Quite an impressive feat, not to mention a wonderful tribute to a beloved family pet, immortalizing him in a 16-bit video game!
Bailey the Brave’s developer, developing under the name DigitalMints, describes the game as follows: “at its core, it’s a simple game. Herd all sheep into their pen within the allotted time. There’s a sheep-counter in the bottom left, telling you how many sheep are still out and about. At the top, you have your current score, your energy bar and the timer.”
The Genesis/Mega Drive ROM for Bailey the Brave is available to download for free, but if you enjoy the game, Digital Mints asks that you consider making a donation to be put toward hardware, tools, and future development.
