Guide a lost dog back home in Doggone

(Image credit: Raconteur Games)

Dogs and humans have developed such a close kinship over the course of the last several millennia that, once you've owned a dog, it's hard to imagine the one without the other. A team of indie developers is creating a game about a lost dog trying to find its way back to its people, and they've launched a Kickstarter to help make it happen.

Doggone is inspired by the animal movies we grew up with, which for me include films like The Incredible Journey and the Adventures of Milo & Otis. Mechanically, it takes cues from Playdead's Inside and Limbo, although it's clear just from taking one look at it that Doggone is as cheerful and bright as those games are dark and ominous. In the Kickstarter video, lead producer Nicholas Laborde explains that Doggone's art style is heavily influenced by the abstract, colorful backgrounds of Disney's classic Sleeping Beauty.

I mean, just look:

(Image credit: Raconteur Games)

The team of nine seasoned indie developers is hoping to raise $100,000 over the course of the Kickstarter, and they've put together a detailed budget breakdown. The bulk of the money raised will be used to pay their artists, programmers, and designers, with the remainder split between software licensing, marketing, and stretch goals.

Raconteur Games says Doggone will be a "fully-fledged dog experience," and they're planning on having the first episode ready next summer, with two more episodes following that year. The Kickstarter is meant to fund development of the first, with sales from that supporting the next two episodes.

And, I cannot stress this enough, it is a game about a dog. That automatically means it's worth a look.

Latest in Games
A young witch watering a smiling mushroom in a magic garden
Here's a roguelite dungeon crawler Steam reviewers call 'a botanical Diablo' and 'like Cult of the Lamb' except you manage a mystical garden
Destiny 2 Rite of the Nine: The Emissary, massive, ominously standing at the edge of a water basin.
Oops! Bungie rolled out Destiny 2's Rite of the Nine event three weeks early, and new loot is already dropping
Chatacabra from Monster Hunter Wilds
The latest Monster Hunter Wilds event quest gives piles of Armor Spheres for hunting a Chatacabra, making this a very bad week to be a frog in the Forbidden Lands
No Rest for the Wicked Steam early access screenshots
No Rest for the Wicked developer Moon Studios is now 'fully independent' after acquiring the rights to the game from Take-Two
A hunter posing with an absurd Blangonga outfit in Monster Hunter Wilds.
Attention, fashion hunters: There's a Monster Hunter Wilds mod to disable all those obnoxious glowing buff effects that distract from your fits
Gallywix wears an uneasy smile as he's confronted by Xal'atath in WoW: The War Within.
World of Warcraft guild uses exploits to get world 'first' on the game's new raid, gets banned, puts its name backwards and does it again
Latest in News
A masked man with an axe in the woods
Rebellion CEO seems kind of awed by major studios making massive videogames: 'How do you organize a game that has 2,000 people working on it?'
A young witch watering a smiling mushroom in a magic garden
Here's a roguelite dungeon crawler Steam reviewers call 'a botanical Diablo' and 'like Cult of the Lamb' except you manage a mystical garden
Destiny 2 Rite of the Nine: The Emissary, massive, ominously standing at the edge of a water basin.
Oops! Bungie rolled out Destiny 2's Rite of the Nine event three weeks early, and new loot is already dropping
Chatacabra from Monster Hunter Wilds
The latest Monster Hunter Wilds event quest gives piles of Armor Spheres for hunting a Chatacabra, making this a very bad week to be a frog in the Forbidden Lands
No Rest for the Wicked Steam early access screenshots
No Rest for the Wicked developer Moon Studios is now 'fully independent' after acquiring the rights to the game from Take-Two
A hunter posing with an absurd Blangonga outfit in Monster Hunter Wilds.
Attention, fashion hunters: There's a Monster Hunter Wilds mod to disable all those obnoxious glowing buff effects that distract from your fits