I am going to keep this review relatively short as this game has yet to release fully. Due to me following various platforms that like to promote new but fun games I stumbled upon a game play video for Dogpile. After getting about half way through I paused the video and set out to try the demo.
The developer, Foot (A combanation of two teams Studio Folly & Toot Games) states that they “set out to make a game that was like the Suika Watermelon game, but a roguelike deckbuilder with dogs…” and they did just that. If you are not familiar with Suika it is a japanese game that combines the elements of falling and merging where you combine your fruits to make bigger fruits. Dogpile is clearly iterating on that design in a very positive way. In addition to that they are clearly inspired by the current trend of Balatro like games or Parlour Rogues.
I first heard the term Parlor Rogues coined by Naman Budhwar the Head of Video Marketing at Playstack in the comments of a video by youtuber Wavelengths. In the video Wavelengths goes on to describe how we could be watching a new genre or sub genre form with the influx of games that are inspired by or similar to Balatro. Within the comments Budhwar describes how internally at Playstack (the producer of Balatro) describes Parlor as “taking a pre existing parlour game and repurposing it with a Roguelike twist!” The key innovation of the genera is being a non combat rogue like. For the case of Dogpile it does take a preexisting game, Suika, and repurposing it with a Roguelike twist. Although Suika is not a parlour game the iteration and twist that the developers of Dogpile apply still elevate it to fit within this ‘new’ subgenre.
Dogpile’s Demo itself is a delightful game and I found myself fixated upon it for quite a while, replaying the levels and trying to get as high of a score that I could. You can tell that the team who developed this love dogs, especially when you look at the credits list and find out all the additional pet developers who helped in its creation. Each dog present is depicted wonderfully and is very expressive.
Gameplay in Dogpile’s Demo is intuitive, fun, and hard to put down. Dogs are assigned a playing card value from Ace to King and when 2 dogs of the same value are combined they form a larger dog of the next value up; 2 Aces form 1 Two. When you do combine your dogs you get Bones and Money. Bones are the score of the game, get enough score and you unlock The Dog Wash and can then use your money to get new dog cards, trainer cards or tags. Trainer cards perform a simple effect that will apply to a dog. Want to make a dog smaller, use a trainer card. Want to add a dog back to your hand, trainer card. Tags on the other hand are a semi permanent boat to your overall gameplay. Tags can make it so cards are added to your deck every time you shuffle, or make it so you can’t lose the game but be aware that you can only hold up to 5 tags on your collar at a time, making you have to make strategic choices on what tags you want. Both Trainer Cards and Tags are a great way to shake up the game play allowing for that rogue-like aspect to sneak in and enabling crazy combos and unique game experiences.
As for art and sound Dogpile has that on lock. Each dog is expressive when it bounces around the playing field and the sounds of the dogs barking are wonderful. One highlight is the fact that you can customize the palette of the game allowing you to change the season, or go crazy with colors, making the world feel like yours.
One thing to keep in mind is that this is a Demo and that means it is not without its fair share of bugs. I stumbled upon a few minor and even some game breaking ones and reported them to the developer. But just keep that in mind when you play.
With that out of the way Dogpile is a great game with lots of potential and I will definitely keep my eye out for when it fully releases. If you are a fan of Suika or Balatro and the many different similar games to it then I suggest you keep this game on your radar. You can checkout the demo here for a tail waggin’ good time.