Exploring New Layers of Emotion and Design
When Observer Interactive first revealed Good Boy, it was clear the project would be about more than exploration. The game draws heavily on themes of loss, companionship, and memory, and as we explored in our earlier interview, it is also a love letter to pets. At Gamescom 2025, the team returned with a sharper focus on how feedback has refined that emotional foundation.
“You play as Good Boy, who’s one of those space rovers but has woken up with no memories of where it came from,” explained level and narrative director Matt Houghton.
This allows players to project their own pets’ personalities into the story, while also making room for broader explorations of grief, anxiety, and resilience, often told through the stories of other rovers that are based on pets from the team and community contributions.
Building a Metroidvania on Ecosystems
One of the most intriguing updates comes from design director Matty McGrory, who outlined how Good Boy’s progression system continues to hinge on its ecosystem. Rather than unlocking new abilities through combat, players interact with Terra II’s flora and fauna, capturing creatures and learning how they influence each other.
“The whole idea is, as you explore, you’ll get that classic Metroidvania DNA, where we populate the map with all these blockers,” McGrory said. “So whenever you finally get that creature, you can go out on your map, and see all these locations that you can go to and use them.”
This ecosystem-driven design pushes players to experiment, observe, and problem-solve. Whether it’s getting past environmental obstacles or tracking bugs that only appear in the rain, progression is tied as much to curiosity as it is to skill. To keep things fresh, players can expect different minigames to play out when attempting to collect these creatures, making it more fun than a passive affair.
Worlds of Possibilities
At this Alpha stage, Good Boy already has four biomes up and running, complete with underground layers and even hidden areas waiting to be found. The scale at which the game has grown has caught the team by surprise, and is estimated to take around 20 hours to see everything, including creatures, other rovers, and much more.
There was also an opportunity to see the home base in action, essentially the hub to which players will return in each biome. Here, you get to interact with other characters living their lives, turn in creatures for research, and in some cases, play some vintage video games. With Team17 part of the process, it was a nice touch seeing the likes of the Worms series being present in Good Boy, even if making them playable within is more of a wish than an actual goal for the team.
What Comes Next
Visually, Good Boy continues to stand out with its “miniaturised but stylised” world. Environment artist Joe Kennett described the inspiration as “toys in the garden,” creating a sense of playful wonder. The art direction has evolved based on player input, balancing clarity for fast-paced navigation with the cosiness that underpins the game’s tone.
Similarly, the gameplay and the systems are also getting refined constantly, something that is important to creative director and studio founder Kenan Wilsher. It’s all about making that “moment-to-moment gameplay” fun and keeping you engaged to the end.
With Team17 publishing and a full release on the horizon, Good Boy is shaping up to be more than just another Metroidvania. It is both an experimental approach to ecosystem-based design and an emotional journey that will resonate deeply with not just pet owners, but anyone who may have lost someone before. I simply cannot wait for when a release date is finally in place for the game to arrive on PC.
