Emotions are at the heart of almost everything we do. Arguably, it’s the most critical component that allows video game storytelling to immerse and influence the player, where close connections can elevate even the most used tropes to something more intense and keenly felt. And to that end, Observer Interactive and Team17‘s Good Boy is going to have a wave of emotions crash onto players, especially pet owners.
Designed as an ecosystem-driven Metroidvania (more on that later), the game casts players as a LAIKA Space Rover. With a human explorer in tow, it is up to you to explore the flora and fauna, meet and help other rovers, and forge a bond that sees you through to understanding the mysterious Anomaly that started everything.
It is no coincidence that the team chose to name the playable character after one of the first animals to orbit the Earth, but there is more meaning to it than having man’s best friend along for an adventure out amongst the planets.
“There’s a thing called the LAIKA program. And the idea is that when a dog reaches the end of its natural life, you can take its consciousness and put it into a Mars rover, and then it gets to live on forever,” shared level and narrative director Matt Houghton. “And there’s inherent sadness, there’s an understanding that all of these characters in this game are dogs that have passed on, but then are now living an incredible second life in space.”
It is this trade-off between losing a loved one but then also knowing that they have a second lease of life that tugs at the heartstrings; the emotional concept is something the team emphasises heavily as to why Good Boy works on so many levels. If you have met any or are a pet owner yourself, like many of the developers, you already know what’s at stake.
The fact is that it is abundantly clear just how much everyone cares about the project, and not necessarily about the commercial aspect of it all. Having their pets as characters in the game, full of personality and quirks alike, and adding visual and gameplay touches to bring them to life means there is a poignant permanency that reality cannot offer. As Houghton pointed out, the sheer number of requests to have a developer’s pet added to the mix meant a chord had clearly been struck.
The titular Good Boy has been designed as a blank slate, literally missing its memory banks, so that it makes sense to start from scratch. Players can then personify it as their companion from everyday life through customisation and the sense of progress in the game. This foundation also enables the game to explore a broader range of themes and concepts. For design director Matty McGrory, addressing loss and anxiety, among other themes, adds depth to the game, enriching the upcoming journey in various ways while maintaining a sense of wholesomeness.
The cosiness and adorable nature of the game meant that, as much as the team love traditional Metroidvanias, exploration was always going to be the main attraction instead of combat. Instead of going after more potent weapons and armour, you are looking at finding new ways to traverse the world and unlock new ways of doing things. This hinges on the ecosystem of life found on the alien planet of Terra II.
“The way that the ecosystem-driven Metroidvania works is that all the blockers in our game can be unblocked via the creatures that are on the planet. And the whole idea behind it was that the planet functions in perfect harmony because of these weird creatures,” McGrory explained. “The ecosystem reacts with each other, so sometimes you can’t capture a creature without the use of another creature. So our creatures have some tangible relationships with each other.”
The plant revitalising Busy Bee or the use of a Firefly to tame a fire-fearing Webslinger are but just two examples of what awaits players in Good Boy when it comes to experimentation and making sense of the world. Mastering the management of these unique attributes then becomes a puzzle to solve, and the more you get to know the locals, the more information you’ll uncover.
Perhaps a particular bug only appears at night, or is much easier to find when it’s raining. Knowing how they interact with the planet and each other adds to the fun of discovery, a task that will be made easier with the in-game Fact-o-pedia. There are also cave systems and temples that challenge players with using only selected tools and creatures to overcome the obstacles ahead, further spicing things up. Add in rover technology that grants further capabilities, and the game takes a more familiar form as you become more adept at navigation.
“It creates a nice gameplay balance, where we use the creatures to overcome blockers within the world, but also have the choice to sell the creatures you capture and maybe don’t use for research points, which then allows you to buy those upgrades for the rover. So it creates these play styles of how you choose to play the game, whether you want to be an explorer or you want to work on making yourself an all-powerful rover traversing the planet,” added creative director and studio founder Kenan Wilsher.
All of this is delivered in an eye-catching visual direction. Environment artist Joe Kennett shared that the original idea was to have a “miniaturised, realistic world with a miniaturised toy cast of characters,” something he describes as putting your Happy Meal toys out in the garden. Over time, however, it evolved into something more stylised, but still maintaining that element of miniaturisation to engender a sense of mysterious curiosity.
“The camera, for example, is way off in the sky with a super, super extreme FOV on it. So you’re looking down at the character from high up with tilt-shift. You get the idea that Good Boy is somewhat small in the world, which helps them fit in. The pillars of the art are that it’s supposed to be a familiar but alien world. So it’s like a cosy space, you’re always supposed to feel safe,” said Kennett.
For a team of about 15 developers, seeing the game come to life has been truly a journey. The idea that only huge teams can make great games was quickly squashed, and the result is what McGrory hopes is a “really wholesome, sweet, amazing-looking game” made on their terms. More importantly, it will serve as an everlasting love letter to pets and the connections they share with people, particularly those who made the game.
“It’s like the sort of meta-narrative that we have of the game, that, you know, we have this programme where all these dogs are immortalised, but we’ve immortalised all our dogs by putting them into the game through the LAIKA programme. So we’ve kind of just done it for ourselves, really,” said Wilsher.
Such memories are precious, and with each of the rovers in the game having curated videos charting their actual lives being shared with the players as you progress, you can easily understand why it means so much to the folks at Observer Interactive, and very likely, any other pet owner. The team wouldn’t want it any other way, and that’s why Good Boy is a title that I am very much looking forward to, even if I am bawling my eyes out along the way.
Good Boy is set to release on PC sometime in 2025.
