Cozy indie Metroidvania Good Boy has done something that no other game has managed before – it's made me cry, and it's not even out. I have a feeling that its actual release is going to be an emotional rollercoaster for us all.
Developed by a small team of around eight-to-10 people at indie studio Observer Interactive, the upcoming indie game Good Boy is described as an "ecosystem-driven Metroidvania" where you'll step into the shoes (or rather, wheels) of a space rover, exploring a mysterious planet while researching alien creatures, completing quests for fellow rovers, and bonding with your human companion. This alone sounds delightful, but it's the extra twist it's housing that genuinely made me sob.
The titular Good Boy rover isn't just a space rover. The cute little bots you meet in the game are actually housing the consciousness of dogs from Earth thanks to the "LAIKA Program" – which "gave old dogs a new lease on life by transferring their consciousness into LAIKA Rovers, allowing them to live on forever as brave space explorers!"
Every rover character you meet is one of these dogs, and each one is based on one of the devs' actual, real-life canine companions. From their personalities to their appearances, they've been purposely crafted to convey their likenesses.
What's more, completing their quests will unlock their past memories, allowing you to eventually uncover their "memory tapes," showing you actual footage of the real dogs and their lives on Earth. My heart.
While the origins of the Metroidvania centered around how people have a tendency to personify the real life Mars rovers like Curiosity and Perseverance, it eventually became bigger than this, creating what design director Matty McGrory describes to GamesRadar+ as "a love letter to dogs" and "companionship." More than that, it's an ode to "the fact that dogs can come at the perfect time in people's lives to really change them and really help them."
As you'd expect, the team has a massive personal connection to the game, and McGrory says "we're constantly wiping our eyes during team meetings and calls, which is good."
Putting their beloved real dogs in the game sounds wholly bittersweet, as Good Boy's narrative director and the CEO of Observer Interactive, Kenan Wilsher, notes that "there's like a sort of meta narrative" that the team's pets really have been immortalized, "so they kind of have joined the LAIKA Program themselves."
Wilsher says that seeing the individual devs' reactions to their dogs making it into the game has been a real highlight, too. "They just have a big beaming smile on their face every single time that they see their dog brought to life. That's just such a wonderful moment for a developer to be like, 'I really love working on this, and this has got such a personal part of me and my family into this game.' So that's probably been the best bit so far, is seeing it come to life and then seeing people's childlike joy when they see it."
Creating their dogs' memory tapes has been an emotional challenge, however. "It's a really weird bittersweet thing because it almost feels like we're making 'in memoriam' tapes for our own dogs whilst they're still with us," Wilsher explains. "So everyone gets really upset when we're making them. It's quite a strange cathartic experience to be working on a game and have that sort of emotion, but I think it really shines through in the game."
This isn't just a game for the existing dog lovers, however, as Observer has a greater dream.
"For those that have never owned a pet, we really want people to come away from it and think, 'Maybe I could go rescue a dog, maybe I could go to a shelter and meet my new best friend that'll change my life,'" Wilsher says. "And we're hoping that that does resonate with those people, as well as the dog owners."
Good Boy doesn't have a release date just yet, but it sounds like a real gem in the making. You can wishlist it on Steam right now, too.
In the meantime, be sure to check out our roundup of the best Metroidvania games you can play right now, as well as our picks for the best PC games.
