Canine Cravings

Canine Cravings

A two player co-op/competitive game. Each player controls one head — both controlling the body.

The goal is to collect all the meat, and avoid the bomberman-style bombs. You can only win if both of you survive!

The bombs only kill you if the explosion touches your head.

Why a Two Headed Dog?

This game was made for the "A Game By Its Cover" game jam. This was the design we chose:

We really loved the ambiguous nature of this concept. Are the dogs playing together, or against one another? We wanted to stay faithful to this in our implementation and so we left it intentionally vague in the actual game.

You can only win if both players survive, but the game also keeps track of how much meat each player has individually collected. We've seen some players focusing purely on getting that "win" screen at the end, letting their partner collect much more meat. Others were very stubborn about getting their fair share. Still others thought that winning meant making sure the other dog got hit by the bombs!

It's really cool to see the game reflect the relationship of those playing it, and that's really what we wanted to explore. If you end up playing it with a friend/enemy/loved one, we'd love to hear how it went!

Ambiguous Design

The game mechanics are also inspired by this sort of implicit relationship between the players. Eating the meat is how you win, but at the same time it makes your body grow, which makes the game harder.

The bombs kill you, so you want to avoid them, but at the same time, if they hit your body instead of your head, they shrink you, making the game much easier.

Credits

Art & Animation by Sarah Sung. Programming & Design by Omar Shehata. Original cover art inspiration by Jukio Kallio.