Eight generations of dogs, raised on a diet of Doritos alone. The player behind the experiment wanted to breed long legs. Whether that worked is anyone’s guess, but the dogs came out orange.
The game is Wobbledogs, released on Steam four years ago by developer Animal Uprising, and it hasn’t found the audience it should have. The Steam listing describes it as “a 3D pet simulation where you raise your own hive of mutating dogs.” Plenty of people never noticed it.
Silly-looking dogs are the whole idea
The game is played for laughs as much as for simulation. The dogs are assembled from shapes that don’t match: stretched, boxy bodies and huge tails. Anyone who was a kid in the U.K. during the early 2000s may see a resemblance to the creatures on the children’s show Bamzooki.
Movement runs on loose, jiggly physics, and half the entertainment is just watching the pets get around. According to the game’s Steam page, “Two dogs with separate body structures will experience the world in different ways.”
Diet shapes the dog
Each dog also carries a simulated genetics system beneath the goofiness. The store page explains: “As they age, they periodically enter a pupal state and physically mutate. The foods they eat fill their guts with different flora… [which] influence the dogs’ mutations, letting you craft and mold them to fit your own idea of canine (im)perfection!”
That’s where the orange dogs came from. “I fed a family only Doritos for like eight generations to try to give them long legs and they ended up incredibly orange,” wrote one reviewer.
The game sets no objectives. Players build habitats, decorate them, and unlock more cosmetic decorations and objects over time. “Give your dogs a relaxing place to sleep, set up a maze, or even cultivate a garden,” the page suggests. You make your own fun here, so anyone who wants a quest log should play something else.
What happened to Pancake
It isn’t all cozy, though. The dogs get older, and eventually they die.
A dog called Pancake is the subject of one review: “Got my first dog Pancake. Played with him, fed him, loved him. Got some more dogs for Pancake. Pancake played with them. Was best friends with Randy. Watch Pancake grow older & change with the minutes. Always happy and playful. I loved Pancake.
“Proceeds to die right in front of me. My other 4 dogs then come over & eat his dead body right in front of me, all while I’m still in shock that dogs can die in this game.”
That hasn’t put off most players. More than 12,000 Steam reviews give the game an Overwhelmingly Positive rating. “This game is absolutely amazing. I get struck with waves of happiness every time I play,” one reviewer wrote.
Buy it on sale
The current price is $19.99. Sales often cut that to as low as $4.99, so add it to your wishlist and pick it up at the lower price.
Goodbye, Pancake.