Sometimes when I'm sad, I think about dogs I've pet: the dog that came wagging over to me in the bodega one time, the lady who thanked me for falling to my knees to heap love on her pitbull at an intersection 10 years ago. I very much want a dog, but my landlord has been evasive about giving me the official go-ahead, so I take my dogs where I can get them. The demo for upcoming Steam game Golden Retriever Simple Life isn't quite a substitute for having a dog of my own, but it's something.
Golden Retriever is an FMV game by Rablo Games and stars developer Pablo Coma's real-life dog, three-year-old Pichu. Each in-game day you're presented with choices about what to do with Pichu: take him on a walk, groom him, play with him, or bring him on a trip to the store. Your choices affect Pichu's stats, qualities like obedience, happiness, affection, and sociability; leveling them up unlocks new things to do together.
There's lots to do in a day and only so much time, so there are some choices to make. You can decide between playing in the backyard or exploring the neighborhood, whether to brush Pichu's back or belly, and play a basic fetch minigame where you can throw a ball for him or pretend to throw it to fake him out. There's nothing dramatic or upsetting in the demo, beyond the fact that you can choose to squeeze in some overtime at work instead of playing with him, which I did out of curiosity and then felt terrible about.
Yay/boo (Rablo Games/Aftermath)
Most of the game is context-appropriate video of Pichu, which means most of the game is watching a video of a dog. You also on occasion meet other dogs, which means you get to watch video of several dogs, and who you've met is recorded in your "nosebook." You also earn stickers that you place in an album, which are extra pictures of Pichu you get to look at.
Beyond the whole idea being utterly charming, I love the intimacy of the game starring the developer's actual dog. I watch a lot of dog videos on social media, but they're often staged adventures or curated notable moments, making their creators' dogs feel special in a way that can give an inaccurate picture of what it's like to own a dog. Here, you experience a version of the day-to-day realities of having a regular dog in your life; most of the video is just mundane moments of a dog doing dog stuff. The routine of it all is wonderfully calming, the kind of moments social media often overlooks.
Mostly it's inspired me to continue haranguing my landlord to just type "yes" into a text message I can show an adoption place to prove they're allowed to give me a dog, the main thing standing between me and the person God has created me to be, which is a person with a dog. You can check out the Golden Retriever demo for yourself on Steam, and the game has a planned release date of February 2027.
