"I started with a box and some leg sticks."

May 12, 2016 10:13 AM

ActualDog is making a game about rectangular pink dogs. This is the development log, which is six pages of amazing gifs of rectangular pink dogs doing rectangular pink dog stuff.
posted by cortex (20 comments total)

A couple additional notes as I surface for air after deep diving on this this morning:

- The devlog paginates with the 1,2,3,4,5,6 links; the adjacent "previous" and "next" nav goes to other threads entirely.
- Hat tip to Rock Paper Shotgun for the link.
- The actual discussion by ActualDog of the work they're doing and why is really interesting too, aside from just the gifs.
- But the gifs are seriously amazing.
posted by cortex at 10:16 AM on May 12, 2016 [1 favorite]

You got QWOP in my Boston Dynamics!
No, you got Boston Dynamics in my QWOP!
posted by zamboni at 10:18 AM on May 12, 2016 [15 favorites]

My first pass at this devolved into dancing, which is pretty standard for my failures at this point.

same
posted by Rock Steady at 10:46 AM on May 12, 2016 [7 favorites]

Pink dog log blog, ActualDogly.
posted by ardgedee at 10:48 AM on May 12, 2016 [4 favorites]

I kind of wish he'd retain some of the teach-your-dog-to-walk aspect for the real game.
posted by JHarris at 10:58 AM on May 12, 2016 [1 favorite]

I guess what I've learned is that even if something is a pink block with freaky legs and a scarecrow face, if you call it a "dog" I'll still feel sad when it gets knocked over.
posted by babelfish at 10:59 AM on May 12, 2016 [14 favorites]

The part where the white cubes come flying out of nowhere and knock the poor things over is hilarious. I am a bad person.

I'm really enjoying this. I've just come off a 72-hour marathon of revising and editing a short book, and the creative process is not all that different, with all its errors and mis-steps and re-starts. I even made a mistake that led to inadvertent dancing once.
posted by not that girl at 11:00 AM on May 12, 2016

I'm afraid a lot of the charm of this comes from the blocky visuals, making the dogs look more realistic like VoxelDog will just highlight how janky it all really is.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 11:02 AM on May 12, 2016

Mr.Encyclopedia: "I'm afraid a lot of the charm of this comes from the blocky visuals, making the dogs look more realistic like VoxelDog will just highlight how janky it all really is."

I love the jank. Don't get rid of the jank.
posted by Rock Steady at 11:09 AM on May 12, 2016 [2 favorites]

Looks like something that Cryptic Sea would make.
posted by anthill at 11:33 AM on May 12, 2016

I love this a lot but would like to give a heads-up to my fellow crouton-petters: Those of us who are burdened by the "feelings" of inanimate objects may be unduly moved by some of these GIFs. Go rectangular pink doggies go!
posted by amnesia and magnets at 11:57 AM on May 12, 2016 [1 favorite]

If you can pet this freakish crouton, more power to you.
posted by Rock Steady at 12:29 PM on May 12, 2016 [2 favorites]

That belongs in a Residents video.
posted by ardgedee at 12:38 PM on May 12, 2016 [1 favorite]

Some of these gifs are best viewed with Pink Elephants on Parade played in the background.
posted by sparklemotion at 12:43 PM on May 12, 2016

Oh man, my heart hurt when the mean dev tossed the blocks at the dogs.

(the little leg quiver!)
posted by kimberussell at 12:57 PM on May 12, 2016

I agree that calling the blocky thing a dog made me feel bad for it when it fell over, but I have to remind myself I felt bad for the crippled cockroach from a while back as well.

I'm just a softy, I guess.
posted by Mooski at 1:51 PM on May 12, 2016

OK, now that I've watched more, the block-flinging is getting to me. Like how I hate it when the guys from Boston Dynamics kick their robots to make them demonstrate recovering. I'm hoping the actual game doesn't involved me throwing things at my dogs.

Also, I hope the final dog model is more like the pink rectangles than a real dog. I find the pink rectangles so charming.
posted by not that girl at 2:00 PM on May 12, 2016

I can't tell whether this guy is really making a game because it all unfolds perfectly just as performance art/comedy.
posted by anazgnos at 2:50 PM on May 12, 2016

This is soooooo good. I don't even want to play I just want to read about it and watch gifs forever
posted by aubilenon at 8:16 PM on May 12, 2016

I love this, I love all of this, it wins 2016 for me, fuck yeah the end.
posted by rhythm and booze at 9:10 PM on May 12, 2016