Dear Reader:
Dog Duty developer details the inspirations and ideas behind the game
Dog Duty is a game where you control a 3-person anti squid-squad and fight in Real Time Squid combat. Might be a little different than you expected from the name! Wondering how the game came together? Publisher Soedesco held an interview with developer Leonardo Zimbres, who shared the following tidbits.
I wanted to create something authentic, something that I could do from my own personal experiences. I opted for the attempt of ‘telling’ my nostalgic memories through Dog Duty. These include playing old games such as General Chaos, Command & Conquer and Fallout Tactics. I also worked with fond memories I have of playing with action figures when I was younger.
I really liked working with these ideas because it was my vision to develop a simpler and straightforward action/ tactics game without over-complicated controls, like stance control, alert modes and so on. I think my memories lend themselves well for this. It was also a good experience to revisit my old self and to see how my nostalgic memories have led me to some great moments and also some not-so great moments, as I’ve faced difficult struggles as well.
Dog Duty was created from the conceptual idea of playing with action figures with your friends (and alone). In the game you fight enemies, help your friends and deal with decisions of supporting this friend here or hold the line there. That’s where the idea of commanding a squad in real-time started. There are some nostalgic titles that really spoke to us in this idea, games like General Chaos, Syndicate and Fallout Tactics.
On the other side, we were thinking about doing something closer to an ‘arcade game’. I mean, like shooter games such as the Old Mercs. And we wanted Dog Duty to include a layer of strategy map, something like Desert Strike where you drive around a big map and attack enemy positions, sabotaging the enemy forces as a whole.