et ready for a super cute commute with Russian Subway

Dogs, a new pixel video game by Toronto’s Spooky Squid
Games. In this game, a player controls a subway dog that barks
at unsuspecting passersby in the station to get them to toss food.
The concept is based on actual stray dogs who ride the Russian
subway in search of food. The game is currently in development,
and presently running a Kickstarter campaign to raise $50,000.

“| describe the game as being 50 per cent the joy of catching
things in mid-air, and 50 per cent the joy of messing with a bunch
of characters in comedic ways,” said Miguel Sternberg, the
founder of Spooky Squid Games.

After a Twitter post brought his attention to the real Russian
subway dogs, Sternberg created a simple game about the dogs
in two and a half days for the Pirate Kart game development
competition. The original game had a squared-off design and
mostly involved the dogs running around and stealing food from
passersby without much interaction. As Sternberg developed the
commercial version, he tweaked the design and added additional
challenges, such as the subway bears.

“| took that original design and made it cuter and added the
ushanka hat to the dog to make it distinct,” he said. “As | was
taking it from the original game to a full game, | wanted something
that would be a threat that would last for a while and change the
pace of the game. A bear just felt like it would be funny in the right
Way.”

Spooky Squid Games decided to use actual Russian subway
stations as inspiration for the game's backgrounds. Spooky Squid
Games artist Alina Sechkin animated one of the backgrounds, an
elegant station with curved arches, stained glass windows, and
chandeliers.

ooking at all the different subway stations has been super fun.
lly beautiful,” she said. “| totally want to go to Russia

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ariety of donor rewards,
art prints of Russian

 

 

“One of the things we pride ourselves on is having very high
quality pixel art, so we're doing a lot of pixel art prints of the dogs
and stuff like that,” Sternberg said.

Sechkin is also contributing her skills to the Kickstarter campaign.
She drew the sample portrait for the custom pixel pet portrait: A
reward for backers who donate $250.

“Getting to draw dogs is so cute and fun,” she said.

There are also three opportunities to have your pet turned into a
playable pixel character in the game for a donation of $1,000. To
get an idea of what your pet might look like in pixels, Sternberg

has provided an example on the campaign page.

“The example that we have is a friend's pet, this very funny looking
Chihuahua. It was very fun to try to capture a specific animal
instead of a generic animal of whatever breed. I’m looking forward
to doing more,” he said.

The rewards also include a Russian Subway Dogs plush with an
ushanka hat for a donation of $100. To create the plush, the team
partnered with the apparel and accessory company WeLoveFine,
which worked with Spooky Squid Games to design merchandise
for their previous game They Bleed Pixels.

“| mentioned to WeLoveFine that we were doing a Kickstarter
campaign, and they suggested doing a plush and that seemed like
a perfect fit,” Sternberg said. “We worked very closely with them
back and forth to create a plush version of the dog that would
work well as a plush. You have to change the proportions and
everything when you're doing a plush compared to how you show
the dog in the game.”

The Kickstarter campaign also features Backer Missions, which are
goals that fans need to complete in order to unlock new characters
in Russian Subway Dogs. The missions include funding goals,
backer numbers, Twitter retweets, Tumblr notes, and creative fan-
made projects. For every four missions completed, a new characte
will be unlocked, as voted by the backers. There are 24 mi
for backers to complete.