A Bog Dogs Game

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Murdered and coffin-bound, you awake in the factory you once worked in. Haunted by your past, you make your way back to your home town chapel to be judged. Be wary on your journey, you're not alone in purgatory. Sneak past enemies and encounter lost souls. Their fate lies in your hands, but be mindful of this, your fate still lies in your own hands, too...

Our Gameplay Pillars

With many of our team members being from the American Southeast, we wanted to highlight region, which is under-represented in games. Specifically, we chose to take on a Southern Gothic aesthetic, focusing on themes of moral grayness, loss, and guilt. We incorporated themes from southern folklore, which can be seen in the environment and narrative elements of our game.

Our environments were constructed with the Southern Gothic theme as the focus. Every asset was constructed to reflect the desolate, eerie feeling we intended our players to experience. The three main locations, the coffin factory, the farm, and the swamp, were chosen because we could easily construct these environments to suit our themes.

Out of this Southern Gothic aesthetic, the idea of the coffin companion was born. The coffin visually communicates a sense of unease that is synonymous with purgatory. Narratively speaking, the coffin is a foil to the main character, representing his guilt, trauma, and fear.

Mechanically speaking, the coffin serves as the main tool used to solve puzzles, as well as the main character's only defense against the aggressive spirits in purgatory. The coffin will urge the main character to make cruel decisions. It is up to the player whether they give into the coffin's taunting.

We spent a long time experimenting with the morality system built into the game. At first, if the player refused to eat any innocent souls, the coffin would slow down the main character and increase the difficulty for stealth. However, after many rounds of playtesting, we found that these mechanics frustrated players rather than challenge them, as we had originally intended. Eventually, we landed on a mechanic that spawns more enemies if the player chooses to spare the innocent souls. This increases the difficulty of the game without making the game too frustrating.

An overarching narrative is present in the game, but may only be noticed by players who pay special attention to the environment and the innocent souls. We reward players who spare innocent souls with extra lore at the price of making the game harder. This choice reflects the core theme of our game: choosing between right and wrong.