Pupperazzi's Adorable Dogs Will Follow You Until You Love Them

ign.com:

If you're feeling bummed out at the general state of the world going into 2022 and need a pick-me-up, here's an idea for you: how about taking a bunch of photos of cute dogs?

Specifically, the dogs in Pupperazzi, the latest game from indie studio Sundae Month. It is for the most part, per lead developer Isobel Shasha, what it says on the tin. "It's a game where you're taking pictures of dogs, and I think people might really connect with that."

Popping into Pupperazzi myself the other day, I find that Shasha is exactly right. I emerge in front of a beach shack where a chill pup named Sea Dog instructs me on how to use my camera and demands a photo of himself, before unleashing me on a dog-covered beach to take photos to my heart's content. There's a pile of dogs, big and small in all different colors, chasing one another around the beach and, once I pet them, happily following after me, too. I can throw a stick or (goofily) a banana for them to run after, or try to line up a nice shot of a happy dog sitting in front of the lighthouse at the end of the beach, framed by the ocean. And then I upload my photos to "Dog Net," an in-game social network where I receive feedback on my numerous photos until my audience gets annoyed at me for spamming them with cute dog pictures (how dare!) and stops rating them temporarily.

Shasha has been working at Sundae Month since the studio started eight years ago, when its founders met in Vermont at Champlain College. The team, which currently consists of between ten and 11 folks working on Pupperazzi, has an eclectic portfolio including a side-scrolling comedy-adventure game called Dad Quest where you use your indestructible child as a weapon, and the anti-adventure game Diaries of a Spaceport