After a few games of deckbuilding roguelike Dogpile, my goal is crystal clear: I want – nay, need – to make the biggest canine possible. With a yard laid out before me, cards showing different cartoon doggos of varying sizes are drawn from my deck. Dragging a card down plucks the pooch out of the card, and I can send them floating down to the bottom of the yard — Tetris-style. When two of the same dogs touch, they merge to become a larger breed, earning me points in the form of bones in the process.
With different point milestones to try to achieve in order to visit the dog wash and get upgrades for the next subsequent round, failing to earn enough will put me in the doghouse, – where I'll be forced to choose some bad traits to bestow upon my mounting pile of pups. Any time I succeed at merging my four-legged friends and watch as they transform before my eyes, I'm immediately hit with serotonin. From two tiny chihuahuas that combine to become a Bichon Frisee-like puffball, to eventually merging two large greyhounds, I audibly gasp with joy when a rotund old English sheep dog takes up a big portion of my yard.
