Pupperazzi: The Dog Photography Game

You can say a lot about a game’s art direction just by looking at its fonts. From the very first moment, Pupperazzi’s stock, out-of-place typography and visually sterile environments struck me as lazy and lacking any real direction or meaning. After finishing it, I can say I was right - it is charming on the surface, but ultimately very shallow and, at times, genuinely unpleasant. First of all, for a game centered around photography, it is crucial that it actually LOOKS good. Pupperazzi consists of several stages with varied settings, from lighthouse beaches to nighttime cityscapes. I liked the dogs, and the environments themselves are serviceable, but the moment you pay attention to the UI - menus, quest design, navigation, or the animation, everything starts to fall apart. Dogs skate without any change in posture, hover midair in near t-poses, or awkwardly ride bikes for no clear reason. The entire presentation feels unpolished. I do not have extensive experience with games in this genre, but Umurangi Generation, despite aiming for a completely different tone, delivers a far more cohesive experience. Here, the inconsistency constantly broke immersion, and for most of my playtime, I felt more irritated than engaged. The map (as in, where you choose a location to visit), unfortunately, might be one of the worst I have ever seen. Second, the gameplay. The quest system turns something as inherently creative as photography into a rigid checklist. That alone undermines the core appeal. Perhaps my frustration is amplified by how poorly the objectives are presented, but I often did not even bother reading them; there is almost no incentive to engage with them. Filters and lenses are locked behind a currency earned through these tasks, yet aside from one interesting “pixel” filter, nothing stood out for me. I quickly reverted to taking random photos of equally random, often awkwardly animated dogs just to fill out the Puppypedia. The abundance of cosmetic accessories also feels excessive and unfocused: multiple near-identical items (like slightly different party hats) add volume without adding value. Overall, this might work if you simply enjoy the presence of dogs, but even then, Pupperazzi feels like a poorly executed photography sandbox that prioritizes quantity of “dog content” over thoughtfully designed experience.

---{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☐ Beautiful ☐ Good ☑ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☐ Very good ☐ Good ☑ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't ---{ Audio }--- ☐ Eargasm ☑ Very good ☐ Good ☐ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☐ I'm now deaf ---{ Audience }--- ☑ Kids ☑ Teens ☑ Adults ☑ Grandma ---{ PC Requirements }--- ☐ Check if you can run paint ☑ Potato ☐ Decent ☐ Fast ☐ Rich boi ☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer ---{ Game Size }--- ☐ Floppy Disk ☑ Old Fashioned ☐ Workable ☐ Big ☐ Will eat 15% of your 1TB hard drive ☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it ☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data ---{ Difficulty }--- ☐ Just press 'W' ☑ Easy ☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master ☐ Significant brain usage ☐ Difficult ☐ Dark Souls ---{ Grind }--- ☑ Nothing to grind ☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks ☐ Isn't necessary to progress ☐ Average grind level ☐ Too much grind ☐ You'll need a second life for grinding ---{ Story }--- ☑ No Story ☐ Some lore ☐ Average ☐ Good ☐ Lovely ☐ It'll replace your life ---{ Game Time }--- ☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee ☑ Short ☐ Average ☐ Long ☐ To infinity and beyond ---{ Price }--- ☐ It's free! ☐ Worth the price ☐ If it's on sale ☐ If u have some spare money left ☐ Not recommended ☑ You could also just burn your money ---{ Bugs }--- ☐ Never heard of ☑ Minor bugs ☐ Can get annoying ☐ ARK: Survival Evolved ☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs ---{ ? / 10 }--- ☐ 1 ☐ 2 ☐ 3 ☐ 4 ☐ 5 ☑ 6 ☐ 7 ☐ 8 ☐ 9 ☐ 10 ---{ Author }--- ☑ https://vojtastruhar.github.io/steam-review-template

I got this bundled with another dog game and while I wasn't as hyped to have this as much as the other one, all I can say is woof, woof! Naw I got more to say about it. :p It's very cute but it's only fluff. There's no real story, only objectives which CAN be a story but it's more that people, er, dogs, er, mostly, have a personality type and their tasks circle that very heavily. There is minor character growth as your dad moves from one of those BACK IN MY DAY types to supportive of new generational artistic expression but there's not much of that from any of the other characters. Not a big deal though. I think perhaps this game is geared toward a younger demographic which makes it a great entry level title into the photo taking genre of video games. If we photo-frame it that way (ha), cute dogs, fun environments with one being the frikken moon (low gravity was fun I must admit), and the ability to pet and dress them up and otherwise interact with them outside of Pupperpedia objectives, it's got all the markers to keep kiddos engaged as they get a gentle lesson in basic photography. Not saying only kids can enjoy it either. I mean, who else but adults would appreciate the Tony Bark [Hawk] skatedogger joke? :p All in all, it's a very sweet title that will have some endeared by it and leave others wanting more depth especially for the price point. I'm personally somewhere in the middle. I enjoyed my time well enough but would have liked a bit more story to go along with it. Something something a picture is worth a 1000 words something something. :p Edit: Typo correction. Yay...

Contains dogs

ughhhgh i love cute little chill games like this and i love dogs sooo YEAH i think its good !!1!!

Cute and relaxing with fun achievements and DOGS you can DRESS UP (very talented)

Lots of dogs and photo-taking... what could be more fun? Gameplay: Simple, spend hours visiting locations where many dogs congregate and partake in various activities, making sure to take lots of pictures of them. You'll be asked to fulfill a variety of different quests with your camera (actually, YOU are the camera...on legs... which you'll learn when you take your first selfie, or when you see your shadow). You'll also want to fill each page of the Puppypedia, which depicts different breeds, activities, emotions, and doggy apparel. All achievements are quite doable, so don't sweat it. Some emotions and activities require a little intervention, but you'll get some tips as you play the game (especially if you read descriptions of the items in the vending machines scattered throughout each map). You'll also be able to change a dog's apparel after you achieve 55 followers on dogNET. To do this, make sure to fulfill the quests at the various locations (click on those "mail" envelopes you see floating around) and post lots of pictures to dogNET. NOTE: "Recycle" (delete) your photos often so that you never run out of film. You only have 15 shots in your camera, but don't worry, all the photos you take required for achievements are automatically recorded, and the photos saved to the doggy Internet and/or to your "favorites" are not affected when you "recycle" those taken photos which updates the available photos in your camera. I only mention that because I didn't realize this at first, as it's not explained in the game. So, for about 45 minutes during the first level, I kept running out of film, thinking I had to find or earn more "Bonks" (dog money) to purchase more film from the vending machines. However, you do have to earn Bonks in order to keep upgrading your camera with specialty film and lenses, some of which are required to complete various quests. These specialty items become available in the vending machines as you progress through the game. I loved this game, and wish there were a lot more like it. Buy Pupperazzi and have fun! I absolutely recommend it, especially for those who love dogs and love taking pictures.