"Roger, if that game isn't finished by next week, you're fired! FIRED!"
—Gary, "Crunch"
Game Dogs is a series created by Russ Pitts (who runs The Escapist, responsible for hosting Zero Punctuation), which centers around... canine video game programmers. Currently in its second season. Season one primarily consisted of main cast Chet, Bethany and Roger in their ventures in developing the game Satan's Retrievers for the business software company Electro Software, whilst their boss Gary attempts to find legitimate reasons to fire them. The second season has something to do with the Russians and a doggy equivalent of the Vietnam war.
Supposedly takes place in or around 80's or early 90's; however, recent developments seem to lean it a bit more towards Present-Day Past, what with the references to things like E3, Justin Bieber and the Blackberry smartphone.
Tropes:
- Alpha Bitch: Jennifer, despite the office setting.
- Barefoot Cartoon Animal: Bethany and Bob. It gets outright surreal in episode 8 when Jennifer mentions Bethany's shoes, when we just saw her come through the door barefoot. And this isn't even the punchline.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Chet, according to his bio. Of course, the "brilliant" part never really comes into play.
- Broken Record: In season one, Gary tended to repeat the last few words he said in any given sentence at random. Every. Single. Episode.
- Characterization Marches On: Bob in season 1 is a soft-spoken employee whose dialogue is 99% comprised of listing off rules and regulations. Bob in season 2 is a shellshocked Vietnam veteran constantly trying to kill his new Russian employers and screaming Wolverines at random.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Mr. Yee, due to a headshot.
- Cluster F-Bomb: Steve delivers one, over the phone, to a game magazine that gave Satan's Retrievers a bad review in episode 17.
- Darker and Edgier: Season 1 is surprisingly tame, but season 2...
- Downer Ending: The final episode has Beth being killed and Roger committing suicide. Not a very positive note to end the series on...
- Dumb Blonde: Jennifer, full stop.
- Glorious Mother Russia: Ivan pretty much embodies every Soviet stereotype out there.
- Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Most of the cast, except for Bethany and Bob, who are Barefoot Cartoon Animals.
- Informed Flaw: Bethany is described in her bio as being prone to violent outbursts, but outside of a throwaway gag in an early episode, this never comes up.
- Kicked Upstairs:
- Gary, from the accounting software division to the video games division.
- It seems Roger came with him, as the character bio released before the show premiered mentioned that his record only had one citation on it, for a virus he included in the tax software that automatically invested the customer's tax rebate in stocks. Apparently everyone profited, and therefore decided not to press charges, which is the only reason he's not serving jail time now.
- Limited Animation: Everyone has only a few different arm/hand positions, a movable mouth and movable eyes.
- Mood Whiplash: Most of the episodes attempt to go for a more light hearted approach, sprinkling just a bit of dark humor every now and again. The Hand of Fate result episode... well... let's just say it was so dark that the Escapist forums erupted with rage, even those who wanted the characters in the show to die.
- Overly Long Gag:
- Gary's repetition of words. He seems to have lightened up in season two, however.
- Mr. Yee sniffing a transvestite's butt at E3. Literally half the cartoon is comprised of sniffing noises and close ups of Roger and the "booth babe's" awkward expressions.
- Put on a Bus: Mr. Yee decides to go on a rocket trip to the moon at the start of season 2, after selling the company to the Russians.
- Refuge in Audacity: Mr. Yee's headshot wound, caused by Bob's twitchy finger in "The War".Mr. Yee: This is damn inconvenient!
- Tonight, Someone Dies:
- The "Hand of Fate" promotion
, whereby the Escapist community gets to put one of the dogs to sleep. - Put to sleep? No, what occurs is definitely not so nice. Also, the results of the contest and the actual death are very different.
- The "Hand of Fate" promotion
- Unsettling Gender-Reveal: Kind of a subversion; while the booth babe is a full-fledged Bridget, Mr. Yee never figures it out.
