Alderac Entertainment Group has announced a new game called Dog Lover that’s all about….well, loving dogs. The new game, designed by David Short, is all about taking care of their dogs. Over the course of the game, players will fetch cards, collect bones, and gather food for their dogs. Players will be tasked with rescuing dogs from the shelter, training them, and cherishing them. The player who takes care of their dog the best will win the game.
Dogs, food, and items are represented by cards that are set out in a 3×3 grid at the start of the game. During each turn, players use a “trick” to pull cards from the grid while attempting to build up various combos to score victory points. Tricks represent a pattern of cards that are pulled from the grid; however, only one card can be drawn from the row being guarded by a Guard Dog token. Each dog has a different victory point value along with different food requirements. In order to score points for having a dog, the dog must be fully fed by the end of the game. Players can also score bonus victory points by tucking cards under dogs, although the points only count if the dogs are fully fed. At the end of the game, any dog that hasn’t been fully feed costs the player two victory points, so Dog Lover seems to balance ambition with making sure that you can actually meet the conditions for your dogs. Players also get points for collecting sets of Favorite Things cards that they keep in their hands and can modify their dogs by giving them traits, which provide them with unique abilities.
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AEG is best known for publishing games like Love Letter, Space Bace, and Smash Up. It previously released a game called Cat Lady that used a similar game design and mechanic to Dog Lover.
Dog Lover can be played with 2-4 players and takes approximately 30 minutes to play. The game will be released in 2022 and will have a retail price of $29.99.
