Goodbye, Doggy is a bittersweet, charming little experience that I’d recommend to anyone, whether young or old, inexperienced with games or a veteran. The title explains its premise simply; you play as the ghost of a family’s recently-passed Doggy, and you must help them get through their first night without you, before moving on to the afterlife.
The loss of a pet is a struggle that’s nearly universal, yet there’s very little media that discusses the topic - perhaps because it’s TOO difficult for us to see humans lose their animal companions. Goodbye, Doggy manages to approach its subject matter in a warm, poignant way; and in a gameplay format that anyone could figure out easily.
Once Doggy has awoken from his grave, you’ll need to lead him through a series of bite-sized puzzles scattered around his family’s house. These all relate to assisting the family with chores and self-care, so that they may relax and properly process their grief. None of them are very challenging, if at all, but they ARE very cute and satisfying to complete in the context of the story.
Text will appear at the top of the screen when you interact with the family, giving the player some direction as to what they need to do next. More text appears once you’ve completed a task in order to progress the story. And although the writing and plot are as simple as the puzzles, it’s just as lovable and fun. It’s emotionally impactful without being complicated, too, which works perfectly for a short, easy-to-digest game. There are even a few cute jokes to keep the mood lifted.
There’s not much lore or narrative to dissect outside of this story, but there doesn’t really need to be. The player understands immediately the dynamic between the furry protagonist and their humans. A tight, well-made experience is easily worth sacrificing a bit of worldbuilding for me. And just as well-made as the story is the art.
The house and its occupants are presented in a delightful pixel style on a single screen. Individual rooms are completely dark until you float into them, upon which they’ll light up (that is, until you leave again.) This keeps the focus on your direct surroundings, and prevents the environment from ever feeling overwhelming.
The rooms each have a unique monochrome palette, meaning they all use different shades of the same color for the floor, furniture, and walls. The human characters themselves I find particularly cute; they’re basically tall, yellow stick figures with surprisingly expressive faces. Seriously, the little faces are so great. And I’d be remiss not to mention that Doggy is, of course, an adorable protagonist.
As Doggy visits their old home for the final time, an upbeat electronic tune accompanies them. I really liked this track a lot; it reminded me of the more uplifting Omori tracks, and how that game uses all sorts of different sounds and instruments (electronic or not) to create its music. It’s really comforting to listen to something so pleasant while tackling such a sad topic; and it fits the rest of the atmosphere created by the excellent writing and art perfectly. Aside from that, there are a few unobtrusive sound effects, but not much else going on in terms of audio. Except, of course, the dedicated bark button. You can’t have an animal protagonist without the ability to make a funny and/or cute sound whenever you want.
Overall, everything about Goodbye, Doggy - from the presentation to the story - is just so lovely. This is a project that obviously had a lot of heart put into it, and one that I know I’ll think about a lot in the future. Although the death of a pet is a difficult topic to broach, Goodbye, Doggy’s inviting atmosphere always stays approachable and reassuring. This is a game that I truly believe anyone can enjoy and get value out of. I don’t doubt that when my own pets pass, I’ll revisit it for some small comfort.

Visuals: 4.5/5
Sound: 4/5
Story: 5/5
Gameplay: 4/5
Worldbuilding: 4/5
Overall Game Score: 4.5/5 [4.3/5]

I know this game is about a dog but, my cat passed away today, and after a lot of tears I was reminded of this game because of its premise (though initially I thought it was about a ghost cat). Since I knew it was short I decided to try it out, and yea I'm really sad. This was a wholesome, short but sweet game that captured the feeling of grief over losing a pet really well; had to take a walk after to cry some more lmao. But yea, I'm glad this game was made, it comforted me a bit even though it mostly just made me more sad. I miss you so much Onyx, I'll see you later