''Howling Dogs'' is a

Twine Twine is a strong thread, light string or cord composed of two or more thinner strands twisted, and then twisted together ( plied). The strands are plied in the opposite direction to that of their twist, which adds torsional strength to the co ...

game and piece of interactive fiction created by Porpentine in 2012. The game is text-based and includes occasional abstract pixel art. In 2017, the game was included in the

Whitney Biennial The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, United States. The event began as an annual exhibition ...

Gameplay

''Howling Dogs'' opens with a quote from ''

The Day He Himself Shall Wipe My Tears Away is a novella by the Japanese author Kenzaburō Ōe, first published in Japanese in 1972. It has been translated into English by John Nathan and was published in 1977 together with '' Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness'', '' Prize Stock'' and '' A ...

'' by Kenzaburo Oe and starts off in a metal room. The game makes the user repeat basic actions, such as eating, drinking, sleeping and bathing, in a repetitive cycle. As the setting deteriorates over the course of the game, the tasks become harder to perform. The user can escape their surroundings momentarily by putting on a virtual reality visor, which becomes accessible after they perform some of their basic tasks. The virtual reality allows users to escape their cell-like surroundings, and displays a bizarre alternative world and imagery, before ending and bringing the user back to the same room. The game closes with a quote from theologian John Hull. The game's visuals consist of a black background with white text and blue hyperlinks, with occasional pixelated images shown when accessing the virtual reality visor.

Development and reception

The game was written within a week, after Porpentine began hormone therapy treatment. She wrote the game while living in her friend's

barn A barn is an agricultural building usually on farms and used for various purposes. In North America, a barn refers to structures that house livestock, including cattle and horses, as well as equipment and fodder, and often grain.Alle ...

. She has stated the game evokes a feeling of someone not being able to take care of themself when they are broke and in a bad living situation. While speaking about the game to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', she has compared dealing with trauma as similar to being in a dark room. Writing for

Gamasutra ''Game Developer'', known as ''Gamasutra'' until 2021, is a website founded in 1997 that focuses on aspects of video game development. It is owned and operated by Informa and acts as the online sister publication to the print magazine '' Gam ...

Leigh Alexander Lieutenant-Colonel Leigh Arbuthnot Alexander (4 July 1898 – 28 April 1943) was a British Army officer and cricketer. Early life Alexander was the son of Major William Alexander and Ethel Rubina Arbuthnot and brother of Gilbert Alexander. ...

called the game an "abstract, often surreal experience centralized on the concept of confinement". According to Mallika Rao of ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, th ...

'', ''Howling Dogs'' "is a commentary on trauma" and "isn’t so much a video game as a genre-mash, redolent of choose-your-own-adventure books, an unwritten Black Mirror plot, a poem, a depressive spiral, a manic flight." In 2012, ''Howling Dogs'' won two

XYZZY Awards The XYZZY Awards are the annual awards given to works of interactive fiction, serving a similar role to the Academy Awards for film. The awards were inaugurated in 1997 by Eileen Mullin, the editor of ''XYZZYnews''. Any game released during the year ...

for Best Writing and Best Story. That year, it was also nominated for the categories of Best Game, Best Setting, and Best Use of Innovation. At the

Independent Games Festival The Independent Games Festival (IGF) is an annual festival at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), the largest annual gathering of the independent video game industry. Originally founded in 1998 to promote independent video game developers, ...

in 2013, game designer Richard Hofmeier used his booth for the game ''

Cart Life ''Cart Life'' is a simulation video game developed by Richard Hofmeier using Adventure Game Studio for Microsoft Windows released in 2010. The game was added to Steam in March 2013 but later removed when Hofmeier released the full source code for f ...

'', which won that year's

Grand Prize A prize is an award to be given to a person or a group of people (such as sporting teams and organizations) to recognize and reward their actions and achievements.

, to instead display Porptentine's ''Howling Dogs''. He said he wanted to give greater exposure to Porpentine's game, at one point stating "It's really dear to me, this game... it's fucked with my guts in a way that nothing else has".

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite web , last1=Hudson , first1=Laura , title=Twine, the Video-Game Technology for All , url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/23/magazine/twine-the-video-game-technology-for-all.html , website=The New York Times , accessdate=15 August 2020 , date=19 November 2014 {{cite web , last1=Rao , first1=Mallika , title=What Makes Art "American" in 2017? , url=https://www.villagevoice.com/2017/03/15/what-makes-art-american-in-2017/ , website=The Village Voice , access-date=7 February 2021 , date=15 March 2017 {{cite web , last1=Alexander , first1=Leigh , title=IGF winner Hofmeier pays it forward for Porpentine's Howling Dogs , url=https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/189558/IGF_winner_Hofmeier_pays_it_forward_for_Porpentines_Howling_Dogs.php , website=www.gamasutra.com , access-date=7 February 2021 , date=29 March 2013 {{cite book , last1=Pederson , first1=Claudia Costa , title=Gaming Utopia: Ludic Worlds in Art, Design, and Media , date=6 April 2021 , publisher=Indiana University Press , isbn=978-0-253-05452-4 , url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Gaming_Utopia/NSgPEAAAQBAJ , access-date=4 September 2021 {{cite web , title=Howling Dogs , url=https://artbase.rhizome.org/wiki/Q4691 , website=Rhizome Artbase , access-date=3 September 2021 {{cite web , last1=Robertson , first1=Adi , title=Text Adventures: how Twine remade gaming , url=https://www.theverge.com/22321816/twine-games-history-legacy-art , website=The Verge , access-date=3 September 2021 , date=10 March 2021 {{cite web , title=XYZZY Awards Historical Results - Winners , url=http://xyzzyawards.org/awards/historical.php?year=2012&round=2 , website=xyzzyawards.org , access-date=15 June 2021 {{cite web , title=XYZZY Awards Historical Results - Finalists , url=http://xyzzyawards.org/awards/historical.php?year=2012&round=1 , website=xyzzyawards.org , access-date=15 June 2021 {{cite web , title=IGF grand prize winner gives his booth away to 'Howling Dogs' , url=https://www.engadget.com/2013-03-28-igf-grand-prize-winner-gives-his-booth-away-to-howling-dogs.html , website=Engadget , date=March 28, 2013 , access-date=3 September 2021 2012 video games 2010s interactive fiction Twine games Video games about virtual reality Video games developed in the United States