Cherry Picked Games has never been a studio that rests on its laurels. Far Away’s success has been both extremely humbling and exciting. We’re ready to ride that momentum into the next game. The theme has been hinted in a couple interviews we’ve given, but we felt it’s time to start formally talking about it on the site. The next game Cherry Picked Game is “Hair of the Dog – Can I Pet Your Dog?”.
Hair of the Dog is about a group of people who visit a dog-friendly pub with the sole objective of petting the most dogs. They’ll have to maneuver through the space trying to appease the fickle hounds, while also being respectful bar patrons by purchasing drinks. Players will have to pay attention to one another to see what conditions must be met to pet each dog. They also must be aware of their drink levels and work to manipulate the wait staff into dealing out “shame tokens” to their empty-handed comPETitors.
Thematically, the game is inspired by the dog-friendly bars and breweries of Seattle. Jules often brings her dog, Ellie, out with her and strangers flock to the cute corgi. We find it entertaining that the limits of the human-to-human interaction is the sole question “Can I pet your dog?” By modeling each dog’s restlessness as a finite number of pets, we can make this canine fervor competitive.
Mechanically, Hair of the Dog is looking to be about positioning and hidden information. Each dog has conditions that must be met before they will let themselves be pet. These include things like being outdoors, holding the right toy, and getting away from crowds. When a dog is pet, the player gets a card matching that dog. These cards each have a different style of pet (back stroke, belly rub, etc.) and collecting a varied set gives players extra points. Players have a limited number of actions each round, so they can maximize their efforts by learning what it takes to pet each dog by watching their friends, instead of walking over to the owner and asking them directly. All the while, the waitstaff is walking around making sure the customers are paying customers. If they don’t have a drink in their hand, they’ll get a shame token, losing them points. However, drinks can be used to give players extra actions, so they may opt to down their drink to beat someone to a particular dog. We’re not looking for there to be much randomness in the game; it’s more focused on social observation and positional strategy.
Currently, we’re looking to make a faster game that supports a larger player count. We want Hair of the Dog to clock in under an hour. We also want it to be viable for groups of 8 players. Hopefully, the design will allow 2 players to play, but we’re still trying to figure out the minimum count. We want the game to be just as fun for any group.
That’s where we’re at for Hair of the Dog. Over the next couple months, we’ll be releasing more art, design blogs, and a print-and-play prototype. While we don’t want to commit to a release schedule yet, we are hoping to start the crowdfunding process soon after the new year.
Cherry Picked Games is always looking to explore new genres, mechanics, and themes, which should be clear given our eclectic catalog. We think Hair of the Dog will add to that catalog nicely, giving players a lighter-weight, higher-player count board game than Far Away. Please share your thoughts with us as we develop the game, or just send dog pictures our way. Either works.
--Alex