Dog In A Box
About
Dog In A Box is a virtual reality dog-building game where you step into the role of a travelling toy dog maker. Players are tasked with assembling custom toy dogs to order — often under slightly absurd constraints and in unexpectedly strange locations.
It’s playful, tactile, and deliberately a little weird, leaning into the joy of making things with your hands in VR.
Project Description
Dog In A Box began life during Solent MegaJam 2018, built around the theme “Man’s Best Friend”, where it placed second overall. Following the jam, the project was expanded and refined into a full commercial release on Steam.
The original prototype was developed by a two-person team. For the final Steam release, a third collaborator joined to help create the additional art assets needed for a polished consumer product. During development, the game was also showcased at Southampton Games Fest, you can hear about that experience on the blog.
Project Details
- Game Engine: Unity
- Platform: PC VR (Oculus Rift & SteamVR)
- Roles: Programming, Design, Development, Publishing
- Collaborators: Roxanne Marshall-Porter, Sebastian Long
Project Learnings
This project was a deep dive into the realities of shipping a game. It involved learning the Steamworks backend, handling builds and deployment, creating a store page, and navigating the Steam approval process.
It was also a valuable lesson in scaling a project from a small game jam prototype into a finished, consumer-ready release. As my first multi-platform VR project, it highlighted the practical differences between Oculus Rift and Vive, and what’s required to support both smoothly.