Loot Hound™

You play as a seemingly shut-in guy who instead of having a job and a social life like a regular functioning adult, spends all days having his army of dogs dig up the local parks in a search for random trash, which he then proudly displays in a dedicated room in his home.
He's literally me.

If you like playing a game about walking dogs and having them dig up treasure, this is the game for you! Just don't get caught by the park ranger. Geese and joggers can tattle on you or give your position away. Squirrels and joggers also distract your puppy from his treasure hunt. You have 3 dogs, and only the smallest can navigate into some tight areas (but at least the little guy should be pretty well hidden while in there). There are several parks to visit, with varying amounts of "treasure". Many of these treasure items would be trash if you actually found them. But this guy is weird: he collects bottlecaps and other odd stuff.

Had this in my library forever, just got around to playing this utterly charming game. Hunting for stuff and upgrading dogstats is a really nice way to spend some time, only wish there was more.
Playing on deck, plays fine so far.

We have a family dog and this is more relaxing than taking it for a walk. Fun little game, surprisingly good audio and if you're into achievements and collections then it seems like there's plenty here.

This is a wonderful little casual scavenger hunt that for some may not offer enough in the way of interesting gameplay, but for me, the wonderful, crazy, whimsical, hilarious items you can dig up (and their descriptions and the voice overs!) absolutely made the game.

I found the different parks interesting enough too (plenty of funny details!), and the dogs are so cute!

A fun, easy, casual scavenger hunt with dogs. You upgrade your dog's abilities by digging up different loot and gaining points, also unlocking new parks. The goal is to complete all the collections of different types of loot. It's relaxing and low-stress. The park patrols chase you occasionally but if you get caught you can just restart the level. The dogs are cute and parks are varied with their own themes. Each piece of loot has its own description, and reading them as you go or after finding them all adds some story and humor. Can be played when half asleep, as you can't really go wrong. About 10 hours of content.

video review: https://youtu.be/DLtbQTFs0uU

Loot Hound is a small casual game where you get dogs, take said dogs for a walk one at a time and try to dig up all the goodies in a part while taking your dogs for a walk, while also avoiding possible park patrols.

The good:

- It's a relaxing and simple game if you want to give your brain a bit of a rest.

- Item names and descriptions have a good amount of humour in them

- When you get all the items from a map, it turns it into a scavenger hunt map, which means that you can continue playing said map with hidden items once again.

The bad:

- can be bit choppy at times. I have hit some lag when my dog digs. It's not game breaking by any amount, but you would expect no lag from a game so small.

- can be grindy if you're going after every single item, as some of them randomly appear in scavenger hunts and others require a dog leveled quite high to get.

- can be finished in a few hours if you just want to unlock all maps and get most of the items, but not all.

Overall: I've paid 2£ for this game and it kept me occupied and entertained for 2 hours. If you need a small casual game - go for it!

This game is well worth the asking price. It kept me entertained for hours and has lots of love put into it. A nice game to play when you want to just listen to music and take your mind off things.

Simple life within a passive nature reduces the joy of being alive? This game is full of searching wilderness and enjoying the loneliness with your selected pet around city outskirts. Do not think its cartoonish style from top-down view is reason to abandon a game in 2019+. The flawless ambient sounds and other effects make a relaxing combination for nerves. It is about having fun and gaining a smile; not about beating some AI nor unlocking inane amount of achievements. Better yet, it is long enough to forget about replayability value.

Loot Hound is an extremely fun exploration puzzle game. It has very nice graphics, good sounds, controls great and an interesting announcer, lol. There is plenty of loot to be found and you have three different dogs to help you. Each dog has their own unique special talent that you must utilize in order to complete each level and find all the loot. Each dog earns points that you can use to improve their stats. I really enjoyed treasure hunting with Marley, Wifi and Mr. Anderson! Be careful of the guards! I highly recommened this awesome little game!

Poor optimization leads to massive lag spikes when "a lot" is happening on screen (rain or leaves), which really spoils the experience. However, the worst flaw of this game is its reliance on grinding the same areas over and over, with a high failure rate if you have not min-maxed your stats correctly from the beginning (which all new players will not know to do).

Two hours in, and the game works like this: You have three dogs; one that's good at digging (and the only one who digs in rock), one that's good at detecting (and the only one that fits in small gaps), and one that's... I don't know, yet, but seems fine at everything (and the only one who can scare away stubborn animals). You're bound to dump all your points (XP) into your first dog, since you don't know any better, instead of focusing on digging for when the detection dog comes. The problem with not knowing that dogs are specialised is that you end up being too weak to make any progress later on - the digging dog can't find anything, the finding dog gets distracted, and the third dog... I don't know, isn't specialised enough to be better than the others?

Unfortunately this rock-paper-scissors approach to gameplay means that you have to enter a map with the detection dog and begin to dig things up but fail, since he isn't good enough, then return with the digging dog to finish the job (since he can see the pre-dug spots), inherently leading the game to repetition. The problem the failure grind then comes from the stone-digging dog not being able to find stone-tresure (which the finder can't dig), the finding dog not being able to dig up treasure in small spaces, and whatever the third one's deal is. Not having the ever-increasing points to upgrade your dogs means grinding earlier levels, which themselves carry the risk of failing to dig something up, except this time the locations and loot aren't saved between attempts, so you can't switch dogs.

I'm not sure I'm at this point yet, but I fully beleive it is possible to upgrade your dogs in such a way as to make the game unprogressable. All I wanted was to walk around a dig things up, but this stat meta really spoils the experience for me, turning relaxing and easy into frustrating and boring.

Adorable dogs and a charming concept! Menu navigation is a little awkward, but the core gameplay isn't impacted by it in any way, and it's really clever. Definitely worth it.

A surprisingly fun game with simple mechanics - lots of fun for kids to watch and play as well, especially if they like dogs!

In this game you play as a guy who walks dogs. Each dog has different strengths so you'll need to use different dogs to get certain loot. Everytime you find something a British guy says the name of the thing you've dug up. There's no deep reason for all this digging and that's okay. Sometimes you just want to walk dogs in a park and dig up dog biscuits and magic books.

If you're searching for a cute little game for in between then you can't do much wrong with this one. It is a casual game that's perfect if you want to play something relaxing. Basically you're just walking around with your dog who sniffs out and digs up loot. While doing so you have to watch out for guards or distractions (your dog can't search for loot if he's distracted).

Cons:
- gets a bit grindy the longer you play it since you find less new loot
- in rare occasions the dog stops searching as soon as the exclamation mark appears above its head, for no apparent reason, at the same spot over and over again, can get a bit frustrating when it happens

Pros:
- cute, cartoony graphics
- great humor
- nice looking maps
- every dog has one special ability
- very relaxing

Neutral:
- only three dogs (I would have loved to get more)
- you can't rename the dogs

Loot Hound is a cute game.
I was also pretty surprised by the depth of the game. It's fairly simple, but still has you planing which areas to train a dog in, and encourages you to explore all parts of an area, and to collect every item. The items can be fun and silly. It's a fairly relaxing game, with a neat hook.

Great casual game with enough depth that has kept me coming back to find more loot.

Things I really enjoyed about the game:
-the top down perspective complements the gameplay well.
-the levels unlock linearly, however you are forced to revisit previously played areas in order to fully complete them once you level up your dogs.
-the scavenger mode for finished levels also adds to the replay value.
-the game has great presentation. Sound, humor, dog facial animations, toon-like graphics, you have emotional attachment to your dogs!
-I'm not even a dog person, cats rule! however read above comment :)
-dry British humor

Things I would like to see:
-cats
-even more dog abilities and obstacles.
-it's not always clear why your dog cannot dig something up, which is most likely intentional, but can keep you guessing after visiting an area after 3 or 4 upgrade attempts.

This is a really polished and entertaining collection game.

My mean landlord said I can't have a dog so this game more or less fills an empty dog-shaped hole in my life. The only difference is I don't actually have to scoop any poop. In your face, landlord!

When I get the chance I play this game with my 3 year old nephew. He gets a huge kick out of it. Maybe that's because he's not allowed to have a dog either.

Recommended!

Cute game but unfortunaly i'm just not their target demographic.

Loot Hound is a casual scavenger game (emphasize on casual) which revolves around a man who collects seemingly useless trinkets, no 'loot' here. You start of with Marley, a cute labrador who you take for walks in the park. You guide Marley by tugging on it's leash and let her explore by giving the leash slack. Simple mechanics which only require you to use WASD to move and Shift and Crtl to give slack or tug on the leash. The starting stages are incredibly easy with no obstacles except for a few distractions which don't let Marley focus on digging. You can easily circumvent this by upgrading stats to gain things like better concentration, better digging, better finding, more stamina, and better luck. Each loot hunt only lasts as long as your dog's stamina or until you get caught by the park guards. There is a total of 10 stages, each with their unique challenges and loot to find. By the third stage you will need Wifi, a small chihuahua who has the special ability of fitting into tight spaces to find loot. You will also unlock Mr.Anderson by stage 5 and he will bark at any animal that stands in your way of digging. There are a few secret areas within each level but the overall variety and scenery seems a tad boring with the most interesting moments finding weird trinkets or running from the few guards that roam the perimeter. At this point you maybe wondering why you're going through all the trouble of finding these useless trinkets...well i don't have a good answer for it other than to unlock more stages. When you find a trinket you gain three things: money to upgrade your dogs' stats, gets you closer to unlocking a new stage, and at your apartment you can read a little excerpt that alludes to the main character's background and story while pushing a few silly puns and jokes into the mix. Unfortunately the descriptions don't give you much information and there is no storyline outside of what you read from the trinkets. So what's the point of all this??? I'm not sure yet, i've unlocked 7 out of the 10 stages and all the game has done is made me enamored with the dogs and the cutesy art style. There is not much substance here. It's an interesting concept but it needs to have a bit more depth to keep me interested. The description on steam has a final point that says :"What's landed in the Buxton Wheat Field?" I'm hoping it's something interesting. Overall i think this game is targeted towards young children and feels more of a tablet game than a pc game. The screen resolution is even limited to 1920x1200 which is a shame since 1440p and higher res displays are becoming more common place but that's just a small thing to nitpick at.

Art: 8.5/10
Sound:6.5/10
Design: 7/10
Game play: 6/10
Story: 4/10
Replay value: 4/10
Charm: 9/10

Verdict: a passable casual title that leaves something to be desired when it comes to gameplay and story. Casual shouldn't mean watered down story and lackluster game play, you can make things interesting without loosing the appeal of an easy game. I would recommend this for younger audiences and those who just love dogs.

I will update this review in case the game becomes interesting.

This game is a delight to play, it is very charming and quite a bit of fun. There is lots of different loot to find and you are still rewarded for finding doubles. You upgrade your dogs skills to overcome different obstacles, for example squirrels will distract your dog, but you can avoid this by upgrading you dogs concentration skill. I really recommend this game for anyone looking for a simple anf fun exploration game.