Bangkok Story: A Stray Dog finds a home on Steam

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Demo also available for narrative adventure about a homeless man in Thailand

Many adventure games strand their protagonists far from home, forced to overcome all obstacles on the journey to get back. But happens when you HAVE no home to return to? This unusual – and unusually dark – premise is at the heart of Bangkok Story: A Stray Dog, the newly released narrative adventure in Thailand from indie studio Shameful Guys Development.

Bangkok Story follows the plight of Boon, a 50-year-old man who became homeless and lost touch with his family for many years, only to rediscover them a decade later. It's told through the framework of an interview with a blogger named Hiraya, who is touched by his ordeal and wants to share it with her followers. And so the game plays out through a series of flashbacks in which Boon experiences the "harsh life of a homeless man who tries to cope with his mental struggle of the cruelty of the world." Fortunately for Boon, a "chance encounter" with a very special acquaintance provides him with the hope he so desperately needs – namely Yaa, a stray dog that will help him "regain his sense of self once more." 

Controlled by keyboard or gamepad and presented via top-top pixel art, Bangkok Story is a fictional tale but "inspired by real-life events in Bangkok, Thailand, 2017." Players will guide Boon through both urban and rural areas of the country, performing small daily tasks to stay alive, including begging on the street. This is no small feat, as most supporting characters – depicted here as shadows – want nothing to do with a street beggar, though they're much more willing to part with a small offering when Boon has his adorable furry friend in tow. Throughout the game, players will revisit a lifetime of ordeals from Boon's "childhood to the present" while unraveling the circumstances that caused a normal, relatively successful family man to "lose everything," and then ultimately how a relationship between a man and dog came to grant the former a second chance. Along the way, as you explore "thought-provoking ways of how to live a proper life," you'll want to repay your canine companion with the appropriate affection, which you can do by unlocking an increasing number of gestures beginning with a simple head pat.  

The full version of Bangkok Story: A Stray Dog is now available on Steam for Windows and Mac, or you can try it out first through the playable demo that provides not one but two different places to sample from at different points of the protagonist's life. 

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