Be a Good Boy in Dog Adventure Hounded
Video games that put players in control of man’s best friend are few and far between, but the good news for canine lovers is that Hounded has seen this niche and is set to fill it. It’s the debut title from Imprint Studios, a UK-based company founded by game dev veterans. A Kickstarter campaign for Hounded goes live on June 2, 2025.
Hounded lets players control Duke, a Border Collie, as he sets out on a mission to find his master. However, his master is the leader of the Rebellion in a flintlock fantasy world that just so happens to be in the grip of the tyrannical King James III, so finding him may not be that easy.
“This is a short cinematic teaser, created as part of our Kickstarter campaign that launches on June 2,” the developers said in a post on its official Hounded X (Twitter) page. “It shows Duke as his master’s scent has brought him to the edge of a village where propaganda echoes around its streets. What secrets will Duke unearth?”
Imprint Studios
As is fast becoming the norm in the video game industry, Imprint Studios is another game studio built by veterans from other companies. In this case, it was co-founded by Calvin Williams and Jack Walker; both worked as Lead Environment Artists and Art Directors for BULKHEAD, a UK studio behind The Turning Test, Killrun, and the upcoming Wardogs.
Imprint only started in 2023 but already has a 10-man team (plus Williams and Walker) working on Hounded. Plus, Imprint has a few ties with relevant companies, such as featuring members of BAFTA, and other devs who are showing their support on social media.
“I love that any small team can now use the Gears of War engine, and its billion dollar tech, to make a game about a scruffy dog in the English countryside then throw it up on Kickstarter,” said Del Walker, a former Senior Character Artist with Naughty Dog, on X.
Set Loose The Dogs of War
The world of Hounded takes its cue from pre-Industrial Revolution England; flintlock fantasy is a fairly new term used to describe media set in the Early Modern age, which covers around 300 years and leads up to the end of the 18th Century. Video games that have this kind of setting include Dishonored, Greedfall and the appropriately-named Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn.
In a dev log post in August 2024 on its official Hounded site, Imprint revealed its influences and the goal behind using this kind of setting.
“We’re huge fans of games like Dishonored, The Order: 1886 and Fable (to name a few), and just like our predecessors, it’s incredibly important to us that we present a world that feels grounded, tangible and authentic.”
“Hounded is set in a fictional British Isles around the late 17th and early 18th century. We’ve always been inspired by this time period as it represents a moment of significant change in politics, warfare, culture and technology.”
The Hounded development site only has three posts on it, so full game details are still thin on the ground. However, Imprint has shown that Duke can track people via scent, and that there’s a hunter after him. It’s also counting on the game world to help Hounded stand out from the pack.
“By combining the familiar (a quaint British village) with the unfamiliar (an oppressive regime utilising unknown technologies) we are creating a rich world full of secrets that Duke can explore and uncover.”
