I Became a Dog is an Adventure Game released in 2017. You play as a dog who used to be a human and your goal is turning human again. Along the way, you have to do tasks for other dogs and learn their language by eating food, with the game slowly unraveling a sinister plot as you continue.
The game received two sequels, one in 2019 and one in 2020.
The games provide examples of:
Tropes introduced in I Became a Dog
- 6 Is 9: The password relies on it. The digit you find in the study looks like a 9, but the dog questions if it's actually a 6. It indeed is.
- Ad Reward: Hints can be unlocked and skills can be charged for watching an ad or buying Premium mode.
- Aerith and Bob: The dogs have names like Sony, Tomy, Julia, and James.
- Big Ball of Violence: Batttles between dogs are depicted with a dust cloud.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Semi-literally. Tomy pretends to be friendly and cute, but you're being told not to trust her. Indeed, doing tasks for her makes her give you a toy which is actually a miniature bomb as she wanted all the food for herself.
- Bookcase Passage: You have to type in a password at the computer which will move a bookcase to Julia's jail.
- Cooldown: Both barking and farting have a 30-second cooldown before you can perform them again.
- Disguised Horror Story: This game starts off as a fun adventure where you do favors for cute dogs and there's humor in barking for food and farting being treated like some super techniques. Just progressing even a little will uncover a dog in jail who'll tell you not to trust Tomy and murder in one of the characters' backstory.
- Extreme Omnivore: The person in the bedroom eats bugs to remember stuff, despite being human, because they used to be a dog.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: You became a dog and a newly brought dog in the house became a person.
- The Hero Dies: You only die in the worst ending if you take the bomb from Tomy.
- Idle Animation: The dog raises his head and closes his eyes while standing in place.
- Magic Kiss: The person who became you thinks they'll turn back to normal after a kiss. They don't want to do it, though.
- Mature Animal Story: A game with cute pixel dogs where the Player Character turns out to be an alcoholic, Tomy murdered a puppy, and all endings involve a character death except the one where you get life imprisonment.
- Multiple Endings: The first game has five possible endings, with the New Game Plus system making repeated playthroughs to get them much faster.
- Ending 1: Death. You do all the tasks for Tomy and she gives you a toy as a reward, but it's actually a miniature bomb which blows up in your face as she wouldn't accept living with anyone who'd covet her food.
- Ending 2: Imprisonment. You do all the tasks for Tomy, but you refuse to accept the toy for yourself, then bait her out of the pink bed for food and nab the key underneath. You then free Julia from jail and confront Tomy alongside her. As two on one it seems good at first, but the confronted dog calls James for help and you both ultimately lose, with Julia going to jail for the second time and you for the first time.
- Ending 3: It's all mine! You do all the tasks for Tomy, but you refuse the toy twice, then do the things as usual. As James is unable to help her, she is succesfully punished. You then wake up the owner, feed him 1500 bugs, and he remembers that he switched places with you. He think that things will change back with a kiss, but he runs away, and you can't catch him since you're speed level's too low, so he locks himself in the bedroom. You then bark in prison to get food to distract Julia and lock her up there. Now you'll never be human again, but all the food is yours!
- Ending 4: Back to human. You do everything as usual, but you catch the owner since your speed is maxed out. The dog switches places with him, then he checks around and finds out that Sony is an old man and is willing to teach you the human language, but you need to find 10$. Once you do so, you meet your wife, who'll kick you out of the house as she thinks you've been drinking. You decide to leave and get drunk.
- Ending 5: Happy ending. You do everything as usual, but let Sony die. When you see your wife, she'll once again get angry and think you're drunk, but you can only respond with barking. You go back to being a dog and she loves you, so you ultimately decide to stay as a dog.
- New Game Plus: After beating the game, you can play it again from the start, but you retain your language level and collect more bugs after farting.
- NPC Roadblock: James blocks the door to a room with something more important than his life inside.
- Rare Candy: Your language level goes up when you eat dog food. The warehouse has three sizeable bags of it that give a lot of experience, to such an extent it probably won't be necessary to eat more of it for the rest of the playthrough.
- Retraux: This smartphone game uses pixelated sprites and fonts with simplistic colors.
- Sprint Shoes: You can ask Sony to raise your running speed for 200 bugs up to four times.
- The Farmer and the Viper: In ending 3. Julia helps you get rid of Tomy, but you decide to lock her up in prison again so all the food can be yours.
- This Is Unforgivable!: Julia declares that she'll never forgive Tomy for killing her baby.
- Translation Convention: The dogs' woofs get translated into human words as your level increases.
- Turning Back Human: The player character wants to become human again after being turned into a dog. Sony also tries to do so, by jumping 1 million times.
- Visible Silence: Julia can only speak with "......" after a certain point.
- You Have Researched Breathing: You have to gain certain standard dog abilities like barking or farting.
Tropes introduced in I Became a Dog 2
- Put on a Bus: In I Became a Dog 2, Sam escapes the house after using dynamite to make a hole. He briefly returns to give the player his favorite toy before leaving permanently.
- The Bus Came Back: Sam returns in I Became a Dog 3.
- Villainous Glutton: Boss is the Big Bad because he's eating all the food, leaving the other dogs to starve.
Tropes introduced in I Became a Dog 3
- Babies Ever After: In the fifth ending of I Became a Dog 3, Max and Nancy have a litter of puppies.
- Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Lily believes that her mother was euthanized, but it turns out she's alive because the Player Character couldn't bring herself to finish the job.
