Homeless Dog Motel
A downloadable game for Windows
As the Homeless Dog slumbers, a nightmare creeps up to take over her night. Explore the depths of the loop her mind has trapped her in. The images that are conjured up are potentially tied to her past, allowing the player to learn more about the protagonist as they go on.
Art, animation and programming by Carpenter Blue
This is a tie-in game to the adult comic Homeless Dog by PONPORIO.
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
I will be up front with this.
I have read the comic as well as watched the game, and the entire thing, including people's reaction to it just make me angry.
Dont get me wrong, its a nice start up game and a couple of emotions are conveyed in a relatively thoughtful fashion. If that was not the case it would not have caught the sympathy of so many ppl, but the foundation the core concept is just beyond me, and so are ppl's reaction to it.
There are two fundamental and intrinsic problems with the entire story:
1.) As far as i know, it has never been explicitly stated why the MC cant take just a random job instead of aiming for a flowershop. In fact, throughout the story it seems that she has set her mind on being a florist and thats that, which in return destroys the entire narrative that the position she is in (broke, jobless, homeless, etc).
Her situation is directly caused and maintained by HER OWN decision to stay like this instead of just taking any job.
2.) Due to the mentioned above point 1, the entire narrative about exploitation, hopelessness, indirect r and what not, becomes utter nonsense.
There is this entire bold line of how soul crushingly she hates doing s-x work, like how every time it takes a part of her soul and what not, but instead of flipping burgers or taking any low paying job, or for that matter just dumpster dive, she constantly and perpetually decides to willingly and consciously do s-x work over and over again to maintain a half-way decent lifestyle at a motel.
The entirety of the comic and the game can be summarized in one single sentence in regards of the MC: "Avoid people that act like a victim in a problem they created."
[rant]
And im sorry, but the notion that many ppl would in this situation accuse the suit to be abusive and an exploiter, is just stunning to me.
He is the one who essentially allows her to live a half-way decent life. Granted. Its not charity, but throughout the entire story he was written to be painfully and extremely respective of her boundaries.
He complied with basically every each one of her requests and did nothing she wouldnt do voluntarily.
If thats abuse, then so is your work place because you are demanded "services" for money, so you wont starve on the street.
For a while the comic and the entire "i dont want to do this" personality arc was on point, and i expected her to either break out of her situation or simply adapt to it and start to enjoy it because this is what she had decided. Maybe end up getting together with the suit, no matter how twisted that would be.
Instead, we are stuck in some kind of mental problem, probably schizophrenia or something where she EXTREMELY, UTTERLY AND FUNDAMENTALLY doesnt want to do something, so she decides to go right ahead and do it again and again and again completely voluntarily.
[/rant]
I apologize for the rant, it was bought forth more due to some people's reactions and commentary to the comic rather than there being anything wrong with the comic or game itself aside from the seeming plot hole/contradiction in the story.
It just bought forth some injustices i have experienced myself, where in completely nonsensical situations ppl take sides completely and solely based on gender, like if you are female you can only be a victim and you cannot be faulted for anything. You have no agency, you have no responsibility, you are just an object of victimhood and a holy icon for ppl with emotional issues to grandstand over.
Keep up the good work.
I don't think you really read the comic cause if you did you'd have seen that she tried explicitly in other occasions to get other jobs. And I, as author, place faith in the audience to figure out that she has tried other times implicitly even if it wasn't shown. Even in one of the more recent pages she says to the motel clerk "I gotta do ANOTHER job interview today too."
Getting a job as a homeless person isn't an amazingly easy thing to do. According to your logic all homeless people could just get a burger flipper job and be fine, but that's not the case. Just cause I don't show her going to a new interview every 6 pages doesn't mean she hasn't been trying so far. Your entire discourse ignores a lot of explicit and implicit details in what seems to be a defense of the Suit, who has been pretty explicitly abusive of the main character. He's written to push his luck with her as far as he can before driving her to tears, just cause he knows when to fold before he loses everything doesn't mean he's respectful.
First: You are the author, the creator. You decide what your story depicts. If thats what you intend, then thats what happens. Nobody can tell you what your own, self created world should or should not contain, or how it should depict it.
Second: I am a reader. One who views and reads your work and matches what they see to their experiences and own internal world.
You know the details of your work because you write it from the inside.
I do not know the details because i am a reader from the outside, one who has to work with their own experiences to put things into context.
So please take everything i say as feedback and not as personal insult or smth, because at the end of the day, you are the creator, its yours, you do what you want to do. If you disagree with what im going to say, then just discard it.
So with all of that being said:
1. When you mention something several times, and another thing once or twice, that at best sets up a priority list, at worst, shows that the latter thing is secondary. So when you depict a story in which you give it a single mention that she is trying for all kinds of jobs, but then depict her over and over again obsessing over and trying for florist, that sets up the scene with the bartender as if her attempts for other jobs were an excuse she'd tell others, because she knows she really should aim for other jobs, but she doesnt.
Thats literally the feeling i had when i read the bartender conversation.
How would i be able to tell otherwise? Every emphasis is on being a florist. She is shown to be applying for a florist, but not shown applying for anything else.
Not only that, but that is what her internal monologue is. She is not obsessing over "just getting any job", she is laser focused on being a florist.
2. Getting a job as a homeless person isnt an amazingly easy thing to do. You are absolutely right. If for no other reason then just for personal hygiene.
But probably landing a job as a burger flipper is several hundred million times easier and likely than getting a sugar daddy just by chance while sitting next to a wall with a cup, for the exact same reasons.
However i do admit that this is a topic that can be argued back and forth with no real meaning to it. Its not impossible and we are inside your story, so fine. If you say so, then so it shall be.
3. Abuse. This is where i take a large issue with what you are depicting and implying.
I am sorry. The setting is homelessness. I have no idea how old you are or whether or not you understand the actual depths of what homelessness can be, but this is something close to home for me. When you say homelessness, i hear freezing to d-ath. I hear being set on fire while i sleep by drunk teenagers who thought it would be funny. I hear starvation. I hear being chased away for begging at the wrong spot by other homeless and by the owners of the place at the same time. I hear being hunted. I hear being handled like a sub human, something that is more of an animal than human. I hear scabies and even leprosy which few know that is still sticking around just fine in today's society. I hear and i feel being viewed as less than human, not by others but by myself as well, because thats what my existence reinforces in me. I become less than human in my own eyes.
Thats the pit you choose for the basis of your work to depict desperation.
A place where you are regarded by all of society like an inconvenience at best, an outright pest and disease at worst. A place where not other people might end up regarding you as an animal, but you yourself as well, because your needs will be that of a dog's.
A homeless dog.... right?
A homeless dog in my world would die just to experience the warmth of another person's touch. To receive something as unthinkable as warm food. To experience what it means to be not hungry.
In that place.
In that situation.
In that external and internal desperation where you are not only struggling for your life and social standing, but also for your identity as a human being, your problem is that you dislike the only person who'd treat you as not only human but an object of their desire?
In that situation your definition of abuse is that the person who enables your very existence as a human being, who respects all of your boundaries and wishes where most would just beat you up and r you..... is abusing you because he made you an offer which you willingly accepted.......
.....as i put this into writing i guess i mostly explained the problem to myself.
I can only assume that you are writing from the position of a maybe Californian homeless? Some far far west first world place where winters are not harsh, everyone is living on the beach and the homeless are overweight?
Cause in that situation i can imagine your story to track.
On the beaches of California, in a world of end stage liberalism, priorities might be different. At least on the surface if nothing else......
In conclusion: Do not place your faith in the reader to make up their own fictional version of your work where she is totally doing something you did not depict her doing.
Its one thing that you now have clarified that this was your intention, but we very apparently live in COMPLETELY and FUNDAMENTALLY different worlds. In yours, just being given an option is already abuse. In mine... hahaha, this brings me back to the conversation with one of my friends not being able to grasp how its possible that we live in two opposite sides of the same continent, but she makes 8 times more money in half the working days than i do in four shifts and 60 hours a week.
Different worlds indeed...
The homeless dogs of my world are living in a different place than the homeless dogs of your world are...
Good game enjoyed it definitely looking forward to play more of your games
Hope this will develop in future
I had to read the comic before playing this, poor girl.
As someone who followed the associated comic and has some strong feelings about the subject matter, this is a work of art. Something truly, viscerally chilling. The sound design, the creature design, the gameplay loop... it's all so good.
One particular thing that I liked was that, knowing the comic, I was able to call The Suit earlier than intended in the loops, just trying to see if there was any deviation.
I think that that was the most heartbreaking part of all of this; going through this nightmare with Homeless Dog, seeing the way her mind paints the world around her, the way that she thinks about so many things, the fears that she has, it makes it so hard to swallow the ending, especially after seeing and hearing all that I did throughout the game.
To try and make things work, only to stumble and find yourself at a conclusion that you never wanted to accept is so painful, and knowing that there is only one ending to this sordid tale is a painful tragedy, but one that is very real, and one painful pill that too many have had to swallow before.
Thank you for making this, and whatever might lurk in the corners of your mind, may it someday give you rest.
I am completely incapable of understanding this kind of approach to the story. This overly emotional and empathetic notion where we disregard everything and just grandstand over feeling bad for someone.
Correct me if im wrong but she decides to s-x work because she refuses to just do any job, and the only thing she aims for is florist.
->
If that statement is true, then she is basically homeless because she refuses to work.
->
If that statement is true, then all of her problems are self created
->
If that statement is true, she is no victim of anything, she voluntarily and willfully exists like this, in this very situation, ON TOP of also voluntarily making the decision to alleviate her problems via s-x work.
->
And if that statement is true, the entire narrative about how soul crushing her situation is, means she is either mentally ill, schizophrenic or something else, cause there is no way in hell for anyone to intentionally set up his/her own misery, and then act like they are a victim in it.
This is not directed at you personally in any fashion, but I'll be honest.
The thing that pissed me off the most about this comic, are this type of reactions to it.
Its literally an entire book's worth of how sick and mentally ill society and people are about making females look like victims and holy icons that cant do no wrong, meanwhile every male caught up in their situation is an exploiter, an abuser, a predator and what not.
I have read so many comments on both the comic and this game which portrayed this victim/abuser narrative that it literally skull f-ed me.
Im sorry, but the fact of the matter is that you should never trust people who play victim in a problem of their own creation, and the only people who are worse than those, are the ones who then feed into it, enable it, and put it on some sort of emotional pedestal of purity and holiness.
Its just sick.
...you are wrong. You are basing this florist thing on a random thought and ignoring all evidence to the contrary, including the actual author telling you otherwise.
Your skewed view of this story pales in conparison to your poor grasp on human interactions.
The last comment on the game is me talking with the author about this, so no. Most of what you said is wrong either by purpose or by mistake.
- My basis for "this florist thing" was the comic itself.
- There is no "evidence" to the contrary, which was specifically my issue in the first place.
- No, i did not ignore the author. I specifically stated that they have clarified this aspect, here, right now, personally, but her comic is NOT clear about this at all, to which they replied that they "place faith in the audience to figure out"
I wrote half a novel on this issue and i made my position extremely and specifically clear.
The ONLY thing i could conclude in the end that this is a prime example of living in different worlds.
The author depicts a story with values and priorities that i can imagine to track and hold true in a first world location like California where people are not freezing to death and think that the last person who enables them a human existence is their abuser.
I have not said or written anything out of malice, out of spite, out of wanting to trash the author.
Its one of the few works i actually have respect for, so i was simply honest about the notion that you should not leave it up to your readers to imagine something you have not stated, cause you see THAT is something with no evidence, and which exists inside your own headcanon.
This is simple reality.
The author's homeless dogs live in a completely different world compared to mine.
I had to realize that they are writing from the perspective of a first world country and not from somewhere like east europe where you might get set on fire by drunk teens while you are trying to not freeze to death, and you'd be glad just to be regarded as a human being, god forbid actually desired, cared and paid for even if its in a very twisted sense.
And as frustrating it is, i am willing to hold this notion up to the commenters as well. A lot of people seem to be living in a world so sheltered that they have forgotten what actual homelessness and abuse is. Not faulting them for it. May they never have to experience or understand what its like.
But it IS frustrating to watch.
Ohhh, my poor heart for this Homeless Dog!! Played, and I also really liked this myself. Loved this poor girl!
This game was darker than I thought | Homeless Dog Motel
was a lot darker of a game then I thought it would be the themes were very heavy.! It was a great game!!
Бытовые хорроры - самые страшные хорроры. Игра мне очень понравилась, хочу, чтобы больше людей о ней узнали. Я перевел игровые диалоги на русский язык. Интерфейс не смог, я не силен в манипуляциях с файлами. Кому интересно погрузится в игру вот ссылка на перевод:
https://mega.nz/file/8yUgybLC#5jWgjIvEJk0ACinKFSDN5AX4SREsXZV73MzfSG-fUF0
Horrors about real life are the scariest horrors. I really liked the game, I want more people to know about it. I have translated the game dialogues into Russian. Not interface, I'm not good at manipulating files.
(To the author: If you don't want your game to have Russian localization, let me know!)
Gave it a Lets Play, pretty dark, I assume I got/found everything though. No happy ending? :((((
Thank you so much for playing! There's only one ending and you got all phone numbers, so you got everything yeah. I appreciate the thoroughness!
Thanks both of you :3
glad to be 1% of viewers that take your recommendations
It's a nice tie-in, showing a bit more of the side of our doggo that we partially saw, but with the bit of backstory we didn't that much. I can't wait for future pages!
Went into this with no idea about the webtoon. Definitely a unique way to end the story of a "comic" with a game. It's really good. Made me feel bad for her...like damn
Great game
Oh, it is not the FINAL page of the comic, it's FINAL part of the nightmare arc which was done by guest artists. The comic continues and shall have new pages soon!
Anyway, glad you enjoyed the game!
This is not the end of the comic, but I'm glad you enjoyed the game!
"Homeless Dog Motel" is an incredible journey through the depths of a character's psyche, blending surreal imagery with an emotionally resonant story. The way the game ties the protagonist's nightmare loop to glimpses of her past is both haunting and deeply immersive. Every scene feels layered with meaning, pulling the player into a beautifully crafted exploration of memory and identity. It's a poignant reminder of the power of indie games to tell unique and heartfelt stories. Highly recommended for anyone who loves narrative-driven experiences with a touch of mystery!
Thank you for the video and kind words!
I've wanted to say something about it for ages but just never knew where would be best. This series has been wonderfully executed. It's doing something you can't really do for mainstream art, being very brutally honest with the reader with her experiences. Down to her not even having a name. It's really affected me and I want to thank Ponporio, the guest artists for these and previous nightmares, and Carpenter for all they've done to bring it to life.
The game itself does a great job of executing the PT like repetition, using everything it can to characterize her and give insight into her situation. Even keeping her demons away becomes routine through the execution, locking the beast away before it bites but always being dangerous if you forget about it just once. The final phone call in particular is beautiful, and sequestering it as something you can only hear in a replay is an incredible way to show that despite the kindness in it, the thoughts of it are buried deep inside her.
I look forward to the rest of the chapters, and I'll keep an eye out for more games by Carpenter Blue for sure.
Thank you for your kind words! I am very happy with the warm reception this game received. I have been glued to the screen reading the nice comments from people like you and watching the videos that have been made and it's been just been so overwhelming and it's been just an absolute blast! I am supremely pleased I got to work on this collab. At the risk of sounding cliche I have never expected it to go this way!
oh......I have played twice and collected all the loops and phone numbers. Now I am watching Comics, this is truly a sad story....very nice
It warms my heart everytime I hear that. I was so afraid people would not accept non-porn game but the response was just overhelmingly positive. Thanks for playing!
I was interested in the game when I read this page, but it really got my attention as I got deeper into the game.
I ended up getting all but one loop and apparently 3/4 phone numbers (though I counted 4 numbers by the end, including the one at the end of the game?)
I stopped playing to read part of the web comic to really get a grip on what was happening, then read the entire web comic afterward.
Great job!
Oooh! Superb job!
You only missed one of the buffer loops that are there to make sure people can reach flesh hall event even if they got bit once or twice and lost some money. In fact, I will fix that in coming update to make it bit clearer. You essentially did 100% the game and there are no additional endings as the ending is inevitability, not a choice.
I would probably refer your video to english speakers who can't play through the game themselves. Again, loved the vid and thanks for playing!
Got all loops but 2 phonenubers on my Frist try cold not call the last one had to start over.
Nice game.
Nice this was really good game and I like the game style anyway well done keep it up!
I feel pain and suffer...it is too much...
นี่เป็นการเล่นเกมที่ฉันชอบมากที่สุดเลย! ขอบคุณมาก ๆ ที่ทำมันออกมานะ!
This was so far my far my favorite playthrough of the game! Thank you so much for doing it.
This playthrough was awesome, thank you for playing! You're good at locking the creature in the bathroom!
I like how you act the voices too!
Reading the webcomic and playing this game... just hits so hard, and make me feel so so so so bad for this poor girl...I would want to give her the safety and love that she needs.
Empathy is a powerful thing and Homeless Dog invokes it very hard, so I understand. Still, thank you for reading the comic and playing the game!
so... I really hate to do this but, without going into too much detail, I found myself in some sort of fleshy hallway, and I've to admit I have no idea on what to do to progress ^^' any clues?
Theres a key on the ground on the left end of the hallway!
a sad game. I dont mean that disparagingly, It's an interesting take on the psyche of a woman who's turned to this kind of life... The shame, the self hate, the anxiety and depression.
I could say more, but there's no need to go into a whole psychological debate about things. I'll just say good work. It's not my cup of tea. Reality is often harsh, and I prefer nice things, even if it's rape fantasy stuff, so I'll just say good work and move along.
一个压抑的故事......太压抑了
It's a nice backstory game for between the night up to the second call and it helps us see her mindset during that time. I would suggest maybe having some music at the start that gets distorted as the cash goes lower. Besides that, nice job.
Here's my channel for other games I have played. https://www.youtube.com/@Levont
Thanks for playing the game! Loved the gameplay!
nice
Thanks for playing! After watching this, I pushed an update to add results page showing how much you missed cause you missed a LOT hahah.
Woah cool, recorded gameplay! This is great cause some reader can't play this game, so at least I can tell them to view this video if they wanna see what happens in the game.
your game is cool
She does not deserve this.
No one does :/
Found a lot of enjoyment with this and found it to be really interesting. Great job!
Thank you and we are glad to hear that!
Awesome, happy that you enjoyed it!
This story is heartbreaking, but I can't help but love it! The visuals were perfect!
Very glad you are enjoying the comic and the game!