Rejoice! You Can Now Pet The Dog In ‘Enter The Gungeon’

One of the greatest joys in life is petting very good dogs. Another great joy in life is playing video games. For the past month, CanYouPetTheDog has catalogued the games that allow you to do both simultaneously, putting out an implicit challenge to those that do not. Now, indie game Enter The Gungeon has answered the call.

Last month, a visionary and hero launched the revelatory Twitter account CanYouPetTheDog. This single-issue account is dedicated to one thing, and one thing only: Whether or not you can pet video game dogs.

It may shock you to learn, but the inclusion of a dog-petting function in video games featuring dogs is not industry standard. Many virtual dogs go sadly unpetted, leaving players with the frustrating feeling of harbouring affection that cannot be conveyed. Apparently petting dogs is not a vital concern for some game developers, which does make one wonder what kind of lives they’re living.

the unspoken rule for video game developers is that if there is a dog in the game you must be able to pet it

— deric (@caprikorean) April 8, 2019

CanYouPetTheDog has nearly 158,000 followers at time of writing, which just goes to show how big a concern this is.

In early March, CanYouPetTheDog cast its eyes toward bullet hell roguelike Enter The Gungeon. In a since-deleted tweet, CanYouPetTheDog added the indie dungeon crawler to its list of shame, declaring Enter The Gungeon to be bereft of petting.

“You cannot pet the dog in Enter The Gungeon,” it said, a statement condemning in its factuality.

Then, a few days later, Enter The Gungeon game designer Dave Crooks responded. “Hold my beer.”

Hold my beer

— DodgeRollDave (@dave_crooks) March 12, 2019

Now, players can finally enjoy the fruits of his labour. This weekend, developer Dodge Roll released Enter The Gungeon‘s final expansion, A Farewell To Arms. It added new guns. It added two new playable characters. It added a secret floor, a new boss, and a new game mode.

But most importantly, this patch added the ability to pet the dog. Now, at last, Enter The Gungeon is complete.

Dodge Roll isn’t adding any new content to Enter The Gungeon, but that doesn’t mean they won’t still be doing a few tweaks. Today’s Patch 2.1.3 nerfed dog petting, removing the ability to start petting while in the middle of a dodgeroll. Still, the important thing is that the function is there, and that players can finally let their dog know how good he is.

CanYouPetTheDog has also made a new entry in honour of Enter The Gungeon‘s conversion to the side of light.

You're making real change in the world, @CanYouPetTheDog

— Brian Williams (@Not_That_Brian) April 5, 2019

They’re good devs, Brent.