Dogpile Demo Preview | Rover Rover Please Move Over

I’m not super familiar with merging games , other than the clickers that you can find on your phone where you’re rewarded for endlessly click click clicking on your screen to make progress. But I was really intrigued by Dogpile by developer Studio Folly, Toot Games and Foot when I first heard about it. And I was excited to see that there was a demo in Next Fest so I could give it a try. 

Dogpile is part merging and park roguelike deckbuilder. At the top of your screen you’ll draw three dog (or dog-realted) cards. If the card is a dog you’ll drop them into the dog pen below. When two of the same dog type touch, they’ll merge into a new, bigger dog. Your main goal is to get the biggest dog you can without overfilling your pen. 

As you progress, your dogs will have unique modifiers that can drastically change how they react when dropped into the pen. For example, some dogs will be shy and will practically fly away from any other dogs. Some dogs can also have the “extra large” modifier making them much bigger than normal. There are many different modifiers you can encounter in the demo and learning how they change up the game is imperative to putting together a proper strategy. 

Like most roguelike’s, you’ll also be able to add new cards to your deck or other modifiers that aren’t directly linked to a specific card. You can use Dog Tags to modify how your dogs and their unique traits will function creating (usually by accident) insane synergies and fun combos. Save up your previous dog bones and money in order to buy new things in the Dog House shop and create the ultimate dog pen full of very very large doggos. 

Dogpile is a super fun take on the roguelike genre and I can’t wait to play more and see what other combos I can create. It’s a game you could pick up with the intention of playing one round and get totally immersed in.

The Dogpile demo is available now as part of Steam’s October 2025 Next Fest. The game does not yet have a release date but if you enjoy it, be sure to wishlist the game while you’re there.