Hello dog lovers, and welcome to this Developer Diary!

My name is Arshak Ardeshir and I am the lead designer on theHunter: Call of the Wild. I was also in charge of the development of the Labrador Retriever and the Bloodhound.

Today I’m excited to share some fun and interesting facts about the development of the Retriever and what it took to bring this loveable companion to your doorstep.

A RETRIEVER DOG ENTERS THE FIELD

The idea of creating another dog goes back to the release of Revontuli Coast. We thought players would love to have a companion to help them retrieve all the waterfowl and upland birds they could hunt. While the need and want were there, it took us some time and resources to make Labrador a reality — as it usually goes in the world of video game development.

Going from an initial concept to a playable build can take months of hard work from multiple developers, but when we finally were able to meet Labrador in the game for the first time, it was truly a magical moment.

TRAINING GOES A LONG WAY…

So what can one expect by getting a Labrador Retriever in theHunter: Call of the Wild? Well, first of all, you get a life companion. A dog that stays by your side through thick and thin. What’s more, as it obtains hunting experience, its retrieving skills will grow.

For example, at first, it might take a few seconds before it understands what you are asking of it. After all, it’s not easy for a dog to interpret human language and vice versa. Just like in real life, with patience and dedication and as your bond grows, it will come to understand you like the back of its paw.

It might also not initially be the best at returning harvests, but as it gets better it will drop off harvests closer and closer to you. Additionally, your dog will get stronger and will be able to carry heavier harvests with more ease. As it increases in experience you can start to choose Traits for it. Are you mainly hunting heavy prey? The Strong Trait might be for you. Do you want it to always have enough focus to perform? Take a look at the Sharp and Loving Traits. Or, is it more important for you that it can retrieve prey from further away? My recommendation is to consider Bold and Retriever Traits.

Whatever you choose, you can be sure that with just one retrieve call your Labrador will pick up any class 1 animal around you, starting with the harvests that you are looking at first.

Last but not least, this skillful pup comes in a total of seven unique fur variations: Black, Yellow, Chocolate, Silver, Charcoal, Fox Red, and Champagne. I’m curious to see which one will be your favorite!

…BUT IT IS ALSO CHALLENGING

One might think getting and raising a dog is all fun and play. While it is very adorable, it also takes a lot of guidance and focused effort to build a great friendship and an even greater hunting companion.

A big challenge we faced was teaching our Labrador Retriever how to swim. The hurdle here was to rewrite how all our animals handled navigation across all maps so that the dog was able to understand the concept of “water”. Can you even imagine a Labrador Retriever being scared of water? They have webbed feet for a reason! On top of this, and to the success and credit of our talented coders, this had to be achieved while either maintaining or improving the current game file size.

Finally, to ensure you have better control over your canine companion, we’ve also made a number of general improvements to the command wheel. On PC you can now add hotkeys to the wheel. And for Console players, you can one-tap the command wheel to heel the dog, and double-tap to ask it to perform its job — ‘track’ for the Bloodhound and ‘retrieve’ for the Labrador.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about the way we brought the Labrador Retriever to life in theHunter: Call of the Wild. We, at Expansive Worlds, know that all dogs are the best dogs and we cannot wait to see you out there with your new fur-ever friend at your side.

Woof! Woof!