On a windswept ridge somewhere in the northern wilderness, a wolf watches a flock of unsuspecting sheep. The sheep have no idea they’re in danger. One dog does, and he has already made up his mind that he is the only thing standing between the flock and disaster. That dog is Hubert, the star of Hubert, an upcoming adventure game from developer Brocap Studio that lets players herd sheep, track scents, and guard the farm through the head, nose, and instincts of a working shepherd dog who is fully convinced he is the hero of his own story.
Set for release on Steam on October 12, 2026, with a PlayStation 5 version also planned, Hubert asks a simple but rarely attempted question. What if the dog wasn’t riding along in someone else’s adventure, but running the whole show himself? According to the game’s Steam page, players take on the role of “a working shepherd dog protecting his flock and the only human who trusts him,” navigating rugged northern lands while wolves close in and the pull of the wild grows stronger. It is a premise built entirely around the animal’s point of view, not a human hero with a leash in one hand and a dog treat in the other.
A Nose-First Way of Seeing the World
Most games that feature a dog treat the animal as an accessory. Hubert treats the dog as the entire operating system. The game’s mechanics revolve around herding sheep, tracking scents, and managing predator threats, all filtered through instincts rather than human logic. Players do not solve puzzles the way a person would. They sniff out trouble the way a dog would, following scent trails across the countryside and reading the landscape for signs of danger before a human character ever could.
Coverage of the game’s October 12 Steam release date on GamesPress confirms the launch window, and the broader framing around the game centers on experiencing the world through a dog’s movement, scent, instinct, and curiosity. Framing the entire moment-to-moment loop around scent rather than sight quietly rewrites what “awareness” looks like in a game, since the player is no longer reacting to what’s visible on screen but to what’s implied just beyond it. That distinction also separates Hubert from the companion-dog logic used elsewhere in games. Fable II’s dog and Skyrim’s followers largely operate as reactive AI, trailing the player and responding to threats the human character has already identified. Hubert’s scent-tracking and predator-management systems, as described on its Steam page, put the dog in the position of detecting danger first, which inverts the usual hierarchy where the human notices and the dog merely follows.
Decades of Sidekicks, Not Stars
To understand why Hubert’s approach stands out, it helps to look at how rarely games have let a dog carry the entire narrative weight of the story. Lists like GameRant’s roundup of games where players control a dog and TheGamer’s own collection of dog-led titles have to reach back decades just to fill out ten or fifteen entries. TheGamer’s list starts as far back as 1996 with the rapping dog-adjacent hero of PaRappa the Rapper. GameRant and others frequently point to Dog’s Life on the PlayStation 2, where players controlled a mutt named Jake, as something close to a definitive example of the genre. That a nearly twenty-five-year-old PS2 title still gets cited as the gold standard says a great deal about how thin this catalog really is.
A quick scroll through community threads confirms the pattern. On forums like the one found in this r/gamingsuggestions discussion, the same handful of titles get mentioned again and again whenever someone asks for games starring a dog. It is a short list, and it tends to repeat itself because there simply are not many alternatives to point to.
The Industry’s Real Comfort Zone
The far more common arrangement puts a dog next to a human hero, not in the driver’s seat. Shadow trots a few steps behind Jack Slate through most of Dead to Rights, offering support but rarely taking the narrative spotlight. Wolf Link shows up in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess as a clever gimmick, letting players experience a few sections as a wolf before returning control to Link. Bolt, based on the animated film, hands players a dog with superhero powers, which is a fun idea but still borrows its structure from human action movies rather than anything resembling actual canine behavior. Coverage from outlets like Twinfinite’s list of games that let players be dogs has to stretch its own criteria to include characters like these, which says something about how few games actually commit to a dog as the full protagonist rather than a temporary novelty.
This is the backdrop against which Hubert’s pitch feels genuinely different. The dog is not a detour from the main quest. He is the main quest.
Backing Up the Swagger With Numbers
Brocap Studio has also made a free demo available on Steam, giving players a chance to test out the herding and scent-tracking mechanics firsthand before the October release. The demo’s mechanics are designed to make tracking scent trails across open hillsides a tense, deliberate process, where losing a trail carries real consequences with wolves circling nearby. That kind of low-stakes, high-tension gameplay loop is exactly what a nose-first design is meant to produce.
The Bet Hubert Is Making
Every prior dog game, whether it starred a superpowered mutt or a wolf god wandering through a painterly landscape, tended to treat the dog as a passenger riding through someone else’s story. Hubert is testing a different theory entirely. The game is betting that overconfidence, not obedience, is what finally makes a dog worth building an entire world around. Players will find out whether that bet pays off when Hubert arrives on Steam on October 12, 2026, with a PlayStation 5 version also planned.
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F.A.Q.
When does Hubert come out?
Hubert is set to launch on Steam on October 12, 2026. A PlayStation 5 version will follow later that month, offering players a unique adventure through the perspective of a shepherd dog.
What platforms is Hubert on?
Hubert will be available on Steam for PC starting October 12, 2026. Additionally, a version for PlayStation 5 is expected to be released shortly after the Steam launch.
What type of game is Hubert?
Hubert is an action-adventure indie game that allows players to experience the world through the eyes of a shepherd dog. Players will engage in herding sheep, tracking scents, and managing threats while navigating rugged northern lands.
Does Hubert have multiplayer?
No, Hubert is a single-player game focused on a solo experience. Players take on the role of a working shepherd dog, protecting the flock and human from predators in a rich, immersive environment.
How much does Hubert cost?
The price for Hubert has not been officially announced yet. However, it will be available on Steam upon its release on October 12, 2026, so keep an eye on the store for updates.
Is Hubert worth it?
While Hubert has not been released yet, its unique premise of playing as a dog in an adventure game and innovative gameplay mechanics may appeal to players looking for fresh experiences. Fans of animal-centric games might find it particularly engaging.
BFG drafts articles with AI from our team’s research and verified store data — every piece is fact-checked and runs a multi-stage editorial review before publishing.
