Screenshots
Watch trailer on Steam ↗Dogwood
Team Soleil · Published by Team Soleil
Last updated 9 Oct 2026
A pup who doesn't belong discovers that feeding people is the closest thing to belonging he's ever found. Dogwood is a Cooking ARPG where the battlefield is the wilderness and the home is a restaurant you built from nothing.
Action, Adventure, Indie, RPG, Simulation · More free games
Embark on a unique adventure as Dogwood guides you through crafting weapons, cooking meals, and battling foes in an open-world RPG. Explore the untamed wilderness while building a restaurant from scratch, blending action and simulation for a one-of-a-kind experience.
About this game
A dog who doesn't belong discovers that feeding people is the closest thing to belonging he's ever found.
Dogwood is a Cooking Action RPG where the battlefield is the wilderness and the home is a restaurant you built from nothing. Go out into dangerous wilderness to gather ingredients and fight plant monsters, some of which you can tame as companions.
Come back and feed your community. The people you cook for have their own history, their own tastes, and their own complicated feelings about you. The better you take care of them, the more they become yours.
A non-cozy game with plenty of cozy moments. The stakes are real, and the warmth is earned.
Colorful, kinetic combat awaits beyond the restaurant door.
Switch between red and blue polarities to turn enemy fire into fuel. Master top-down shooter combat to survive increasingly dangerous territory and bring home rarer ingredients.
Tame plant creatures as companions in battle.
Choose between configurable difficulty modes. The wilderness is as dangerous as you want it to be.
Every night, the people you know return to your restaurant.
Between the rush of orders there are quiet moments. A conversation you didn't expect, a request that means more than it says.
Who shows up for you when everything goes wrong depends entirely on what you built with them.
The war ended. The world didn't heal.
Underneath the warmth of the restaurant and the danger of the wilderness is a history that explains everything.
If you go looking for it.
Key Features
Configurable Difficulty. From Softpaws mode for players who came for the story to Fanged Challenger for players who came for the shoot-em-up action. The game meets you where you are.
Story-Rich, Emotional Narrative. A coming-of-age story about a pup who builds a found family one meal at a time, through cooking, through combat, and through the people who show up when everything goes wrong.
A 2D Hand-Drawn World. A post-war refugee settlement, a dangerous tundra, and a history buried under the snow.
Shmup-inspired Top-Down Shooter Combat. Switch polarities to absorb enemy fire, survive dangerous territory, and bring home ingredients for your restaurant.
Not Your Traditional Management Sim. The restaurant is where you feed the furry cast of characters you know by name. Customize your menu, learn what your regulars want, and watch your restaurant grow from nothing into the center of a community.
Creature Taming & Collection. Fight plant creatures or feed them. Tamed creatures fight alongside you in combat and produce rare ingredients.
Original Soundtrack. A score that moves with the restaurant service. The tempo changes the pace of service.
System Requirements
Will my PC run this? →Minimum
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: Intel core i5-3470 or AMD Ryzen 5 3400G
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: GTX 1650 or AMD Radeon RX 560
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 20 GB available space
Supported Languages
Latest news
Patch NotesOfficial
Fanart Gallery Update!
For the past few months we've been getting some beautiful fanart from our community. We wanted to share them with other players outside of social media, so we made an In-Game Fanart Gallery to display them! If you're interested in getting your fanart here or reposted on our official social media sites, you can learn how to through our Discord! For the Dogwood Playtest's Beta 1.1 Update, we also added a number of QoL features, enemy weak spots, tutorial tweaks, visual changes, and bug fixes. New featuresFanart galleryWeak spots on bossesNew dialogue boxSoftware cursor with option for hardware cursorResizable software cursorRebindable keyboard controlsImproved tutorialExpanded tutorial scenario Small fixesImproved text visibilityImproved cutsceneFixed cropped textureBetter visibility for main menu click-to-startReplaced ammo bar placeholder in tutorialCan't unstuck during cutscenesSheriff cutscene is more synced (WIP)Tutorial text integrated inside map Added same color warning when playing as SheriffFixed soft-lock when getting hit during run tutorialFixed soft-lock when using unstuck sometimesDogwood is also entered into another event: Feedback Quest 9! This will be our second time entering. Last year, a handful of streamers played (and sometimes broke) our game. We're excited to see how we fare this year. Check the link below to play and rate Dogwood, or check out the other indie game entries: FQ9 on Itch.ioRead full article on Community Announcements (teamsoleil.gaming)AnnouncementsOfficial
The Dogwood Prologue Playtest is now LIVE!
Here's what to expect:Around 5 minutes of dense, action-packed contentA hand-drawn animated cutscenePartial controller support (full controller support in the works!)Origin story of Doug, the protagonist of Dogwood Here's what's to come in later playtests:Restaurant and cookingMonster (Crop) tamingMore combat stages and enemiesBattle companionsPlaying as Doug and more charactersAnd much more!If you're interested in taking part in future playtests, join our new Discord to get notified first! We're also happy to receive feedback, bug reports, and questions there!Read full article on Community Announcements (teamsoleil.gaming)Community & EventsOfficial
Dogwood is coming to PGDX 2026! (Physical Con + Steam Fest)
Dogwood is returning to PGDX, and this year, there's a Steam Fest! We'll be exhibiting our new prologue build, which we'll make available soon to the online playtest after some preliminary physical testing. Here's a sneak peek at what's to come: We're also launching our Discord server and you're invited!We're excited to meet you all! Remember to follow our socials to keep up with Dogwood: 🐾Discord🐾Bluesky🐾Instagram🐾Facebook🐾Youtube🐾TiktokRead full article on Community Announcements (teamsoleil.gaming)AnnouncementsOfficial
New story trailer & closed playtest signups!
Yeah, you saw that right. Animated cutscenes. Our wonderful artist / animator has been hard at work creating a cutscene for Dogwood's Prologue.Play as the grizzled war veteran, Sheriff, before the main story begins, and find out how he meets Doug. We also made an animated story trailer based off of the encounter (Spoilers!)As part of Tidal Splash 2026 (festival link here) we're opening playtest signups. The closed playtest is based off of a convention build, so it's only a short taste (about 10 minutes) of what the game offers. We're planning to continue to update it with more and more content as time goes on. The playtest begins soon, so be sure to sign up!Read full article on Community Announcements (teamsoleil.gaming)AnnouncementsOfficial
Dogwood is part of Tidal Splash 2026🌊
Link to the Steam Fest here.We've been putting in the hours working on Dogwood, including overhauling the graphics, VFX, and animations to bring you a more polished experience.Here's a sneak peek of water attacks we've been working on:Dogwood has shmup-lite polarity combat (similar to Ikaruga). We use red and blue colors to represent the two polarities. Red is usually depicted as fire while blue is depicted as water. When you're using the same color as the enemy bullets, you're temporarily invincible to them. In fact, you'll absorb their bullets as your own ammo. (This works until your gun absorbs too much ammo, in which case you're in danger of overloading.) And yeah, you can parry the bullets if you switch colors at the right time. It's very satisfying.Finally, we've got some big announcements are coming up in the next few days.Follow us on our socials to keep up with all the latest!🌊 Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/dogwoodgame.bsky.social🌊 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dogwood.arpg🌊 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DogwoodARPG🌊 Youtube: 🌊 Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dogwoodarpgRead full article on Community Announcements (teamsoleil.gaming)
