DogeBio
| DogeBio | |
|---|---|
 The memo's illustration: a curly-coated dog with its tongue out and its paws on a ledge | |
| Developer(s) | Molecular Reality Corporation |
| Publisher(s) | Molecular Reality Corporation |
| Platform(s) | Maxine's Quest (planned) |
| Release | Unreleased |
| Genre(s) | Canine biology |
DogeBio is a planned game about the biology of dogs by Molecular Reality Corporation, the seventh of the eight titles in the 2022 memo "Early Releases on Maxine's Quest". Its samples are "Dog biosamples, rapamycin metabolites, dog food", which players were to run through a nanopore on the company's console. It is the only title in the memo whose inspiration happened at the company itself: "An actual game of fetch with our Chief Quadruped Officer, who was named 'Doge' IRL years before the coin was a thing."[1] The game had not been released by October 2026.
Chief Quadruped Officer
The memo gives the company dog a title in the form of an executive's, and leaves out its breed, its age and the year it was named. Dogecoin, "the coin", is a cryptocurrency started in December 2013 as a joke on the Doge meme, and its logo shows the meme's dog. That meme grew from a 2010 photograph of Kabosu, a Shiba Inu in Japan, glancing sideways at the camera, which others later captioned with phrases in broken English; the spelling "doge" has been traced to a 2005 episode of the web cartoon Homestar Runner. In the memo's illustration the company's dog has a curly white coat, a pink tongue and two paws on a ledge.
DogeBio does not appear in the company's 2021 advertisement or in the tally of 135 answers to its sign-up form, which asked new members to choose among seven early games.[2] Of the memo's eight titles, it is the only one absent from both.
Samples
The memo's field for the game is "canine biology". Dog food needs no explanation. Rapamycin is a drug first isolated from a soil bacterium collected on Easter Island, whose native name, Rapa Nui, it carries. It suppresses the immune system and is used to prevent the rejection of transplanted organs. In 2009 it became the first drug shown to extend the lives of mice when given late in life,[3] and it has since been tested as a treatment for aging in pet dogs. Its "metabolites" are the substances into which the body breaks it down. The memo does not say which "biosamples" it meant. The company's later documents name two: saliva, in its quiz, and feces, in its plans of 2026.
Later plans
In May 2026 the company's plan for universe wrappers, games laid over the software of Maxine's Quest as changes of art and story, listed "DogeBio (poop)" among them. Its sketch of the wrapper relabels the game's voltage knob "Sniff intensity" and its zapper, which applies a brief spike of maximum voltage across the pore, "FLUSH".[4] Dung had until then belonged to another title in the memo, Poop of the Gods, whose science is "in fimo biology".[1]
The company's quiz, JeoPOREdy!, has a clue under the heading "Doge Bio" whose answer is lysozyme, an enzyme in saliva, tears and egg white that breaks open the walls of bacteria. Its commentary adds: "our DogeBio game lets you molecularly stream right from your pet's playful slobber!"[2] Alexander Fleming described lysozyme in 1922, six years before he noticed penicillin. Hen lysozyme is also the protein released by the eye in the animation on the company's front page.[2]
See also
- Labyrinth of the Dragon Tyrant, the memo's other game about aging
- List of unrealized Molecular Reality Corporation projects
References
- ^ a b "Early Releases on Maxine's Quest". Molecular Reality Corporation. 2022.
- ^ a b c "Company records". Molecular Reality Corporation. October 2026.
- ^ "Rapamycin fed late in life extends lifespan in genetically heterogeneous mice". Nature 460: 392-395. 2009. doi:10.1038/nature08221.
- ^ "Company records". Molecular Reality Corporation. May 2026.