Video game

Laika: The Space Dog

Liv Rayner

Greenwich, CT

Advisor: James Coltrain

Artist Bio

Liv Rayner is an aspiring game designer based in Greenwich, Connecticut. She has long been drawn to compelling stories and immersive worlds, first encountering them through books, films, and video games shared with her father. What began as a love of storytelling gradually evolved into an interest in how interactive systems shape narrative, leading her to pursue a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Digital Media and Design at the University of Connecticut, with a concentration in video game design.

Alongside her major, Liv is completing minors in History and English, strengthening her skills in research, analysis, and creative writing. While she once viewed history as distant or rigid, she became deeply interested in it during high school after discovering the unconventional stories of individuals who were often overlooked by mainstream narratives—people, and sometimes animals, whose lives were overshadowed by larger historical events. This shift changed not only how she viewed the past, but also how she approached storytelling.

Her work blends history and interactive media, using games as a means of reexamining forgotten or misunderstood stories. By blending historical research with character-driven design, she seeks to create experiences that invite players to engage with the past rather than observe it from a distance.

Artist Statement

Space Dog is a narrative puzzle-platformer that blends science-fiction mechanics with the real history of the Space Race. The game follows Laika, the first animal to orbit Earth in 1957, as she collects pieces of her space suit throughout gravity-altering environments. Though her mission was framed as a scientific success, Laika herself did not survive her journey.

In the game, players manipulate gravity to solve environmental puzzles, guiding Laika through confined, mechanical spaces alongside her companion, Yuri Gagarin — who would later become the first human in space in 1961. By combining historical figures with speculative mechanics, the project reimagines Laika’s story through immersive storytelling.

Through this format, I aim to broaden perspective through interactive play. Instead of presenting Laika’s story solely as a historical fact, the game invites players to see her perspective, even within a fictionalized framework. The act of solving puzzles and progressing through the space station mirrors the broader tension of the Space Race — advancement, ambition, and, more than anything, sacrifice.