Final polish round for Cohort 5

For round 5 we're polishing a previously created game and our programmer Darrell convinced us to continue work on his round 2 project, Dick Squirle: Private Investigator.

The original gameplay relied heavily on audio clues to tell you what was going on and the mechanic was to explore the rats' hideout and retrieve the diamond without being caught by the rat henchmen. You could walk normally or use a sneak feature that allowed you to pass by the rats at a closer radius without them being alerted to your presence. The level began on the rooftop where you listened to dialogue between two rats, then you climbed down an airduct and traveled through the duct maze until you dropped out into the warehouse. From there, you snuck around crates of TNT, avoiding drawing the attention of the randomly placed rat henchmen, and eventually you'd find the stolen diamond, pick it up, and the exit door would unlock to end the level.

The flaws we found were that the sneak mechanic was a bit tedious and didn't offer any alternative way to navigate the level. So our first addition to the gameplay was to add a throwing mechanism where we could throw two different projectiles, cheese (to lure enemies) or acorns (to stun them on impact). Also in the original version the nut diamond was just sitting out in the open and once you picked it up, an alarm would sound and you had to get to the warehouse doors. We wanted to actually include Big Ratsy as a "boss" character, so we're making the doors lead to his lair rather than the game over screen.

The game originally started with the newspaper scene telling the Nut Diamond was stolen, Dick Squirle is on the case, etc. and then just dropped the player on the roof with little to no direction. We decided to remove the ambient dialogue of the two rat henchmen on the roof and replace that all with a mouse informant standing near the air duct.


Kait's mouse model, complete with jaunty cap

Upon approach he'll tell Dick the first part of the boss' password and tell him what to do next. This will lead the player down the air duct maze and eventually down into the warehouse.


The original level design

The warehouse was determined to be too bland and needed some variety, which upon analysis was seen to be too much of a linear maze - something we already had in the air duct area. So we're working on retexturing some of the crates and walls to make them pop a little more, some additional objects (barrels, signs on the walls), and improving the lighting. The diamond will also not be just sitting out in the open, but rather once the player finds the other 3 mice with the pieces of the password to the boss' office, they will enter the office door and confront Big Ratsy who holds the diamond.

I've taken up the task of redesigning the menu screens and doing the credit reel, using a Film Noir motif for it all to keep the theme of the game. I'm also going to work on the sound design a bit more as well as modeling some of the warehouse items.