Original Story Overview

The Royal Mice: the Sword and the Horn is a tragic story about a cat named Max the Magnificent. Lately, the Queen of All You Can See has been getting harassed by many mischievous mice. Max the Magnificent is called upon by the queen to purge all of the castle’s rodents. Max the Magnificent quickly goes to work, hunting down all the mice in his path. Max and the mice were locked in a struggle of 1-upping each other in a game of wit and skill. Eventually, the clever mice come up with a plot to get rid of Max once and for all. They sent their bravest mouse, Cadbury, to the top of the tower to retrieve the sword and the horn. Cadbury uses these instruments to summon an army of shadow mice, the spirits of the strongest warrior mice of the past. Max the Magnificent is helpless against the shadow mice and is driven out of the castle. The queen, without a magnificent cat to protect her, is forced to befriend and co-exist with the mice.

Art style analysis

The art style and the setting seems to be medieval. This is clearly indicated by the fact that they’re in a castle, and the framing around the subject image appears to have medieval style decorations. It should also be noted that to keep the idea that this is a rat infested castle, Krupinski draws mice into the decorated margins in many of the pages.

Game Design Proposal

The game I propose to make would be a 3d collect-a-thon platformer with Max as the main protagonist. This genre takes the most advantage of Unity’s 3d game engine capabilities. The collectibles will be of course be cowardly mice who are too afraid to move when Max gets close. Some special mice like Cadbury will run away and need to be chased or approached quietly. Some mice who are very good at hiding will require Max to “Seek” them out. “Seeking” is one of Max’s special moves that will allow him to sniff out the nearest mouse. He is able to do this at the cost of his movement being restrained while sniffing is active. (For example, not being able to jump and moving slower). Another one of Max’s abilities is to “Pounce”. When Max does this he will quickly leap forward with great force, enough to knock things over or catch unsuspecting mice. 

Level Design Concept

Each level will be a different part of the castle. But since indoor rooms are rarely used in collect-a-thon platformers, each level would be islands that contain aspects of a room in a castle. For example, the level called Kitchen, would be a pile of things in a kitchen like pantries full of various spices or a boiling kettle. To catch all of the mice Max needs to use environmental objects to help him navigate around the level.

Target Audience

This game would appeal to gamers who enjoy 3d platformers who like to explore their environment and tackle challenges in creative ways.

Rough Sketch up