Concept Explained

The player’s objectives are to hide from the cat in a game of ‘cat and mouse.’ The player, playing as little Francis, must collect food and water in order to survive, all while searching for the sword and horn of legend in order to be rid of the cat in the castle: Max the Magnificent.

Game mechanics involve the prowling cat AI, which will follow your every move via the scent trail that you leave behind. In order to successfully avoid the cat, the player must learn how to “reverse track” the cat through their own sense of smell and leave false trails for the cat to follow. Doing things such as washing will temporarily remove your scent of ‘mouse.’ When the cat comes closer, there will be warning mechanics in place to warn the player of the cat’s approach. There will also be a food and hunger bar that will slowly decrease as you do more things, meaning you will eventually have to search for food or risk starvation or dehydration.

The key characters and objects are Max the Magnificent (the cat), little Francis (the player, in this case the mouse), food (in the form of cheese wedges), water (tiny mugs), and the objective of the game: the sword and horn.

 The game world will take place exclusively inside the castle. It also involves the secret chamber of the sword and horn. The castle is notably gothic in style. The gameplay and gamestyle will be styled as a puzzle game with strong ties to suspense and survival games. In order to succeed, the play must navigate the castle without being caught by Max. Due to the risky nature of the game (and to avoid having the player start completely over again), there will either be save points, a save journal, or autosaving.

The intended audience for this game is teens. In order to appeal to this audience, the game is complex with an additive thrill of staying alive to keep the target audience enthralled.

The art style is a suspenseful, darker ambience but with similar ties to the original IP. My original color palate has mostly blues and greens, with a splash of pale yellow for lighting from the windows. It’s meant to keep the players on edge while they are playing through the game.