Mouse P.I. For Hire

Vic Gatore

Join private investigator Jack Pepper on a guns blazing, jazz-fueled adventure in MOUSE: P.I. For Hire. MOUSE combines the charm of hand-drawn rubber hose animation inspired by the classic cartoons of the 1930’s with the adrenaline and action of an explosive first person shooter.

Bosses

Robo-Betty 1

Genre: FPS Noir Boomer Shooter | Team Size: 60 | Project Duration: 1 Year 3 Months | Engine: Unity

Design Responsibilities - Overview

I led a 13+ multidisciplinary team to design, scope, and deliver ~12 major boss encounters. Translating paper designs into playable & polished end-to-end combat experiences. I was in-engine building and sequencing the boss fight from start to end.

I championed the creation & integration of a systemic boss intro cinematics. Being in engine and adding/implementing intro sequences to each major boss in game. I established workflows, best practices, educated my multi-disciplinary team members (design, art, animation, audio). I was able to delegate and then oversee the creation of multiple intro sequences. The cinematic toolset was additionally adopted game-wide by narrative designers and level designers to create context appropriate cinematic moments.

Similarly to boss intro cinematics, I advocated for and prototyped extra script/dialogue for both the player character and bosses. This added a vessel for extra storytelling & flavour, character development, mechanical feedback & player guidance. I collaborated with Fumi’s lead narrative designer, presenting placeholder but intentional design led dialogue. They then turned placeholder lines into final dialogue, well written cues. All of the additional dialogue we created ended up getting fully voice acted and implemented into the game.

Robo-Betty 2

Crooked Officer

Bandel’s Lab

MiceGuffin Macleod

Levels

I evolved 3 levels from initial greybox layouts into fully arted, playable end-to-end experiences. Intentionally improving structure & geometry, level guidance, sequencing, spectacle and environmental storytelling. Level designers continued elevating these levels while I moved on to focus on bosses. Additionally, I continued to support and guide 2 level designers on their collective 6+ levels over the duration of the project.

Clergy Row

Character Controller & Abilities

Core Game Design Responsibilities

Designed & built 12 Boss fights from end-to-end dev cycle.
- Boss Paper Design, Collaboration & Iteration, Buy-in with PlaySide & Fumi Design leads.
- Intro Cinematics & Sequencing + Dialogue & VO.
- Boss mechanics, combat, phases & abilities design.
- Guided Programmers, 2D animators, 3D artists, VFX, Audio.
- Behaviour Tree setup & maintenance.
- Encounter design & sequencing.
- Consumables placement & checkpoint design.
- Minimum Loadout Config (Ammo if > x after dying).
- Boss Health Bar Distinction (Miniboss Vs Boss)
- Boss Health Bar Visual Feedback (Chips, Decay, Shake, Portrait Animations).

Facilitated and lead Bi-Weekly PlaySide / Fumi Design Syncs.
- Showcasing work, presenting problem/solution spaces, providing constructive feedback, problem solving, scoping, deliverables & stakeholder management.
Analyze playtesting feedback & data from GoTestify.
Prioritize & propose solutions based on playtesting feedback & data.
Responsible for multiple hands on / hands of demo’s
- Initial Summer Games Fest Hands Off Opera Demo
- Led the quality and player experience
- Streamlined navigation & guidance
- Encounter & pacing
- Specified requirements for sonic and visual polish

Robo-Betty 3

Cpt. Simms

Videos from a player: Ben-Gun

Videos from a players

Built x3 levels
- Grey box to - fully sequenced & playable + iteration.
- Interactable object setup & sequencing.
- Encounter design & combat pacing.
- Consumables, Checkpoints & Save Space placement.
- Structural, flow & set dressing improvements.
- Quest sequencing.
- Misc Lighting.
- Level Borders & Collision passes.
- Mitigated sequence breaks & exploits.
- Injected in-level cinematics & spectacle moments.
- Wrote script for worldbuilding, player guidance and mechanics.
- Secret area setup.
- Safe Placement & Interior Configs per safe.
- Guided other level designers on theory and technical implementation
- Collaborate with Fumi level designers on level intent.
- Provide constructive feedback to Fumi level designers.
- Collaborate with Fumi Lead Designer on boss intent.
- Provide constructive feedback to Fumi’s Lead Designer.

For N.L - Visuals/Sonics to capture

[V & S] All Boss Intro’s (Sequenced)
[V] Mini-Boss vs Big Boss Health Bar
[V] Boss Health Bar Damage Feedback
[V] Destructible Wall Design Language
[V & S] Boot Splash Troy Baker Tune
[V] Quick Throw TNT
[V] Ze Professor Cables & Regular White Cables

Miscellaneous Design Contributions

Jack’s Exit Car - Design Language Update

Problem
In multiple levels across the game, Jack’s car is used to exit the current level. Mouse established a design language that anything important that the player can interact with has an outline shader + motion. Initially, Jack’s car deviated from the established design language. It looked like a static object that blended in with the set dressing. Players didn’t know they could interact with it, they missed it.

Solution
I advocated for Jack’s car to use the established design language - adding texture variants, outline shader, motion and additional spatial audio. Leaning into what players had already been taught - if it looks like this, it’s interactable. This change always made it stand out in the environment and players always felt they could use it.

Game Design Contributions

Third Ex-Wife

Technologies Used

Unity
GoTestify (Playtesting)
Proprietary Behaviour Tree System
PowerSprite Animator (by PowerHoof)

Von Harzer

Curdsville Nuthouse

I spearheaded the refactor and uplift of the character controller & abilities. This reduced clunkiness, increased fluidity of traversal brining the quality to meet modern day FPS titles. Additionally I guided a muti-disciplinary team to empower the game feel of character movement & player abilities.

Redesigned character controller abilities & game feel
- Movement, Jump & Double Jump, Crouching, Sliding, Grappling Hook, Helicopter, Wall Run, Wall Climb
Redesigned & tuned the ‘Kick’ mechanic & game feel.
- Kicking enemies, destructibles, doors, barrels.

Safe Lockpicking Visual & Functional Update

Context
In each level, there are 3 safes that the player can find and unlock. One of each difficulty:

Easy - Infinite moves, no time limit, causes damage on fail.
Medium - Infinite moves, has a moderate time limit, causes damage on fail.
Hard - Exact move amount, very short time limit, causes damage & locks itself on fail.

Problem 1 - No Visual Distinction Per Difficulty Type
Initially - the exteriors of the safe were all visually identical. Players only found out what difficulty the safe was once they started the lockpicking minigame. It was quite punishing for the player to get surprised with move and or time limits.

Solution
To give each safe a unique exterior visual and associate that with a specific difficulty of safe. The darker the safe, the harder it was.

Easy

Medium

Hard

Problem 2 - Misleading Lockpicking UI
Across all 3 difficulties, all ui always persisted, no sfx though. Easy displayed 999 moves, and a timer on the clock that felt like it never ticked down. It was misleading and cluttered the UI without reason.

Solution
Hide all ui on easy, only show timer on medium + sound, show moves & time limits on hard.

Boot Sequence & Troy Baker Tune

At some point, the Audio & Voice Recording team got Troy Baker to sing along to the main menu theme of Mouse. The entire team was in love with it as soon as we heard it - but it went unused for a good while…. Testing a fresh build one day, I’d noticed that the boot sequence of the game just felt a bit… empty - up until the main menu fades in and the music hits. I suggested to one of the audio members that we should try inject Troy’s singalong into the booting splash sequence. A few minutes later, and Troy’s Jack Pepper tune was in - and the teams loved it!
I love that we could find a place and squeeze in just a bit more of flavour.

Fork
Visual Studio & Rider IDE’s (C#)
Git
Miro
Confluence
Jira

Slack
Discord
Notion
GoTestify (Playtesting)

Credit

M. Soyer & J. Pierogi

Quick Throw TNT
UI/UX Improvements
- Weapon Wheel Interactions
- Weapon Wheel information & visibility states
[Unreleased] Curated Boss Per Difficulty Scaling System

Established design language for destructible walls.
Advocated for spatial audio on typewriters.
Tutorial Poster Setup & Placement.