About Rat

Rat is a game that i worked on while doing my internship at DeStudio. It was made to tell the story of the 's-Hertogenbosch's liberation from the Nazi occupation at the end of the second world war. Our client was the historic museum of 's-Hertogenbosch which i was really excited to work with as i already knew quite a bit about 's-Hertogenbosch. The game will also be playable by the public at the museum.

I was part of the whole process from the first concept to the final presentation to our client. As the only programmer there i basically did everything that needed to be done in engine. I did the programming, game design, consepting and more. As i was the one with the most experience making games i coached the artsits and helped out everywhere around the studio.

Our client was verry happy and it even got an article which can be read here.
I learnt a ton by working on this project. But if i can only name 1 thing it would have to be the workflow and dynamic of a proffecional studio.

Features

Main menu

The main menu is created using projection mapping to map a 2d texture onto a 3d model. this way the lighting and the rat model behaves realistically.

Smelling food

The main gameplay look is: scavenge for food then bring it back to your nest. To find the food i made a sniff mechanic. Using it the rat will sniff and particles will spawn that will float into the direction of the food.

Information Interactables

In the game you will come across many interesting things. Interacting with these objects will give you a hystoricaly accurate explanation of what it is. As this is an educative game this information is the main reason to play. So in order to make it more fun to read i have added the thoughts of the rat and a little storyline about a killed medic.

Atmosphere

I was very inspired by the game Inside, easpecially the movement and atmosphere of the game. Atmosphere was a big thing as i think it adds a lot to a game. Even if the gameplay of a game isnt that fun or exciting if it has good atmosphere it will still be an enjoyable experience.

The liberation

Eventually after the whole city was destroyed during the liberation it was finally freed. No nazi's where present anymore. The queen even visited as a sign of victory over the previous occupants. When finishing the game the background changes to the celebration of the freed city. After about 1 minute it transitions back to the occupied city so that the next person playing starts from the beginning and so that everyone has the same experience.