“Crank The Weasel”

Overview

(Brian Silva)

Development Goals

1. Weasel is a true “weasel” in every sense of the word

2. The player's devious behavior steadily stirs each world into a full-scale frenzy!

3. The game’s look and feel are distinct: 1920's cartoon art style and authentic big band swing music

4. The A.I.’s emergent behavior provides constantly changing play scenarios

Weasel’s Story

Weasel’s a greedy little bastard that lives in the slums at the very bottom of a crazy city called Scratchtown. One morning, while sleeping, a scrap of paper floats in through the window of Weasel’s rundown shack and lands on his forehead. Weasel stirs and then reaches for the scrap of paper. Just then his bed folds up on him and fires him through the wall and out onto the street. Without warning, a giant object falls from the sky and smashes Weasel’s house. After the smoke clears, Weasel discovers that the giant object is a billboard advertising a vacation-getaway to the tropical wonderland of exotic Pleasure Island, and as fate would have it, the scrap of paper that blew in through Weasel’s window turns out to be a ticket for a plane ride to that very same island. So, with his home destroyed and a ticket to paradise in hand, Weasel begins his long journey to the top of Scratchtown.

Goal

Steal and pawn enough Big-Ticket-Items to pay each level’s exit toll in order to ultimately reach the top of Scratchtown and catch a plane ride to Pleasure Island. Pure and simple. The ways in which this can be accomplished are varied and amusing.

Game Rules

· Steal and pawn “x” number of Big-Ticket-Items in each level in order to move on to next level.

· When certain Big-Ticket-Items are obtained/pawned, access to more Big-Ticket-Items is granted within the same level.

· Obtaining each Big-Ticket-Item will require thought, skill, cunning and devious behavior. Weasel cannot simply attack a gang and take their Big-Ticket-Item so he’ll need to come up with alternative solutions.

· Several solutions available for successfully stealing & pawning each Big-Ticket-Item

· Successfully pawning a Big-Ticket-Item causes the previous owners of the Big-Ticket-Item to roam the playfield seeking vengeance, cash and even another BTI.

· Each time a Big-Ticket-Item is taken (not pawned), it causes a destructive reaction to occur (fire, flood, drain, smoke, sparks, crumbling structures, sirens, etc) at its origin.

· Once a Big-Ticket-Item is pawned, it causes the original “destructive reaction” to escalate. For example: taking a fuse box from a wall causes a sparking reaction. Pawning the fuse box turns the sparks into a full-blown fire. This will be shown through a series of in game cut scenes each time Weasel stands on Mr. Pawn’s “target pad” and pawns a BTI. Gameplay will freeze and the camera will cut to a scene of destruction, then back to Weasel (still standing on “target”). Gameplay resumes after camera returns to Weasel.

· NPCs are passive until Weasel provokes them

· Once NPC(s) are “unleashed”, they are constantly on the move, pursuing Weasel & other enemies, looking out for a new Big-Ticket-Item and fighting amongst themselves when they have nothing better to do.

· NPCs, stray Moneybags, and Bonus Games earn player cash.

· Cash is needed to use/get most everything in the level

Non-Player Characters (NPCs)

At the beginning of a game, each NPC possesses a preliminary set of “ideal” characteristics, meaning that they will go about their business, acting and functioning in an initially “composed” manner appropriate for their personality type. However, depending upon Weasel’s player-controlled actions (as well as the independent actions of the NPCs), these “ideal” characteristics will soon begin to alter as they are manipulated in a vast variety of ways that can either benefit or work against the player, and often provide surprising results. NPCs, while going about their business, will even change their own behavior to suit their immediate needs even if Weasel does not interact with them, resulting in amusing and varied gameplay. Basically, each playfield would naturally evolve on it’s own, Weasel just happens to throw a huge wrench into the equation.