Target Audience: 5-13 year old boys and girls, and pet enthusiasts of all ages.
Gameplay mode: Single player.
Platform: Web browser. If popular, it can be developed further into a downloadable title for DSiWare, iPhone, XBLA, PSN, WiiWare, Steam, etc.
Camera mode: 2D side-scroller.
Genre: Action platformer with some puzzle elements.
Characters: The player controls either a small kitten or puppy. Other characters include the pet’s owner, human neighbors, and other cats or dogs in the neighborhood.
High concept statement: It is a 2D sidescrolling platformer in which you play as a kitten or a puppy, and the goal of the game is to smell as many things as possible in your house, yard, and/or neighborhood, before your owner finds out that you snuck out of the house.
Gameplay: The game will consist of exploring a 2D environment by walking, running, and jumping around, and smelling everything you can. In addition to moving the player character around, the two main commands will be jumping and sniffing. The smells will be represented visually by “smell lines,” like those in a comic book.
There will be three types of smells, 1, 2, and 3. All 3 types are shown (and labeled 1, 2, and 3) in the attached picture Diagram A.
Diagram A:
Smell 1) The first type of smell is the stationary smell. These smells will stay in one place, and you will have to find them, walk right up to them, and press the smell button.
Examples are: a bowl of pet food, human dinner, a tree, catnip, or another animal. If you find any of these, you’ll need to walk up to them and smell them. The smell lines will be visibly emanating from the objects, but they will be short lines that don’t move too far from the source.
Smell 2) The second type of smell is the hidden stationary smell. These smells will also stay in one place, but they will need to be “switched on” in some way. This might be a sealed jar of cookies. The player can’t smell the contents of the jar, but knows there’s a good smell in there. If the player can break the jar open (by pushing things around to create a staircase, or by bumping into the shelf hard enough to make the jar fall off), a new stationary smell will come out.
Smell 3) The third type of smell is the moving smell. These will be represented by much longer smell lines that move by very fast. These smells quickly pass the character on the wind. They may come from an open window, an open door, a fan, or an air conditioner. The player will quickly want to press the smell button while catching these in his or her nose. For some of these the player will have to jump and press the smell button in the air at the right moment. (This mid-air smell technique is shown in the attached picture, Diagram B.)
Diagram B:
The different smells will have different point values, with the highest point values being reserved for the fastest moving smells and some of the hardest to find hidden smells.
A walkthrough of the game:
Intro: The game will begin with a small intro cartoon. The player will first decide to play as a kitten or a puppy. The game begins with the owner leaving the house to run some errands. Now alone, the pet gets excited, jumps into the air, and proclaims “I WANT TO SMELL EVERYTHING!” It will be very campy, with a flashy rainbow background appearing just for this line of dialogue. Then the game begins.
The game: A timer will countdown from three minutes in the corner of the screen. This is the amount of time the player has before the owner finds them and brings them back home. The player will wander around the house looking for smells.
Eventually the player will find a way out of the house and wander around the yard. Some more houses in the neighborhood will have entrances. Some areas will only be available to cats (who can climb trees), while others will only be available to dogs (who can dig under fences or swim across a pool).
If the player finds all the hidden smells in one area (such as the pet’s house or the pet’s yard), the player will receive a large amount of bonus points, plus a treat to show that they’ve completed an area.
Players will encounter some other characters in the game. Some humans and animals will be friendly, while others will be aggressive. Friendly humans may offer a snack or try to pet you, while friendly animals may let you sniff them if you let them sniff you in return. Some animals may let you follow them home, where they have some of their own smelly toys and food. Aggressive humans may try to chase you out of their house with a broom, while aggressive animals may refuse to let you pass a certain path, or chase you out of a certain area.
The player will have a few other commands that are mostly useless, such as rolling over, playing dead, barking, whimpering, growling, yelping, meowing, purring, hissing, digging, wagging one’s tail, and rolling over. The player might just play around with all the sound effects for fun, but they also might find uses for some of them at certain points in the game. For example, choosing to do the right “cute pet moves” in front of an aggressive human might calm them down. This will allow the player to pass, and find some more hidden smells. However, if you break a jar to get a smell out in front of a human, they’ll probably chase you outside after that. So the player should try to get the easy smells first, before breaking any valuables.
The end: After three minutes of exploring and smell-collecting, no matter where the player is, the owner will appear. The owner will say “Oh that’s where you are! I’ve been looking all over for you!” and take the pet home. Once home, there will be another short cartoon. The player will fall asleep really fast after its adventure, and a little dream bubble will appear. With a smile on his/her face, the pet will dream about all the smells it smelled on its adventure. This “dream” will be the high score, and it will quickly tally all the smells, the % of smells collected in each area, and the total score. The player will then be able to submit their score to the leaderboards, and then choose to play again as the same animal, or choose to play again as the other animal. As they have access to different areas, there will be separate high score leaderboards for cat players and dog players.
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