Overview
What is this project?
A Rat's Tail is an interactive story game that expresses themes of social status through beauty standards via a whimsical adventure told from the perspective of rats.
Within this world, the social rankings of the rats are based on how beautiful their society views them, leading to an incredibly unstable and unfair hierarchy.
In-game screenshot
In-Game
Gameplay Screenshots
In-game screenshots
02 — Concept
The Idea
Concept sketches / mood board
Art Direction
Characters & Visual Style
Character sprite sheet
A peek inside the game — click to watch
Background scenes — chambers · diner · gym · Ratilda's room
03 — Process
How I built it
Early character sketches · Story flowchart / script outline
Step 01
Research & Ideation
When thinking about the theme I wanted to convey, I looked into my own life and my own struggles, and one of those things was the beauty standard. Would I possibly be able to grasp the physical beauty that I saw in other people and in society? Why did my own perception of myself hold me back so much? Then this leads to the question: Why does it even matter? The answer I came up with for the last question was "it didn't". Beauty, such as art, is a subjective thing that everyone perceives it differently.
Step 02
Writing & World-Building
A Rat's Tail is meant to present as a whimsical tale, but the deeper you dive into it, the more you discover that there is a lot to uncover. Its aesthetic is very inviting and unique, with a cute art style and jazz-themed soundtrack. The tone throughout the story is very humorous, with heartwarming moments and a deep and relatable underlying theme.
Step 03
Building & Animating
The animation is meant to be very 'bouncy', utilizing squash and stretch, tweening, and/or rigged character models. All the character animations were done within After Effects. They were drawn and sketched out in Procreate.
Step 04
Playtesting & Polish
I got a lot of positive feedback, especially on the voiceacting and art. I noticed a lot of people skipping different paths and going back and trying new ones. That was definitely nice to see that people were interested in all the different routes!
04 — Problem Solving
Challenges & Solutions
Challenges
- I'm not a coder, so navigating Python was a challenge that I had to conquer.
- In this demo, I had to cut back on some of the cutscenes so that I could get it out in time. Scope was something that I always had to keep in mind while creating this project.
- I didn't realize how important optimization was when it came to storage space. My animations would glitch out due to having too many frames and that was something that I had to work around.
Solutions
- When learning to code in Python I utilized the tools that I had around me, such as AI and documentation online.
- I managed scope by cutting out things that weren't exactly necessary to get a complete demo out.
- When it came to optimization, I learned how to cut back and work around limitations by reducing frame count and ping-ponging animations instead of looping.
05 — Outcomes
What it achieved
A+
Senior Thesis final grade
8 mo
Concept to published prototype
Live
Published on Itch.io
06 — Reflection
What I learned
This project has inspired me to create more graphic novels in the future!
Now that I've developed deeper skills in Ren'Py, narrative design, animation, scoping a solo long-term project, I feel like I'm ready to move onto an even bigger project!