This interview took place before Squirrel With a Gun’s release.
Animal mayhem is an increasingly popular kind of game, often with puzzle-solving or sandbox elements being blended together for maximum chaos. ButSquirrel With a Gunenters the scene as the full-on platformer that, like it says on the tin, gives a squirrel a gun. Combining that premise with a loose narrative, bosses, platforming challenges, and clever physics creates a fascinating, zanyanimal mayhem game.
Game Rant spoke withSquirrel With a Gundeveloper Dan DeEntremont about the title ahead of the game’s release at the end of August. As seen insome of the exclusive screenshotsGame Rant obtained, this particular squirrel is armed and dangerous.The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
How to Handle A Squirrel With a Gun
Q: Can you introduce yourself?
DeEntremont:Hi. My name is Dan DeEntremont, and I’m the game director on Squirrel with a gun.
Q: So the most important question that I have for you is, how can we humans hope to defend ourselves from armed squirrels?
DeEntremont:That’s a good question. When they put their minds to it, they’re pretty difficult to stop. Certainly, the bad guys in the game haven’t been able to so far. But I’d say just have a cache of acorns ready and make sure to dole them out if one of them comes along and tries to rob you.
Q: That’s a good strategy. What drives a humble squirrel to a life of crime?
DeEntremont:Oh, this one in particular is just making its way around this secret underground bunker that it’s not meant to be in. He sees a thingamajig that kind of looks like a golden acorn to the squirrel, and then it goes and grabs it and just gets pursued by these secret agents for the rest of the game–and as such, he must defend himself.
Q: What kind of antics and mayhem should mere humans expect from felonious squirrels like this?
DeEntremont:Well, I think mainly you’re going to be getting a lot of shooting and some puzzles, and platforming even! The platforming itself kind of involves the guns as well. The squirrel can shoot straight down, fire a bullet and then use the recoil to get up onto higher ledges or farther ledges, places where it would not normally be able to reach alone?
A Flying Squirrel, Thanks to Physics
One thing DeEntremont said separatesSquirrel With a Gunfrom other animal mayhem games likeUntitled Goose Gameandits spiritual successorLittle Kitty, Big Cityis that it uses its main conceit–squirrels armed with increasingly powerful firearms–and basic physics to introduce an element of platforming to the title. As a result,Squirrel With a Gunplays more like a platformer than its counterparts, and even includes boss fights.
Q: That’s a good segue into shifting out of considering the real implications of this into more mechanical talk. That is an incredibly unique mechanic: using the physics of the recoil as a way to launch yourself around. Where did the inspiration for that come from?
DeEntremont:I’m not exactly sure where it originated from. I know that it was kind of an idea in my head for a while, just like this strange, bizarre thing that indie devs tend to have floating around. There was an Eddie Izzard bit where, I don’t remember the joke, but the punchline was “diamonds, sherbets and squirrels with a gun.” I know I’ve heard that bit before, so it might have been subconsciously seeded from it.
Q: What sets the game apart from other animal mayhem games likeUntitled Goose GameorGoat Simulator?
DeEntremont:I’d say the game hasa bit of a platforming and puzzling edgeto it. It’s got a little bit of everything. It’s got a lot of cut scenes with some of the enemy agents and some bosses, things like that, you know. Make it a little cinematic experience there. So I think it’s got some drama in that regard.
Q: Can you give us an example of some of the platforming challenges that the squirrel will face?
DeEntremont:Basically, there’sseven or so gunsin the game where the squirrel can use their recoil to fire and launch himself farther, and be able to clear big gaps or things like that. Each gun has its own ability to change platforming: there’s a submachine gun that when you fire it down, you’re kind of jetpacking around a little bit until the magazine runs out, and then there’s the rocket launcher, where you would simply fire it down and fly 100 feet in the air.
Q: So we’ve got the submachine gun and the rocket launcher. What are the other weapons in the squirrel’s arsenal?
DeEntremont:Well, we got our usual handgun, the main star that you’ve seen in most of the in most of the promotional images, that’s a classic. We also have a six-shooter for a cowboy area. You can get a cowboy hat that increases your proficiency with the six-shooter, you’d be able to use it to fire more shots to go farther. We have a shotgun that people really like because of its tendency to just blast enemies away and give them a little ragdoll action. We have the submachine gun, as I mentioned. There’s a grenade launcher, which is good for crowd control although not as good as a jump propellant. And then there’s the rocket launcher which just kind of makes you go super high, has one shot, but is extremely powerful. And we also have a sniper rifle for some long-range challenges.
Q: You mentioned a squirrel with a cowboy hat, and that’s an exciting premise. What other sorts of accessories can we give our squirrel?
DeEntremont:There’s a lot of accessories we have. One of my favorites is a bomb suit. You can collect a helmet and also the suit itself, and you’re able to run across a field of landmines without getting hurt, although you will fly around in ragdoll. We have a diving suit which enables the squirrel to control his buoyancy. It can sink to the bottom of bodies of water or float to the top and lets you do some deep diving. And then we have random accessories.
We got lots of hats. We got a trench coat. We’ve got a dress. We’ve got one of those big fancy Kentucky Derby hats. Of course, we have our cowboy hat. And these outfits have additional perks to them. You might come across an acorn beret and an eye patch, which increases the damage when the squirrel snaps necks… also the squirrel can snap necks in this game.
In addition to the outfits, there’s also various fur colors and patterns that you can get. If your favorite squirrel is a red squirrel with its little pointy ears, you can find it for them. If your favorite squirrel is black or albino or something, those are around there too.
Q: The squirrel can also go into other bunkers and face bosses. What are these bosses like?
DeEntremont:The bosses are, as you might say, the mother and father of all agents. They’re basically this big agent family and mom and dad are there in their armored vehicles to do battle with the squirrel, and hopefully for the player to be futile in defeating it. There’s bosses involving armored vehicles. We have a tank andwe have an attack helicopter, and those things will prove challenging for the little rodent.
Q: If it isn’t too much of a spoiler, what is the motivation behind the agents?
DeEntremont:Oh, the agents! Well, at the beginning of the game, the squirrel finds itself in this secret bunker where it, as I mentioned before, finds that doohickey that resembles a gold acorn, that it perceives to be a Golden Acorn. And so the squirrel grabs it, and then these agents come along, and they’re not happy about it, and so they’re pursuing the squirrel throughout the game to presumably try and get this back, or just maybe have a bit of a vengeance on it.
Q: And I assume the other Golden Acorns in the game are more of these doohickeys?
DeEntremont:They might be! They appear to the squirrel as Golden Acorns. They could be other doohickeys. There’s agents everywhere - they could belong to them? But they’re mainly there to be sort of a main collectible in the game, in order to motivate the player to explore the world, and check out all the citizens and their puzzles and all that fun stuff.
Where The Squirrel Goes from Here
While not working totally alone, DeEntremont is in most practical definitions a solo developer. Though that can be a lot of effort put into a passion project, DeEntremont, like many solo developersin the mold ofStardew Valley’s ConcernedApe, plans to continue support forSquirrel with a Gunafter release. His spirits are high, and he’s looking forward to giving squirrels more tools to enrich the experience.
Q: Are you a solo dev?
DeEntremont:I would say that regarding all the gameplay development and stuff, I’m a solo dev, but we have a composer, we have a porting team from Maxim Entertainment helping port to consoles. So I can’t truly call it a solo experience, but I would say it’s adjacent to that when it comes to all the gameplay and effectsand Unreal Engine stuff.
Q: It’s one week before release when we’re talking. What’s your mood like?
DeEntremont:A little manic, but pretty excited. We’re putting some finishing touches on [the game] before release. And once we’re finished with the main stuff, we will be continuing on to some post-launch content to keep the train running.
Q: Can you give us a preview of that post-launch content?
DeEntremont:I think the earliest we want to get out is a photo mode. So, you know, we can get people capturing their little antics with the squirrel, and hopefully getting some funny screen caps along the way.
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