Mice against one cat in a human house
Low Poly Mouse Game puts 2-4 players in the role of low-poly mice, with one player taking the lone cat. The whole match happens inside a human house built with lots of verticality and tricks, so the floors, furniture and clutter become the arena. The mice have a clear job: complete enough standard tasks, then finish both final tasks, and the house is destroyed. Along the way they can eat cheese for a temporary speed boost, jump up small obstacles, and use mouse tunnels to get around. The cat has the opposite goal: bring the mouse team's lives down to 0 and save the house. It attacks by pouncing or pawing, and it moves faster, jumps higher, and can pounce, so it covers ground the mice cannot match.
How the group plays it together
This is a game about noise and silence. Mice talk to each other through proximity chat, which means your voice carries only so far, so coordinating a task run means staying close or shouting across a room and giving yourself away. The cat tracks mice by audio cues and by their trails, so every squeak and every conversation is information for the hunter. The mice can also spout nonsense at each other just for the fun of it, which is a fine way to bait the cat or a fine way to get caught. The cat's energy drops throughout the game and determines whether it moves fast or slow, so sleeping to revitalize is part of the hunt, not a break from it. Expect a tense back-and-forth where the mice win by working through tasks and the cat wins by picking them off one at a time.
Before you start
The game is tagged as difficult, so a first round will likely be rough for whoever is stuck playing the cat and for mice who wander alone. It works as online co-op for the mice and online PvP against the cat, so you need a group that can fill both sides. It was made as a Senior Capstone project for RPI's Games and Simulation Arts and Sciences program, which fits the scrappy, cartoony feel of it. Come in ready to laugh at the nonsense coming through proximity chat and to lose a few rounds learning the house.