MouseHunt
| MouseHunt | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | HitGrab, Inc. |
| Platform(s) | |
| Release | 7 March 2008 |
MouseHunt is a popular Facebook application in which players, referred to as hunters, catch mice with a variety of traps in order to earn experience points and virtual gold through passive gameplay. From time to time the developers add new locations and mice as well as sponsor periodic giveaways and tournaments. MouseHunt was developed by HitGrab, Inc. under the direction of Bryan Freeman and Joel Augé and released to a select group of participants for beta testing in early 2008. On 7 March 2008, MouseHunt was officially released to the general public. Just nine months later, MouseHunt earned its creators a $250,000 development grant from Facebook.[1] Though MouseHunt was originally catered for the US population, Mousehunt is hugely popular in Singapore, especially with secondary and tertiary students.
Story
The game of MouseHunt is set in the fantasy kingdom of Gnawnia. The player is a hunter, hired by the King of Gnawnia to catch mice that infest the kingdom by using virtual traps, bases and cheese.
Gameplay
MouseHunt is a passive game. The player, which acts as a hunter, arms his or her trap and baits it with cheese and can then sound the "Hunter's Horn" as often as once every 15 minutes. Every time the player sounds the horn, he is taken on a hunt and has a possibility of catching a mouse. For each mouse the player catches, he gets a unique reward, which is a certain amount of points and gold, dependent on the breed of mouse and its weight, captured. Automatic "Trap Checks" conducted at the top of each hour allow for a total of five opportunities to catch mice every hour.
Rank
As the player progresses through the game, he or she will increase in rank, in the order Novice, Apprentice, Journeyman, Master, Grandmaster, Legendary, Hero, Knight, Lord/Lady, Baron/Baroness and Count/Countess.
Locations
When the player first starts out, there are only 2 areas available to them. When they level up, more locations are unlocked for them. Additionally, they will need to collect map pieces in order to get access to other locations. There are a total of 25 locations in the game, grouped into seven regions.
Traps and bases
The traps range from the simple to the many wacky traps on offer. They have a certain points requirement, restricting people with lesser points from being able to buy the trap component even if he/she has lots of gold (to prevent people from buying their way through the game). For example, if the points requirement of a certain trap is 3 million points, and the player has 2 million points, he would be unable to buy the item, despite having sufficient gold. Traps are either bought, or crafted. For traps that can be bought, they can be found at certain stores, called Trapsmiths, and they can be refunded too (for 18% of the original cost). Traps also have power types, and it would influence the effectiveness of the trap against certain types of mice.
Cheese
There is a very large cheese variety on offer, which can be bought or crafted. Certain cheese can also be made by imbuing potions into a certain type of cheese. At present there are 6 (not including SUPER|brie+) standard cheeses that can be bought with gold at the various Cheese Shoppes in the game. There are 24 special cheeses that can can be crafted, created with potions, or picked up as loot.
Crafting
Crafting is an important element into the game, especially when people ascend ranks. A wide variety of things can be crafted, from map pieces, to traps, and cheese. Crafting is only available to players of Apprentice rank and above. As a person's rank ascends, he will get more "crafting slots", meaning that he can combine more items. Players initially have 2 slots, one "safe slot", and one "red slot". Should the red slot need to be used, there is a risk that the attempt to combine that item will fail, losing all the ingredients used in the process. For every level up, players receive one more "safe slot", enabling them to safely combine more items. Within crafting, there is also the Hunter's Hammer, which is essentially a tool to smash certain items, which usually is used to craft another item, most of the time to craft traps.
Loot
Some mice may drop loot, which includes map pieces, potions and crafting items, cheese, etc.
Potions
Potions are usually used to imbue a certain type of cheese into another type of cheese. For example, imbuing brie cheese with a Radioactive Blue Cheese curd potion would convert the brie cheese into Radioactive Blue cheese. The Developers have mentioned that in the future, potions may be used to upgrade trap components.
Catching mice
Mice have certain power weaknesses (there are six in the game: Physical, Shadow, Tactical, Forgotten, Arcane, and Hydro), and using certain trap power types would influence the effectiveness of the trap against certain types of mice. Also using different kinds of cheese could give you a higher chance of attracting different varieties of mice.
Breeds of Mice
From its birth in March 2008 till now, MouseHunt has 165 breeds of mice, excluding the rare breeds. Some of them, when caught, will drop loot, which will be essential as players progress through the game. Along with this, there are 25 special Event/Rare Mice, some of which are released for a short period during occasional events. These mice might drop a special kind of cheese, called SUPER|brie+ (SB+), cash prizes (one lucky hunter was lucky enough to win $1000 from a mouse known as the Master Burglar mouse and you can also catch the Leprechaun mouse which is worth $25-500 which currently has around 800 catches) , and many other in-game prizes.
Updates to MouseHunt
MouseHunt 1.0
Mousehunt 1.0 was the initial release of the game. Many of the current gameplay elements, like crafting, were still not present. Shortly after release, MouseHunt 2.0 was already in the works.
MouseHunt 2.0
Mousehunt 2.0 is the current version of the game. It boasted many more User Interface changes, along with major gameplay elements, like Crafting. It was released on 6 October 2008. This version consists of a handy toolbar with a heading at the top of the page. On the Camp page, the layout has the banner, many buttons, and the traps, journal, and a short summary by "Larry", who is a fictional knight that hunts.
MouseHunt 3.0
MouseHunt 3.0 is the current Mousehunt version, nicknamed "Longtail", and is currently in beta testing, open to Facebook users.[2]
Game description from the application page: MouseHunt is a Facebook game of epic proportions. You are a hunter, hired by the king to find and trap the mice that infest his kingdom. For each mouse you catch, you'll find a unique reward, bringing you closer to being the best MouseHunter in the land!
Developers
MouseHunt was developed by HitGrab Inc., a company based in Oakville, Ontario, Canada.[3]
Donations
Players can donate to the developers of Mousehunt by buying credits in the game, which give them a certain type of cheese, called Super|Brie+. This cheese is superior to all other types of cheese, giving the player an added advantage to catching mice. Credits can be bought using Paypal, Offerwall, Offerpal, Cherry Credits, Rixty, and Facebook credits.
