Mouse: P.I. for Hire devs share ambitions to make a game that's more than 'just a cool art project': A satirical metroidvania shooter with 'adult, deep, gripping storylines'

I had the chance to sit down with the developers of Mouse: P.I. for Hire, a first-person shooter currently in development by Fumi Games. In a hands-off presentation shown to me by lead producer Maciej Krzemień and CEO/Game Director Mateusz Michalak at Gamescom, I was able to see quite a hefty chunk of gameplay, as well as get a little insight into the development process.

Fumi Games has a unique task put before them, after a video posted to TikTok by the game's lead programmer «went viral,» as Krzemień explains. «It gained huge traction, like a huge amount of views, and back then, we already knew 'all right, people like this, we have something cool on our hands.'»

The challenge, as both developers highlight, is making sure that Mouse stands on its own two rubber hose legs: «Many people,» Krzemień says, «upon seeing our game, tend to call it 'just a cool art project'. Others call it 'just another Boomer shooter'. And we know where that comes from, obviously, because we are heavily focused on the art, we are heavily focused on all the key elements that make an FPS game fun.»

Mouse is also looking to be quite a pretty game, now that the studio's upped their environmental artwork: «If you are familiar with our previous trailers, previous materials, you may have noticed that our previous 3D environments were quite flat, rather simple, we were not really happy with them back then.»

However, the devs at Fumi Games have some lofty ambitions for the title, wanting to help it reach escape velocity and go from viral hit to a genuinely solid game. In case you're curious as to what Mouse: P.l. for Hire actually is, here's the elevator pitch as was given to me in a cosy booth on a noisy Gamescom floor.

Mouse: P.I. for Hire is a metroidvania first-person shooter—with an emphasis on the metroidvania part. There'll be movement upgrades, such as a helicopter glide and a grappling hook (both achieved by using your mouse tail), as well as «NPC interactions with their own questlines …