Analyzing Mouse: P.I. For Hire’s audacious worldbuilding

What’s the correct quantity of worldbuilding for a sport like Fumi Video games and Playside’s Mouse: P.I. For Rent?

Should you ask the builders (and we did, extra on that later), the reply is “lots.” That a lot is apparent once you blaze by means of the studio’s debut first-person shooter, which places you within the footwear of “Jack,” a mouse detective employed to look into the disappearance of a stage magician that, like all nice mysteries, seems to be a part of an elaborate conspiracy involving cultists, cops, and “The Massive Mouse Get together” (BMP), a cartoonified model of the German American Bund. The participant investigates this thriller not by means of deduction and logic puzzles, however by pouring bullets, turpentine, and cannonballs into hordes of cartoon enemies throughout a monochromatic coterie of locales.

This all takes place in a world portrayed in a “rubber hose” animation type that was fashionable in Twenties and Nineteen Thirties animation (the very first picture you see is of a steamboat named “Willie,” after all). It is a high quality instance of what we might name a “pastiche,” a piece so referential of different video games and media that it virtually emulates them. And but for a pastiche, Fumi Video games has poured an uncommon quantity of unique storytelling and worldbuilding into its debut sport.

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Why is that stunning? As a result of when Fumi first teased the sport in 2023, there wasn’t any signal this may be a sport with in depth dialogue sequences, characters with overlapping backstories, and massive narrative setpieces. The gameplay is impressed by the story-light shooters of the ’90s, and there is a case for simply making it the form of sport the place gamers aggressively press ahead.

However as Fumi Video games CEO and co-founder Mateusz Michalak and lead narrative designer Mateusz Lechowski reminded us, this sport does star a basic non-public detective. Detectives want mysteries to resolve. And to craft a thriller value fixing, you want characters with hidden agendas, and a world that these agendas happen in opposition to. What follows is an interesting stress the place the sport’s setting strives to be attention-grabbing, however not cross up to now into real-world commentary.

But commentary—unintentional or not—can not assist however floor from the spicy stew of worldbuilding Fumi Video games has cooked up. It is a incredible case examine for builders who need to flesh out their sport worlds—even when that dangers writing uncomfortable metaphors that flatten or sand over real-world occasions.

What works about Mouse‘s worldbuilding?

Mouse: P.I. For Rent is at its finest when the characters deal with its cartoon pastiche world with absolute sincerity.

In Mouse: P.I. For Rent, the completely different threads of Jack’s investigation come to symbolize the completely different components of this cartoon riff on the Nineteen Thirties. The sport’s central locale, a metropolis named Mouseburg, squishes a variety of American settings collectively, from New York Metropolis to Los Angeles to the Louisiana Bayou, every with a unique animated adversary fleshed out by repeated visits to those areas. Everybody on this planet is a cartoon animal of some kind, with mice, shrews, and gators being a few of the characters who meet (and typically attempt to homicide) our gumshoe hero.

The anthropomorphizing of those animals creates the fascinating tonal stress in Mouse‘s story. This cartoon world is impressed by real-life historical past however not meant to be a direct metaphor or commentary on actual occasions. Nonetheless, the plot threads by means of topics just like the focused abduction of shrews, police complicity in fascism, and the aforementioned BMP. 

There’s stress right here as a result of, for probably the most half, Fumi Video games’ worldbuilding technique works. There are three foremost mysteries on the coronary heart of Jack’s investigation that lay the groundwork for the drama. In his quest for justice, Jack should reply three huge questions.

Mouse‘s best storytelling benefit is that like all nice detective tales, it is aware of the solid of characters—and all of the potential suspects—matter excess of the solutions to the massive mysteries. All through the sport, gamers encounter characters like politician Cornelius Stilton, gearhead surrogate daughter Tammy Tumbler, and journalist Wanda Fuller, who all take the sport’s world and lore deeply critically. They’re all a bit over-the-top, impressed by the performances of basic Movie Noir films (and perhaps a little bit of German Expressionist Cinema), however all of them act as if alcoholic cheese, falling anvils, and crashing by means of partitions and forsaking silhouette-shaped holes are part of on a regular basis life.

Picture by way of Fumi Video games/PlaySide.

Michalak defined that his animation background knowledgeable the choice to take a extra earnest strategy to the story reasonably than simply leaning on parody. “In animation, an important and essential factor at all times is artwork, however the storyline, the narrative, the script, can also be essential,” he mentioned. 

“There’s one thing about this type of hard-boiled theme that we went for… that was already there within the idea and that was asking us to only take it a bit of bit additional,” mentioned Lechowski, noting that almost all different “boomer shooters” (first-person shooters with gameplay impressed by shooters from the Nineties) normally have very bare-bones narratives. “It was calling us to make a noir story that matches a boomer shooter. It was a separate problem to make a narrative that resembles a detective expertise, however would not intrude With working and gunning.” 

He added that The Bare Gun movie sequence additionally proved to be a stunning reference level right here—not a lot as a parody, however as a reference for the way characters can deal with conditions with lethal seriousness whereas the viewers takes within the jokes and gags.

That sincerity is de facto mandatory for one worldbuilding thread impressed by each basic rubber-hose cartoons and, as Lewchowskiput it, the Fumi Video games’ staff adoration for otherworldly horror—the plotline involving a cult attempting to enter the demon world.

From rubber-hose cartoons to True Detective, David Lynch, and Treatment Leisure

Mouse‘s detective story begins as a lacking individuals case however slowly ramps up right into a horror-themed thriller that Lechowski says was impressed by Treatment Leisure’s video games, David Lynch’s movies and TV exhibits, and the primary season of the HBO present True Detective. That is as a result of Stage magician Steve Bandel hasn’t simply vanished, he is absconded to a pocket dimension known as “The Unknown.”

The Unknown turns into an anchor level not only for the thriller, however the degree design itself. One in every of Mouse‘s standout options is a spree of ranges with distinctive setpieces impressed by every space’s identification. The film studio ranges are set on soundstages, a riverboat degree weaves the participant out and in of a VIP-only celebration, and a variety of areas set in swampy or gothic locales slowly introduce the participant to the insanity of The Unknown.

This narrative justification opens the door for the extent designers to experiment with extra outlandish setpieces—resulting in false doorways and non-Euclidean geometry, ultimately sending gamers to The Unknown itself. The entire affair would possibly shock gamers who got here to Mouse with expectations of a purely noir-inspired story, however Lechowski mentioned it comes from his and the staff’s love for “good cosmic horror.” 

Mixing the cosmic horror style (derived from the works of H.P. Lovecraft) is not “simply translatable” into rubber hose animation as a result of cosmic horror is mostly a somber, severe style of storytelling. “Something that even resembles satire is simply undercutting the entire thing,” he defined. “We [asked], ‘why not take a swing at it and introduce some ideas that would probably be constructed upon—that seed this concept in my participant’s thoughts that there’s something occurring behind the curtains of this world, that there are some entities that aren’t what they essentially appear, however typically they’re.'”

Right here, Lechowski was alluding to works of fiction that mix true crime and cosmic horror, enjoying with the notion that supernatural forces would possibly be driving the darkish occasions of the story, however its equally doable that plain human evil is at work. In Lynch’s beloved sequence Twin Peaks, the evil entity “Bob” does play a task within the homicide of Laura Palmer—however within the movie Fireplace Stroll With Me, it is established that Leland Palmer’s very human abuse of his personal daughter, and the way everybody in Twin Peaks permits it and different nefarious abuse to proceed unimpeded, is the far higher horror. 

Picture by way of Fumi Video games/PlaySide.

Mouse pays tribute to Lynch in a literal style too. Betty Lynch is called in honor of the beloved movie director, and one particular cutscene was modeled after a shot from Mulholland Drive.

Likewise, in seasons one and 4 of the HBO present True Detective, the potential of supernatural horrors like The Yellow King and a mysterious “spiral” creature buried within the Arctic ice is afoot. Once more, these beings do not grow to be actually accountable for the murders on the coronary heart of the mysteries, however the ambiguity of their existence is intertwined with the killers’ horrible acts.

“We additionally love [Remedy Entertainment’s] video games, that was an inspiration too,” he mentioned, including that when this mixing of true crime and horror is completed correctly, it “provides greater than it takes” from the seriousness of conspiracy and homicide.

However there’s one more reason this setpiece works so effectively: it captures a component of Rubber Hose animation that is not as recognizable as a gritty tackle Steamboat Willie.  Animation homes like Fleischer Studios frequently flirted with the horror style. In Swing You Sinners!, a cartoon canine is suffering from ghosts for his crimes, whereas Minnie The Moocher encompasses a Rotoscoped Cab Calloway and a gang of skeletons haunting Betty Boop. And in Shiver Me Timbers, Popeye the Sailor and buddies are terrorized by ghosts aboard a beached tall ship.

Mouse is not even the primary sport to pay tribute to these shorts—the ultimate boss of Studio MDHR’s Cuphead is none aside from the satan himself. Horror performs an necessary position in rubber hose animation historical past, and crafting setpieces impressed by these shorts exhibits there’s extra to Mouse than meets the attention.

Sadly, whereas the characters’ dedication to worry of The Unknown helps make Mouse one thing particular, its flirtations with real-world horror fall flat.

Typically Mouse flies too near the solar

Whereas enjoying Mouse, I frequently caught myself saying this phrase again and again: “That is a loopy selection for this sport to make.”

Typically I used to be referencing the aforementioned horror sequences. However different instances I used to be gobsmacked by when the sport wished to achieve for real-world politics—and when it most well-liked to draw back.

The ultimate villains of Mouse are in the end these previous dependable punching baggage: the Nazis. Fumi Video games deserves credit score for not simply inserting German Nazis on the coronary heart of the story, however by immediately referencing the German American Bund and spotlighting how hatred and fascism do not simply develop abroad. In Mouse, the Massive Mouse Get together and a German-accented mad scientist from “The Outdated World” (the sport’s nickname for Europe) are on the coronary heart of a terror marketing campaign focusing on Mouseburg’s Shrew inhabitants. By the top of the sport, it is revealed that the Massive Mouse Get together recruited the Mouseburg police pressure to kidnap shrews and pressure them out of their properties. 

The shrews are characterised as a racial minority in Mouseburg who face bigotry from town’s mice inhabitants. On paper, they do not stand in for any real-world ethnic group. The BMP’s partnership with the Nazis summons evokes historic discrimination of Jews in the US, however Lechowski added {that a} police raid on their hometown of “the Shrew Thicket” was impressed by the Tulsa race bloodbath of 1921, the place a mob of white Tulsans tore by means of town’s Black neighborhoods, destroying buildings and killing wherever from 39 to 300 folks.

Toss within the character of “Outdated Shrew,” a Voodoo priestess with a Bayou accent, and it turns into clear that this fictional marginalized group carries the burden of representing many American minorities that also face discrimination to this present day. 

Lechowski affirmed that the shrews will not be meant to face in for any real-world ethnic group. “We are inclined to soften collectively middle sure ideas. They symbolize numerous oppressions that had been taking place within the time interval all around the world,” he mentioned.

Fumi’s intent right here is obvious, however in my time with the sport, I discovered the selection wanting. It is an instance of Implausible Racism, a storytelling trope the place real-world bigotry is projected onto made-up teams or races in fantasy settings. As YouTuber Princess Weekes identified in a 2025 video essay on the subject, tales that derive bigotry based mostly on narratively-justified variations between teams (right here, the literal bodily species distinction between mice and shrews, and what seems to be a mystical connection between the Shrews and the Unknown) can danger validating racist beliefs.

And look, I am going to simply say it. “Shrew” rhymes with “Jew,” and as a Jewish American, the rhyming simply saved conjuring a really particular picture with unlucky connotations. With loads of antisemitic propaganda evaluating Jews to rodents out on this planet, even loosely implying a reference to a real-world group raised the hairs on the again of my neck.

To be clear, I wasn’t offended by this depiction (although I can not communicate for anybody with ties to Voodoo tradition, and even different Jewish of us enjoying the sport). Nevertheless it created an uneasy feeling of the place I used to be presupposed to take Mouse‘s real-world references as sharp and pointed and the place they had been supposed to only be for leisure functions. 

It is stunning that Fumi selected such a middle-ground strategy right here when different bits of political commentary within the sport appear so pointed. Making the cops antagonists is a powerful match for Mouse not simply due to the ever-unfolding corruption uncovered in policing, but in addition as a result of early Twentieth-century fiction primarily depicted cops as bumbling or corrupt, leaving non-public detectives to root out crime and serve justice.

Picture by way of Fumi Video games/PlaySide.

In the meantime a late-game gag concerning the editor-in-chief of a serious newspaper is doing “cheese bumps” with members of the BMP acquired amusing out of me, partly for feeling like a direct jab at media executives who play at political neutrality however then cozy up with far-right regimes. Past that, there are references to American struggle veterans affected by PTSD, employee strikes, and abuses in psychological asylums.

Lechowski and Michalak each mused on the truth that real-world political occasions, like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the looming tide of struggle on their very own border (Fumi Video games is predicated in Poland), might have influenced their work. Mouse‘s setting explicitly evokes the window between World Wars I and II, an period which will or might not mirror our modern-day maybe too intently (historical past has but to find out that matter). 

Mouse takes these moments critically (whereas delivering a gag-a-minute to the participant), but when its depiction of real-world bigotry is just too diluted to make a selected level, its characters cannot decide to the identical form of commentary that makes the remainder of the sport so fascinating.

I sympathize with Fumi on this matter, and I feel they simply missed the mark. The remedy of minorities is a potent theme when constructing a fictional setting, particularly when your fictional world’s villains are lower from the identical mildew because the monsters of our personal. Video games like Wolfenstein: The New Order make it look simple, however it’s robust to construct area for each real commentary on hatred and bombastic cartoon violence.

Whenever you get it proper, it makes punching these villains within the jaw really feel that significantly better.

June’s inspiration suggestions – a world in black-and-white.

If there’s one factor I am going to stress about my time with Mouse: P.I. For Rent, it is that I like Fumi for taking such huge swings even when all of them did not work out. I might a lot reasonably play video games or expertise artwork that tries to be formidable not simply in craft, however in theme and storytelling. 

So let’s take a breather from discussing heady politics and have a good time just a few chosen black-and-white items that transcend the shadows of detective fiction. Put these footage on to stretch your boundaries and suppose extra broadly about what might be finished with this beloved visible type.

That is it for June. Keep cool on the market, and I want you luck in making worldbuilding decisions as daring as Fumi Video games’.