One major difficulty people have when trying to come up with valuable IP is that whole "think of something that's never been done before" gambit. The problem with that approach is that it's simply not how the human brain works. It's very difficult to imagine something that you haven't experienced, let alone something that's never even been conceived.
Often, the most successful ideas, even the ones most praised as "original," seem to come from the exact opposite school of thought. Scavenger Hunt exemplifies this mentality. "Let's hide some stuff and make you find it," they say. "Once we have a game that works, let's just keep adding bells and whistles until our deadline comes around."
While simple, the gameplay in Scavenger Hunt is quite enjoyable. You run around your small, circular neighborhood (kind of like that one Matrix-esque simulation world from Fallout 3 but much less depressing) and search for goodies to bring back to the center. The different goodies are color coded, so it's very easy to immediately determine which giant arrows you should run toward and which you shouldn't.
Of course, just running back and forth can get very monotonous very fast, which is why the developers spiced up the world a little bit. One way they did this was with a sprint function, which works decently well until you run out of stamina, at which point you literally screech to an immediate halt and patiently wait for the meter to fill up again. It is to this game's sense of flow what a pool full of crocodiles is to a chicken with one wing.
Another way they spice up the world is with "gags." These are weapons that you can pick up and use against the other players. The gags can do anything from obstruct your vision with cream pie to lower your running speed and limit your carrying capacity. These gags are very frustrating to experience, which might be a good quality in a multiplayer game where you can look over at your friend's writhing face after you've just launched a successful attack against him or her, but against AI, the gags don't have any noticeable effect. You only notice them when they happen to you, which is the absolute worst way to present a deliberately frustrating powerup. If I were programming this game, I would make the gags do something a bit more immediately apparent, like make the victim drop an item or just knock them on their rear ends for a few seconds.
I feel I've been saying this too often lately, but the game really does look nice. The 3D art isn't even all that complex, so games like this really put things in perspective when a far more graphically capable game fails to deliver decent visual design. The textures are simple but charming, as is the soundtrack, game feel, and really everything about this game in general.
All-in-all, this is a good game that could've benefited from more thoughtful gag design. It's quite fun if you have a few moments, but once you figure out how everything works, it is a little too easy. I'm pretty sure any player can win every game without even hitting one enemy AI as long as they use their sprint responsibly and avoid enemies whenever possible.
That's all I got for now. Until next time, stay diligent.
Links
Rascals' Funtime in Idyllic Suburbia: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=523
