As an exclusive preview featured on the ZZAP! 64 Micro Action 11 covermount, Scout the Stray has now been completed by LC-Games and made available at no cost!
The dynamics of the game are similar to that of Pac-Man. The main character is Scout, a stray dog, who has to go through different mazes munching on the bones scattered in them and avoiding being captured by the dog catchers who are chasing him. A level ends when all bones have been eaten.
The game has 32 levels to complete. However, the mazes are procedurally generated randomly, therefore, with each new game, the player will find himself facing ever-changing levels. The appearance and colours of the mazes also change every 4 levels.
During the first 2 levels, the dog catchers will be 2, during the next 2 levels they will be 3, after which they will become 4 for the rest of the game. As you advance in level, the speed of the pursuers will increase more and more until you reach the last level.
As a defence weapon, Scout has “barks” available, with which he can scare the dog catchers, who will run away from the dog for a few seconds. However, the barks cannot be used repeatedly, since about 3 seconds will have to pass before being able to bark again (at the top left of the screen there is a small bar that indicates the “charge” status of the bark).
Every certain number of bones devoured, a “magic” ball will appear which, depending on the colour, will perform different actions once collected. The red ball will activate the “x3” (bones eaten later will be worth 30 points instead of 10). The blue ball will make all enemies run away just like the bark. The purple ball will activate a letter inside the writing EXTRA placed at the top centre of the screen; once the writing is completed, the player will earn a life. The cyan ball will make enemies disappear for a few seconds, after which they will re-enter the maze entrance gate as if nothing had happened. Finally, there is a ball that changes colour and that will give a different score depending on it.
I asked LC-Games about their motivation behind the game:
“The idea of making Scout the Stray was born thinking about the remake of Pac-Mania for PC that I created in 2020, namely Pac-Mazing. I enjoyed this game both during development and playing it once it was completed. So I wanted to make a product for C64 (somewhat similar to Pac-Mazing) that could give the same sensations. Naturally, though, I wanted to use completely different characters and graphics.
Initially, the main character was supposed to be a rabbit, but then I opted for a dog which, even graphically, was more spot on and captivating. During the early stages of development, our hero did not have barks available but could jump over enemies. For different reasons, however, I had to set aside the idea of the jump and find a different solution. Then the bark was born.
There has also been an evolution for the enemies. Initially, they were snakes, but then I thought of anthropomorphic animals of various types or even robots. In the end, thanks also to the suggestion of my brother Stefano (who is collaborating in the creation of the game with various advice and testing), the dog catchers were born.
I also wanted the graphics to be as colourful as possible. At first, it was represented in character mode, but the colours were limited and I wasn’t entirely happy with the overall look of the game. So I switched to bitmap mode and the result improved. I hope that the final version of the game will be to everyone’s liking.”
Scout the Stray is available at https://lowcarb.itch.io/scout-the-stray-c64
