Developer Florian Himsl, best known for his work on The Binding Of Isaac, has gathered a small team together and has spent the last two years putting together their passion project game, Poor Mouse.

Poor Mouse has a pretty weird game concept. It looks like the game is set in a Spanish, South Western setting, with the main cast of characters being small mice that are trying to survive on an island. The main theme of the game is a 3D sandbox survival game. You play as a long-eared desert mouse that has the ability to glide and soar through the air, but you will also be able to use weapons such as swords, some type of rocket gun, and more realistic abilities like throwing rocks, tail swipes and more.

This is where the concept starts to look weird because it turns into a bit of a fantasy adventure survival game where the larger predators attempt to kill and eat you and your fellow mice, and your goal is to help your fellow mice to thrive, grow and flourish using the fantastical weapons around you.

Your job will be to travel from the different mice villages around the island to save them from the evil predators that lurk the desert and prevent your mice from going extinct. The development team released a Gameplay trailer video to showcase what they have put together so far.

Is Poor Mouse finished or close to being finished? No, no where close to it at all. It still has close to a year left of development, but the developers decided to go ahead and place the game on Greenlight anyways to get community feedback and suggestions from their fans to implement ideas in the early development phase.

In the below video, Florian and his artist Nestor Chavez answer a few questions and talk about putting the game together. They also talk about adding new community suggestions and how it is difficult to implement the fan’s ideas into the game if the game is already near completion.

They go on to say that if they start collecting feedback now, there is a higher chance for those features to make it into the final game upon release. Furthermore, the development team says that they are attempting to be transparent and honest with their fans so that they don’t mislead people with dishonesty and present the game to be something that its not, mentioning the recent disappointment people felt with No Man’s Sky and how they don’t want to have a similar release.

There are a few asset items in the game, but the developers say that majority of the items are for the environment while they work on more important features, but the characters and animals have custom made model files. The developers go on to answer a few of the more common questions in the below video, while also showing a bit more gameplay.

I am personally a bit confused about the direction Poor Mouse is going with its concept and design and what they are going for. Will they head in the direction of games like Spyro the Dragon? Or is this something completely different where it is closer to sandbox survival games? They mention boss battles and side quests, so I am now wondering if there will be a main story and series of missions, or is it open ended where you try to survive as long as possible?

Regardless, I am curious to see how it all comes together. Poor Mouse is still pretty early in development and is looking for a late 2017 release, so we still have a ways to go before we can get a clear look at the game. If you would like to learn more, you can head on over to their Steam Greenlight page to post suggestions, ask questions, or learn more about the game.