MouseHunt (web game)

For the film, see MouseHunt (film).

MouseHunt
Developer(s)	HitGrab, Inc.
Version	3.2 (with occasional minor updates)
Platform(s)	Facebook, hi5[1]
Release date(s)	7 March 2008
Genre(s)	Multiplayer Browser Game

MouseHunt is a popular Facebook application in which players, referred to as hunters, catch mice with a variety of traps in order to earn experience points and virtual gold through passive gameplay. From time to time the developers add new locations and mice as well as sponsor periodic giveaways and tournaments. MouseHunt was developed by HitGrab, Inc. under the direction of Bryan Freeman and Joel Augé and released to a select group of participants for beta testing in early 2007. On 7 March 2008, MouseHunt was officially released to the general public. Just nine months later, MouseHunt earned its creators a $250,000 development grant from Facebook.^[2] Though MouseHunt was originally catered for the US population, specifically those who live in GMT-8 to GMT-4, Mousehunt is hugely popular in many Asian and Pacific Countries, especially Singapore, Brunei and Malaysia.^{[citation needed]}

On October 16, 2010 MouseHunt was also released on the hi5 social network. .^[3]

Story

The game of MouseHunt is set in the fantastic kingdom of Gnawnia. The player is a hunter, commissioned by the King of Gnawnia to catch mice that infest the kingdom by using virtual traps, bases and cheese.

Gameplay

MouseHunt is a passive game. The player, which acts as a hunter, arms their trap (using cheese as bait) and can then sound the "Hunter's Horn" once every 15 minutes. Every time the player, or in the case of friends on the same location, sounds the horn, they are taken on a hunt and has a possibility of catching a mouse. For each mouse the player catches, they get a unique reward, which is a certain amount of points and gold, dependent on the breed of mouse captured. Automatic "Trap Checks" conducted at the top of each hour allow for a total of five opportunities to catch mice every hour.

Ranks

When the player first starts to play the game, they have the rank of Novice. As the player progresses through the game, they will increase in rank, in the order of Recruit, Apprentice, Initiate, Journeyman, Master, Grandmaster, Legendary, Hero, Knight, Lord/Lady, Baron/Baroness, Count/Countess, Duke/Duchess, Grand Duke/Grand Duchess. The ranks Recruit and Initiate were added in version 3.0 as a way to split Novice and Apprentice into 2 more ranks. Increases in rank are dependent on how active the player is, in addition to other factors such as the quality (number of points the mice caught is worth as well as the general difficulty of the mouse) and quantity of mice caught.

For each increase in rank, the player will receive a new color/appearance for the shield next to their name in their hunter's profile. They also gain features such as more crafting slots for crafting items and greater number of cheese imbued per potion.

Locations

When the player starts out, they can only access the Meadow as their hunting location. As they increase in rank, more locations are unlocked for them. Additionally, they will need to collect map pieces and other forms of loot such as keys and craft certain items in order to get access to other locations. In addition, they may also have to have visit a Cartographer in order to have certain map pieces repaired or receive new map pieces in order to access new areas. There are a total of 34 locations in the game, grouped into nine regions.

When traveling to other locations, hunters will be charged a certain amount of gold depending on the how far the destination is to the hunter's currently location. In previous versions of the game, travel to the Town of Gnawnia was free. This has been replaced by a separate travel tab that transports players to the Meadow for free.

In addition, there are certain locations where timers and counters are implemented to which hunters will be transported or moved to another location automatically once the timer runs out or they have maxed their counter.

In addition, a place-holder location for banned players (they cannot sound the horn or access the game), who have violated the game's Terms of Service, called the King's Stockade was added in April 2009.

Traps

A trap setup consists of a weapon, a base, a piece of cheese and, if desired by the Hunter, a Charm. Traps are either bought or crafted. For traps that can be bought, they can be found at certain stores, called Trapsmiths, and they can be refunded for 18% of the purchase price.

Traps that are crafted as well as previous Limited Edition traps (see section on Ronza's Traveling Shoppe) are non-refundable.

Traps also have power types depending on the weapon, and it would influence the effectiveness of the trap against certain types of mice. The current power types for the traps in the game are Physical, Tactical, Shadow, Arcane, Hydro, Forgotten, Draconic and Parental.

Trap components have a certain point or rank requirement, preventing players with lesser points from being able to buy or craft the trap component even if they have sufficient gold to buy it or crafting items to craft it. For example, if the points requirement of a certain trap is 16 million points, and the player has 2 million points, they would be unable to buy or craft the item, despite having sufficient gold and crafting items. This is to prevent players from "buying their way" through the game.

As of January 12, 2011, an additional component called Charms has been added. Charms are consumable items that modify certain trap attributes. They are used up (1 charm per mouse encountered, or 1 per specific mouse encountered) as the players hunts. There are varying types of Charms such as those that modify power, attraction and luck. In addition to those, some charms that allow mice to be weakened, allow hunters to bypass timers in some areas, and increase drop rate of specific loot such as potions. Charms are purchased from a charm shoppe or are crafted. All crafted charms can be bought on the Marketplace. More types of Charms are intended to be added as the game is updated.

Cheese

There is a very large cheese variety on offer, which can be bought or crafted. At present there are 5 (not including SUPER|brie+) standard cheeses that can be bought with gold at the various Cheese Shoppes in the game, namely Cheddar, Marble, Swiss, Brie, and Gouda. There are 28 special cheeses that can be crafted, created with potions, or picked up as loot. There are a total of 9 types of cheese (Rockforth, Gingerbread Cheese, Ghoulgonzola, Candy Corn Cheese, Seasoned Gouda, Nutmeg, Cupcake Colby, Marshmallow Monterey, and Undead Emmental) which were used in special events up to the present.

Certain cheese can be made by imbuing potions into a certain type of cheese. Some cheeses can also be made by crafting through the use of crafting ingredients found in General Stores and/or from loot dropped by mice.

Crafting

Crafting is an important element into the game, especially when people ascend ranks. A wide variety of things can be crafted, such as traps, bases and cheese. Crafting is only available to players who are Apprentice (the third rank) and above. As a person goes up in rank, they will get more "crafting slots", meaning that they can combine more items at a time. Players initially have 2 slots, increasing to a (current) maximum of 12 slots for Duke/Duchess. Within the crafting section, there is also the Hunter's Hammer, which is essentially a tool to "smash" certain items, such as cheese or trap components, which usually are used to craft another items, generally other kinds of cheese or upgraded traps. In the present version of MouseHunt, a "Recipe Book" was added that allows player to craft multiple quantities of a weapon, base, cheese or any crafting item at once.

Loot

Some mice may drop loot, which includes map pieces, potions and crafting items, cheese, collectibles etc. The percentage of loot drops varies depending on the breed of mice as well as other factors such as trap luck. These can usually be used in the game to accelerate in forms of progress, and is sometimes even necessary for it.

Potions

Potions are used to imbue a certain type of cheese into another type of cheese. For example, imbuing brie cheese with a Radioactive Blue Cheese curd potion would convert the brie cheese into Radioactive Blue cheese. The number of cheese that can be imbued per potion increases based on the rank of the player. The Developers have mentioned that in the future, potions may be used to upgrade trap components.

Catching Mice

Mice are divided into different "Groups" (there are 21 as of the MouseHunt v3.0 update: Indigenous Mice, Gauntlet Gladiators, Forest Guild, The Shadow Clan, Digby Dirt Dwellers, Followers of Furoma, The Forgotten Mice, Aquatic Order, The Elub Tribe, The Nerg Tribe, The Derr Tribe, The Dreaded Horde, Draconic Brood, Balack's Banished, Seasonal Soldiers, Wizard's Pieces, Zurreal's Breed, The Marching Flame, Muridae Market Mice, and Event Mice. Members of the group share common weaknesses with the exception of the "Gauntlet Gladiators" group. There are eight power types in the game: Physical, Shadow, Tactical, Forgotten, Arcane, Hydro, Draconic and Parental. Using the right kind of cheese gives the hunter a higher chance of attracting the mice they want and using the right power type of trap would increase the chances of catching the mice.

Breeds of Mice

From its birth in March 2008 until now, MouseHunt has 302 breeds of mice excluding the Event Mice. Some of them, when caught will drop loot, which depending on the type of loot may be essential to players' progress through the game. Along with this, there are 47 special Event Mice, some of which are released for a short period during occasional events. These mice might drop cheese, crafting items, collectibles and cash prizes (a Mousehunter won $1000 CAD for being the first in catching a mouse known as the Master Burglar mouse. This mouse is now no longer a rare mouse). You are also able to catch the Leprechaun mouse, worth $25–500 (which currently has slightly less than 1000 catches), and many other in-game prizes. The mice in this game are loosely based on real life. For example, the White, Grey and Brown mouse can be found in the Meadow and other places suitable for starters, its normal habitat. And as a further example, some of the mice which belong to the group "Followers of Furoma" practice martial arts. Different groups have distinct differences as well as trap requirements to trap them.

The Marketplace

The Marketplace is meant to be an auction house for hunters to buy items that other hunters are selling. The Marketplace began with only being able to buy or sell the Key to the Town of Digby, Burroughs Laboratory Map Piece, and SUPER|brie+. In V2.0 the Marketplace was moved to its own discussion board. The only thing to purchase was SUPER|brie+. Hunters would negotiate and then trade, but the system was unliked. June 21, 2010, v3.0, it reopened under the shops tab. Hunters could anonymously sell SUPER|brie+, Moon, and Maki cheeses. In an update hunters were allowed to sell Zugzwang's Left Sock. Another update and hunters were allowed to sell Ninja Ambush skin, Grungy Deathbot skin, Fluffy Deathbot Skin, and Wishing Well Basket. In the latest update hunters can sell any crafted charm and the orbs used to make them, also included is the Tiki Base Blueprints that Ronza sold during January 2011. The most recent update allowed hunters to sell trap parts and loot obtained from the area restricted to Baron/Baroness and higher ranked players.

Ronza's Traveling Shoppe

Ronza is a traveling merchant who visits the Kingdom of Gnawnia, selling various wares such as cheese, limited edition traps or crafting materials. Occasionally, players can visit Ronza's shop, a special location in which limited edition items can be purchased. Ronza is a fictional character. The game does not provide excessive information. Her visits generally accompany special events and releases. Length of visits, available items, and location vary greatly.

Updates to MouseHunt

MouseHunt 1.0

Mousehunt 1.0 was the initial release of the game. Many of the current gameplay elements, like crafting, were still not present. Shortly after release, MouseHunt 2.0 was already in the works.

MouseHunt 2.0

Mousehunt 2.0 was the second version of the game. It boasted many more User Interface changes, along with major gameplay elements, like Crafting. It was released on 6 October 2008. This version consists of a handy toolbar with a heading at the top of the page. On the Camp page, the layout has the banner, many buttons, and the traps, journal, and a short summary by "Larry", who is a fictional knight that starts players off and gives hunting tips based on locations.

MouseHunt 3.0

MouseHunt 3.0 is the current Mousehunt version, nicknamed "Longtail", and has been officially released on 9 June 2010. A Longtail mouse was also released to celebrate the very new version. Initially in a closed beta, the game was brought down on 8 June 2010 to upgrade to this version and it was back up by 9 June 2010 . In this version, there were major interface and gameplay changes had made to the game.^[4]

Developers

MouseHunt was developed by HitGrab Inc., a company based in Oakville, Ontario, Canada.^[5]

Donations

Players can donate to the developers of Mousehunt by buying credits in the game, which give them a certain type of cheese, called SUPER|brie+. This cheese is superior to all other types of cheese in most (but not all) situations, giving the player an added advantage to catching mice. Credits can be bought using Paypal, Offerwall, Offerpal, Cherry Credits, Social Gold, SuperRewards, and Facebook credits. Upon donation, they would receive a Lucky Golden Shield, denoted by the Golden Shield on their camp page next to their Hunter's title, which increases their trap set-up's luck by 7. Depending on the amount they donated, the Lucky Golden Shield will last for 30 days, 2 months or 4 months.

See also

• Facebook
• Mousehunt

References

1. ^ hi5 MouseHunt site (accessed 2010.11.29)
2. ^ [http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/11/prweb1567364.htm "Mouse Game Wins Coveted Grant from Social Web Giant Facebook PRWeb 5 November 2008
3. ^ Official MouseHunt Wiki site (accessed 2010.11.29)
4. ^ MH Longtail on Facebook
5. ^ "Hitgrabslabs--Information". http://www.hitgrab.com/information/. 

External links

• MouseHunt guide
• Application (on Facebook)
• HitGrab Inc.
• MouseHunt Wiki
• Pooflinger's MouseHunt Tools
• Mousehunt Funbar