Squirrel with a Gun’s Game Director Spills the Beans on All Things Involving the Cute and Cuddly Shooter (INTERVIEW)

2024 will go down as the year of the indie, with some seriously impressive entries. From the likes of Palworld and Helldivers 2, to the bonkers Squirrel with a Gun, gamers have been eating well.

We were lucky enough to sit down and talk all things cute and cuddly squirrels with the game director of Squirrel with a Gun Dan DeEntremont, including what the future holds for this hopeful franchise!

Squirrel with a Gun is Something Different

Firstly, thank you so much for your time and for answering these questions! For those unaware, would you mind telling us who you are and what you do?

It’s a pleasure! My name is Dan DeEntremont, and I’m the game director of Squirrel With A Gun.

And a brief overview of Squirrel with a Gun?

Squirrel With A Gun is something of a sandbox/shooter with platforming elements. Our titular Squirrel finds itself in a conflict with the Agents, who are a besuited group of bad guys who want to stop the squirrel at all costs. The squirrel explores The Neighborhood, on a quest to get more Golden Acorns, unlock outfits, and grab bigger and bigger guns to help defeat the Agency Bosses.

What would the brainstorming and ideation process for such a game sound like for a fly on the wall?

Squirrel began as a total solo project, so the brainstorming process was mainly listening to the monkey clanging cymbals inside my head.

Was there ever a time when it wasn’t a squirrel, and instead something completely different? I like the sound of Poison Dart Frog with a Gun.

It was indeed a squirrel from conception, even when it only existed as a vaguely silly idea. However, there are a lot of animals that share the proportions of the squirrel, such as ferrets, rats, and cats. Perhaps we could make a few distinct fur patterns to mimic the squirrel’s furry counterparts!

Were there any weapons you wanted to include that you couldn’t, for whatever reason?

Among the ideas cut for time, my favorite was a sci-fi weapon of some sort. It would be fun for something that interacts with physics in a way that is atypical to regular firearms. This is why we intend to include such a gun in a future update!

Squirrel with a Gun is going to be massive in the PC mod community, with the opportunity for all sorts available. Would you ever allow something similar for console players?

I’ll know we’ve made it big when someone comes out with a CJ mod for Squirrel! Mods would be welcome in any community. The important thing in our eyes is that people have fun with it.

Can we put the idea in your head to reach out for a collab with the Goat Simulator guys? We need an ‘animals-that-went-crazy multiverse’.

Goat Simulator is a huge inspiration, of course. A collab certainly would be crazy!

And with that mentioned, how are you ensuring Squirrel with a Gun stands apart from other animal protagonist games?

I feel like the cinematic cutscenes and takedown animations help give the squirrel a unique identity among the “naughty animals” subgenre. Before getting into indie games, I worked as a 3d artist for film and tv, so I have a bit of experience in that area.

What prompted the audio and visual design? Audio consists of lots of synth and guitar from 80s arcade/retro feel, and the UI feels like it was made for Windows 95. Why?

The music was composed by my brother, Scott. I’m quite sure this retro look and sound is inspired by the fact that we are both millennials! The font mainly used in Squirrel With A Gun is Tahoma Bold, which may give windows vibes, as it was indeed a windows font! (though I was unaware at the time of choosing).

A squirrel’s hand are very, very tiny for a handgun. Why a squirrel out of all animals, damn it?

Squirrels are super funny! Even the word, “squirrel.” Squirrel!

A mechanic like double jumping thanks to firing a gun is extremely original and creative. What other mechanics (like this) can we expect from future projects/ideas?

I think one of the most challenging and rewarding parts of game dev are making a movement system. I have a million ideas in my head. One involves a player who can change their personal gravity “direction” at will, so the ground becomes a wall, or a cliffside becomes the ground, and the sky could be a dangerous pit.

I’m also a huge fan of climbing in games like Breath of the Wild, Jusant, or Shadow of the Colossus. I think it would be cool to make a giant-felling game that heavily utilizes a climbing mechanic.

Big Weapons, Bigger Ideas (for the future)

Do the different weapons available allow for different heights/lengths for the jumping? For example getting thrown further thanks to a sustained burst of machine gun fire compared to that of a handgun, forcing players to think when platforming?

Each weapon has a different kind of kickback that can help in different situations. For example, the shotgun blasts very vertically, whereas the handgun is more horizontal. The grenade launcher won’t be much help at all for platforming but is great for crowd control in combat.

The SMG is very apt in most situations, be it combat or platforming. The rocket launcher fired straight down can give you the most vertical height of any gun, but of course, it can be quite detrimental to your health!

You’ve mentioned different outfits previously. Do these affect gameplay, or are they purely cosmetic? And how many are there in total?

Many of the outfits are cosmetic, but a few can give you some extra perks. The bomb suit, for example, can protect you from explosion damage, so you can rocket jump without injuring yourself. However, it comes at the cost of slowing the squirrel down! The sparkler hat can be used to light a fireplace and also set fire to any leaky propane tanks.

There is even an outfit that makes you invisible, although platforming can be tougher. Counting each individual Accessory/ Clothing/ FurColor, I think we have about 35 “garments” in the game that can be collected, and more to come!

A surprising nugget of information was the inclusion of boss fights, something few expected in such a unique game. What type of boss fights are there, and how do they fight in the world of Squirrel with a Gun?

The bosses of the game are physics-based military vehicles, driven by the mother (and father) of all agents. They are the leaders of the mysterious Agency and are quite formidable foes.

Considering the agent vs squirrel aspect, any chance of an asymmetrical multiplayer mode in the future?

Unfortunately, there aren’t any plans for multiplayer in the future (At least not for SWAG 1). Those Agents have a bone to pick ever since the squirrel stole one of their Golden Acorns from one of their secret underground bunkers. They’ll stop at nothing to have a squirrel pelt.

What future plans do you have to support the game?

Recently we’ve added a Photo Mode for an easy way of capturing zany moments in the game. You can even collect photo filters around the world and give all the characters a “cute” blushing look, or cat ears, or even a squished head.

Future updates will see a level that puts all of the player’s shooting and platforming skills to the test. We also have a new boss planned that will help expand Squirrel lore. And of course, lots of new outfits and accessories.

Were you surprised by the game going viral, and the reaction of fans around the world, as development went along and release day approached(and now having passed)?

Around August 2022, Squirrel With A Gun began as a bit of a tech demo for realtime fur FX. I was dipping my toes in the Unreal Engine for the first time and was shocked to see how popular the little squirrel character had become! It went so viral, that I knew it had to be expanded into a full game. The only
thing left was to learn allllll about game development over the next 2 years.

During the development of any game, there are always challenges. What would you say you’ve had to overcome specifically to ensure the game gets made?

Coming from the world of pre-rendered graphics, I had to adjust my workflow a lot to fit the real-time rendering of games. There was a lot to learn about optimizing for an open-ish world like in Squirrel With A Gun. Though it is tricky, it’s exciting to learn what the pros do to make their games run buttery smooth.

Is there anything else you never normally get to share that you’d like to tell us?

I particularly liked the process of making the squirrel’s fur. It began in Houdini, where the fur was combed and trimmed to match a real-world squirrel. Then these fur “curves” were brought into the Unreal Engine. Each strand was given its own gradient from black to brown to white, which gives a squirrel that unique “salt and pepper” look to its fur. Fun fact: There are about a quarter million individual strands of fur on the high-rez squirrel! How far realtime has come!

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