Scott Whiskers to return in The Search for the Bad Twin

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Kickstarter coming for the third game in the classic-styled point-and-click adventure series

Remember the old Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror" where a transporter malfunction inadvertently swaps Kirk, Spock and a couple other Enterprise crew members with their evil counterparts in an alternate universe? Well, even if you don't, devoted Trekkie Scott Whiskers certainly should. Little would he ever suspect, however, that he'd encounter a similar situation in his third adventure, the upcoming Scott Whiskers: The Search for the Bad Twin.

Scott has contentedly dozed off on his couch after bingeing a sci-fi marathon on TV, when suddenly he finds himself swept up in an epic adventure of literally galactic proportions. He's now "a prisoner of the Britari in a prison cell that’s way too small, on the other side of the universe." Strangely, everyone seems to know Scott well, though of course he's never been there in his life. Much more concerning, he soon learns that "somewhere out there is someone who looks exactly like him – only meaner." To find out what happened and make his way back home, the "long-time student, cat lover ... and the galaxy's most reluctant hero" must set out on his boldest adventure yet, filled with "puzzles, quirky aliens, and nerdy references."

The Search for the Bad Twin shares the traditional gameplay of its predecessors The Search for Mr. Fumbleclaw and The Search for the Golden Cat, promising another "humorous, modern point-and-click adventure in the spirit of the classics." That means there will be plenty of running gags, colorful environments to explore, items to collect and combine, inventory puzzles to solve, fully voiced "oddball" characters to engage in "absurd conversations," and "maybe a (space) cat or two" along the way.

So far so good, but what will surely be most notable – and most contentious – this time around is the brand new detailed pixel art look (and "some sound effects") supported by generative AI. Developer Axel Friedrich acknowledges that this will be an "emotional topic" for many players, but considers it a necessity for the largely solo project, and assures fans of the first two adventures that "everything that gives the game its soul is human-made – the concept, the story, the puzzles, the game design, the voice acting, and the music," right down to "every line of dialogue, every joke, and every decision in this game." 

Scott Whiskers: The Search for the Bad Twin will still need some additional financial support through an upcoming crowdfunding campaign, and the Kickstarter pre-launch page allows early sign-ups to be notified when the campaign goes live. There is no target completion date just yet, but the game's Steam page indicates that it's due out sometime in 2028.

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