Sneaky Sasquatch

Sneaky Sasquatch is an adventure game released in 2019 for iOS, Apple TV and macOS as one of the launch titles of Apple Arcade. It is exclusive to this subscription service and is not available on other platforms. It was the 2020 Apple Arcade Game of the Year. The game's scenery is inspired by Squamish, British Columbia, Canada. The game music is provided by A Shell In The Pit and scntfc.

Gameplay
The player plays as a Sasquatch, who lives near a campground, and is friends with local wildlife. These animals serve various different roles throughout the game (a raccoon serving as a shopkeeper, ducks doing construction, etc.). Gameplay initially revolves around stealing food from campers and hiding from park rangers. After obtaining human clothes, Sasquatch mingles among humans and participates in human activities, competes in sports, and even can get a bank account and get jobs like a doctor, police officer or an office executive.

Sasquatch requires food and sleep, and has a food meter that can deplete through various means.

The game time corresponds to real time as approximately one second for one minute, so the in-game daylight lasts for around 12 minutes. If Sasquatch stays up too late without consuming cafe drinks or energy drinks, he falls asleep and wakes up in his main house, where the raccoon has dragged him to. To avoid this, Sasquatch needs to reach an available bed and sleep in it.

If Sasquatch stays with a completely empty stomach for several minutes, he falls unconscious and is dragged back to the house by the raccoon as well. The raccoon feeds Sasquatch 2 hunger points, so Sasquatch pays 20 coins or all coins if Sasquatch has less than 20 coins. Food can be stolen from the campers, but later players get access to shops, a café, a diner and even a TV shopping channel where they can buy food instead. Fishing is also a source of highly nutritious food.

If Sasquatch runs into traffic and gets hit, Sasquatch's health meter will go down each time. When the health meter is down to zero, Sasquatch will be met by an ambulance where another paramedic will provide first aid. If Sasquatch does not own any disguises, they can visit the Doctor Duck for some relief so they can run again.

Authorities
When Sasquatch does not wear any disguise, humans are afraid of him, and alert the authorities whenever they see him. With disguise, regular people take Sasquatch for a human, though authorities like rangers or police still see through it. Later in the game, Sasquatch obtains special outfits which prevent even authorities to recognize him, although, the Island Ranger with recognize Sasquatch regardless of his disguise.

Aside from being recognized as a Sasquatch, other unlawful acts like shoplifting, carjacking, stealing from the port or hitting people with a motor vehicle may trigger authorities to pursue Sasquatch. When Sasquatch is caught by rangers, he is thrown out of the area into any nearby forest clearing. When Sasquatch is caught by the town police, he spends a night in jail and is released the next day at noon in-game. When Sasquatch is caught by the Island Ranger, he is brought to the ferry entrance.

Activities
One of the activities required for progress in Chapter 1 of the storyline is golf, featuring matches from 3 to 9 holes.

There are many racing events. Karting, car racing and drifting take place on the race track. Entering harder races requires passing increasingly harder driving tests, which are a challenge by themselves. Car racing is required for completion of Chapter 1.

On the water, there is boat racing and canoeing. One particularly long car race is 100 laps long and lasts for around 20 minutes, and there is also a similarly long boat race.

The dirt track features dirt bike racing and freestyle, monster truck racing and car-crushing, and ice racing.

Skiing includes two types of events: fastest descent over several pistes, and freestyle where the goal is to perform the hardest jumps. This activity is required for completion of Chapter 1.

Snowball fights are played in several formats such as last man standing, team against team, hitting a number of targets in a limited time, or survival against multiple attackers.

Surfing requires the player to do jumps and spins before being overtaken by the wave. The player needs to upgrade their surfboard by beating a lineup of opponents of increasing difficulty.

An arcade in the town hosts several arcade video games made in the style of late 1980s to early 1990s.

Several mini-games are more relaxed collecting activities, such as scuba diving (collecting trash underwater), fishing, mushroom hunting, and collecting dinosaur bones for the museum. However, some rarer varieties of fish and mushroom are hard to find, and may require many in-game days.

Sasquatch can adopt a runaway dog, a Boston Terrier, which requires care and food to grow (constituting a simple virtual pet mini-game), and eventually becomes helpful in finding expensive truffles.

In Chapter 4 of the storyline, Sasquatch can befriend over 50 characters in the game. He can do activities and mini-games to satisfy the friends, and increase the relationship between Sasquatch and the friend. This activity is required for completion of Chapter 4.

Jobs
Initially, the only source of money is selling spare food to an always hungry bear.

As Sasquatch becomes integrated into the human society, he can be hired into several human jobs.

An office job in an evil corporation called R Corp involves Sasquatch working his way up the corporate ladder. Initially, he works in the office's mailroom, delivering mail and snacks across several floors of the building. Next, he works as an IT person, fixing computers, and eventually is promoted to an executive, attending meetings, signing paperwork, and occasionally playing golf with Mr. Pemberton, the company's CEO. This job is required for completion of Chapter 2 of the storyline.

The delivery service job and taxi job require the player to drive between certain points of the map in a limited time. The taxi job also requires driving carefully to not scare the passengers.

The police job is mostly about with working as a highway patrol officer, writing tickets to drivers and collecting fines. The possible violations include speeding, driving without license, insurance, or prescribed glasses, driving without headlights at night, or keeping food under the car hood. This job is required for completion of Chapter 3.

The local port offers three jobs: forklift driver, crane operator and security guard. After gaining the port's trust, Sasquatch can pull off a burglary himself for large profits, though that is a challenging activity with high chances of being caught. Completing all three jobs at the Port gains Sasquatch the title of Junior Supervisor, which gives him higher security clearance, and a personal forklift. Junior Supervisor is required for completion of Chapter 4.

Another job is a substitute captain of the local ferry, sailing between the island and the mainland. Later in the game, Sasquatch can sail the ferry to his private campground.

Sasquatch can also invest 1000 coins into a local food delivery service called Spaghetti Hotline. He can get a share of the profits and upgrade the Spaghetti Hotline kitchen for extra coins and money.

After Sasquatch is elected mayor in the 4th Chapter of the storyline (version 1.9), Sasquatch can fund money to customize the town in the town hall. However, Sasquatch does not get paid as mayor.

In the Hospital Update (version 1.9.8), the player can be a paramedic or a doctor. They earn a medical diploma from an infomercial from any TV on the map for 5000 coins. Sasquatch, as both a doctor or a paramedic, can complete tasks and receive paychecks which can be deposited into the bank to receive money in their bank account.

Property
The money can be spent to buy multiple vehicles: cars, motorbikes, and boats, and then to upgrade and customize them. Additionally, Sasquatch can expand his house and buy new furniture, purchase additional houses in other parts of the map, or buy some expensive vanity outfits and accessories.

Businesses
There are two different businesses Sasquatch can invest in, in order to gain a passive income later. These businesses include a private campground on a small island, and a spaghetti delivery service in the town.

Seasonal events
There are two seasonal events. Winter holidays event adds additional prizes for the snowball fights mini-game and the snowman building activity.

The Halloween event features trick-or-treating with dressing into multiple outfits, and several Halloween-themed mini-quests.

The prizes for both events are candies, which can be exchanged for corresponding holiday costumes, and decorations for Sasquatch's house. Both events can be started for a day at any time of the year by finding a certain character and paying them.

Storyline
As of version 1.9.11, there are 4 chapters in the main storyline.

Chapter 1: The Mysterious Treasure Map
Sasquatch, a fun and mischievous creature lives in the care of one of the park rangers at a private campsite. Hoping to prevent campers from being frightened away, the ranger doesn’t allowed Sasquatch from interacting with humans, but Sasquatch often sneaks out with the other animals to find food and objects. One day, CEO Mr. Pemberton tells the ranger that he will be demolishing the park's land so that it can be converted into luxury condos. Overhearing the conversation, the animals make a plan with Sasquatch to find a way to buy the park from Pemberton. The animals eventually find a layout of a treasure map, and with Sasquatch’s help, they locate the pieces to the map and dig up the treasure, which they then use to keep the park. Having the campsite, the animals and park ranger hold a party hailing Sasquatch as a hero.

Chapter 2: Revenge On The Park
After the party, Sasquatch's friend Raccoon returns from the town, warning the animals that he heard that Pemberton seeks to take the park again but by illegal means. Using a disguise and a code name to apply as an office worker, Sasquatch becomes an employee at Pemberton's enterprise by the name of R Corp, climbing the corporate ladder of the company until Sasquatch is given a special keycard used to access Pemberton's office. Sasquatch and Raccoon break inside the building while the building is closed, stealing evidence of the illegal plans and turning it over to the police. Pemberton is arrested, and the animals congratulate Sasquatch for foiling the plot.

Chapter 3: The Polluted Campground
After the party for saving the park again, the ranger discovers that the campground's lake has become polluted by unknown criminals. The police cannot investigate the pollution due to lack of not having enough officers, so Sasquatch and the animals decide to investigate the pollution problem themselves. Disguising himself as a police officer looking to apply for the job, Sasquatch writes tickets to cars and/or boats in order to gain enough trust from the police chief to be promoted to a detective role for investigating the pollution. Several clues show that the source comes from the town sewers, so Sasquatch uses diving equipment to access the restricted sewage control room, confronting two criminals as they flood the lake with pollution water. The police lets Sasquatch choose if they go to jail or not go to jail if you pick go to jail they will arrest them and imprison them. Or if you choose not to arrest them you will find them by the marina at the ocean. Either way Sasquatch reverses the flow of sewage, removing the pollution.

Chapter 4: The Evil Mayor Election
Soon after, Sasquatch learns that the criminals were paid to pollute the lake by Mr. Pemberton's young son, Pemberton Jr. On the TV he makes a speech that he will run in the upcoming mayoral election, and will release his father from prison if elected. Concerned about the Pemberton’s problem against the park, the animals convince Sasquatch to run against Pemberton Jr. in the election. Sasquatch campaigns under his code name, and slowly gets voters through advertisements and by making friends with the citizens Sasquatch defeats Pemberton Jr. by one vote, but as he returns to the campsite to celebrate, he learns that all the animals have disappeared and Mr. Pemberton has escaped from jail. Tracking them to the port, Sasquatch sees the Pemberton’s caging the animals inside a warehouse. With help from its friend Fox, Sasquatch breaks into the port at night, frees the animals, and fights a violent Pemberton Jr. by throwing oranges at him. At the last moment, Mr. Pemberton traps Sasquatch inside a cage, and says to have him locked away as a zoo animal forever. The park ranger arrives and makes a circle around the Pemberton's with a mob of Sasquatch’s human friends, where Mr. Pemberton makes Sasquatch take off his disguise and shows them that Sasquatch is a Sasquatch. Sasquatch's friends are not surprised by this information, much to Mr. Pemberton's surprise. Having revealed the true identity of "the mayor", they cage up the Pemberton’s and free Sasquatch. The Pemberton’s are loaded onto a ship willingly to never to return on a ship named “SS Never Coming Back”, while Sasquatch and its friends return to the park to host a party.

Development
The game was created by RAC7 Games, a two-person team in Vancouver, Canada. Among their previous titles were Splitter Critters which won iPhone Game of the Year and Apple Design Awards in 2017.

The setting of the game is based on developers’ native British Columbia, specifically Squamish in early 1990s.

The game's prototype, Starvin’ Sasquatch, was developed in 2015 for Ludum Dare 33 competition themed 'You Are the Monster'. It was a simple game about a Sasquatch stealing food from campers. The development continued after that competition, but they did not expect it to sell well on mobile, and put it on hold. After several years of inactivity, the game was expanded to be pitched for Apple Arcade, which allowed the developers not to worry about monetization techniques, together with another title Spek. The goal was to add the silliest activities to imagine a Sasquatch doing, so the ability to drive and race cars and to golf were added, followed by others. The main gameplay and the mini-games were influenced by a range of games such as Metal Gear Solid and Microsoft Golf 2.0. Developers mentioned that they are in the process of adding every type of game they ever wanted to make as a mini-game into Sneaky Sasquatch. The most recent update has taken place in December of 2023.

Reception
Sneaky Sasquatch ended 2020 as Apple Arcade's number 1 game in the United States, and number 5 in Canada, and has been recommended as a child friendly game by reviewers.

The game was awarded Apple Arcade Game of the Year in 2020. Part of the game's success has been attributed to players, particularly children, longing for outdoor activities during COVID-19 lockdowns,  and surprising amount of content behind what looks like a simple kids’ game. Developers noticed that young child players enjoy even the simplest activities like eating and sleeping, and more hardcore gamers find full completion of the game a decent challenge.