Stealth, Mops, and Cubicles: A Stealth Prototype

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Lou Bagel

November 22, 2025

So here's what I've been up to…

tom the janitor ducking behind some plants
dun dun dun dun, dun dun dun dun dun dun dun

I have been working on a Stealth Prototype. Things were going well but now I feel a bit stuck. I thought it would be good to take a break to share by writing a blog post.

Why a stealth prototype?

I have fond memories of playing Metal Gear Solid - the early ones, I haven't played them all unfortunately. Hitman and Commandos were also big favorites of mine. I only played one Assassin's Creed fully but always been a fan from afar of it and thought it was absolutely amazing when I first saw it.

screenshots of hitman, metal gear solid, and commandos
my stealth inspirations

Obviously I'm not making Metal Gear Solid here though. I'm still using my pixel art, office-themed artwork for this. So there is one huge difference right there. Most of these games I mentioned were realistic, cutting edge games. Does any of that transfer to a lighthearted, 2d, Earthbound-esque vibed game?

screenshots of metal gear solid, earthbound, and my game
Metal Gear Solid Earthbound Mashup?

Another big aspect: I'm not planning any fighting/killing/violence here either. Most of these stealth games, when I get frustrated, I go in guns ablazing. So a second huge difference!

With these differences I thought it would be really good to do some prototyping before committing to a large game.

So the purpose of this prototype is to throw some of these common stealth mechanics into my pixel art office theme and see people's reactions!

What I've built so far

Here is what I have in the Stealth Prototype so far...

Ducking Mechanic

Ducking behind a plant to avoid a security camera.

janitor ducking behind a plant to hide from security camera
blame the decorator

Roll Mechanic

Roll behind low line of sight obstacles.

tom rolling past a security guard sitting
maybe don't lower your chair so much

Mop Disguise

As a janitor, mopping the floor is expected behavior and does not arouse suspicion of a guard.

tom the janitor mopping inconspicuously while security walks by
don't be suspicion

Distraction Rooms

Two rooms where you will have to use objects around the office to distract or lure workers away from where you need to go. As this is a prototype, I tried to make these pretty obvious and simple.

dave drinking coffee near the breakroom wtih a coffee maker
Dave loves his coffee

The first room has just one distraction and the second will need to two in a certain order.

two workers, a fan, and a server
Two distractions needed here

Final Room

In this final room One worker is walking and the others will be sitting but able to be lured to a distraction.

four connected rooms with multiple workers
the final challenge!

I'm trying to use a combination of multiple previous features, especially the duck and the roll. I'm a bit stuck right now trying to set that up.

Any ideas for other office objects to hide behind?

How you can help

Thoughts?

Let me know any other ideas or feedback.

Also, if you wanna play an early build send me a message! I also might send out an early build to my mailing list, so you can join that to get the link when it's ready.

What else I have been working on

Besides this, I had been working on this pixel art cropping tool . I just kind of got sick of exporting pixel art in multiple sizes and aspect ratios for specific requirements and made this to help.

A while ago I was working a bit on offic ninja but that fell off. I might start working on a tool to help myself organize my dialogue for my games.

Anyway, that's what I've been up to. I'll try not to wait too long before posting again!