Backbone was going to be a completely different game...until one of the devs got attacked by raccoons

Backbone, a game where you play as raccoon private eye Howard Lotor, was actually going to be a completely different game early on in development. Turns out all it takes is one raccoon attack to steer a game in a completely different direction. Narrative designer and studio co-founder Alex Korabelnikova explains in an interview with Kotaku.

“The game came about when one of our devs was attacked by raccoons. We were making a different game. It was sci-fi. It had a smell mechanic where you could stealth by using your sense of smell and other senses. During the call, raccoons attacked, and we couldn’t stop thinking about it. We couldn’t stop talking about being a raccoon thief, and then the raccoon thief turned into a raccoon detective. That’s how the game was born.”