New game lets you experience being a Toronto raccoon on garbage night

Ever wondered what it’d be like to explore the streets of Toronto as the city’s unofficial mascot? Well if you have, there’s a new game just for that.

Trash Panda, created by professional storyteller Jason Leaver, is a new simulator that invites you to play as a raccoon roaming the neighbourhoods of Toronto, all while knocking over trash bins, searching for treats, and creating a big mess in the process.

While Leaver’s background is in filmmaking, he told blogTO that his passion for storytelling has the ability to extend to any medium — even a video game fully dedicated to the bandit-eyed furry residents of Toronto.

“During early pandemic lockdowns, I turned my attention to game development, something that has always interested me and I’d only dabbled with prior,” he explained.

Just like most Toronto residents, Leaver has had many run-ins with raccoons over the years, which partly served as the inspiration behind the simulator.

“The week before the idea for Trash Panda came to me, I was startled by a whole family of raccoons crowding around my green bin. I literally screamed out loud when one of the kits tried to climb up my leg,” Leaver told blogTO.

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“My hunch is, these raccoons are related to the ones born in the crawl space under our kitchen a few years previous.”

The game first came to fruition after Leaver purchased an animated raccoon on an online market, where game developers could purchase almost anything one needs to make a game — such as characters, models, and tools.

“As a proper Torontonian, I felt like I wasn’t complete without it. I didn’t have any ideas on what to do with this raccoon character, until one garbage night when the image of this low-poly critter making a mess came to mind,” he told blogTO.

“I wondered how I could play with the physics engine, trigger the sound effects, spawn garbage, and I started experimenting the next day.”

After some development, Leaver began to share some of his experimentation online, and the footage caught the attention of both video game enthusiasts and fellow raccoon lovers.

The video game’s prototype went viral, which convinced him to transition from a hobbyist to a committed developer.

People are obsessed with this Toronto raccoon video game and it hasn’t even launched yet https://t.co/ZKe45Ruxiu #Toronto #Raccoon #VideoGame

— blogTO (@blogTO) May 12, 2021

While Leaver originally estimated that the game would take approximately six months to release, he told blogTO that he had many learning experiences ahead of him.

“Being a parent and freelance video editor always had to take higher priority than Trash Panda. There were even stretches of several months where I didn’t even touch it. The biggest lesson I learned: making a game is as challenging as it is fun,” he explained.

The game, which was officially launched on November 15, allows players to visit the actual Toronto streets they know and frequent in real life. Leaver imported Open Street Map data to build the game’s levels with a high degree of accuracy, right down to the locations of every Canada Post mailbox and TTC bus stop.

Although the game has only been out for roughly two weeks, Leaver says the reactions — especially from his own family — have been great.

“It is an absolute joy watching the way kids, including my own daughter, get so excited and deeply committed to making as big a mess as possible in the game. They leave no bin unturned,” he said.

“When adults play, their reaction is usually quite the opposite. Adults get really calm and relaxed. They say things like ‘I need this in my life right now,’ or ‘this is so chill’ as they zone out.”

Trash Panda is available for purchase on Steam for $9.99.