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DISCLAIMER:
The Half-Rats novelization trilogy should be treated as its own thing, separate from the mods. Before you read, forget everything you know about Half-Rats and all the events which took place in the mods. The mods were dreams which took place while Half-Rats was passed out drunk and were meant solely as a proof of concept for the character. The mods are very briefly alluded to in the novelization as being dreams. What you're about to read is a story which has been in the making for nearly 10 years. It was being worked on in the background while I developed the mods. I made several attempts to bring this story to life as a game/s, and even as a comic, but it never happened.
What you're about to read is the original storyline of what was to be covered and experienced in the commercial games. This is the true, canonical story of the infamous Half-Rats. Enjoy.
It's "Dun".
Disclaimer: The third part of this story - part 3...is basically a summary of events and not an actual story with dialogue or anything in-depth. Just a means to an end due to severe time constraints.
As stated, many times before, this trilogy tells the story of what WOULD have been the Half-Rats: MOPAT/Tarnished prospects game/s that were to be developed on the Unreal Engine. I reiterate: The Half-Rats mods are non-canonical and were simply intended as a proof of concept/character introduction to gain support for the actual game. Which almost, sort of, kinda' worked. But I'm not getting into that right now. Though, it can be stated that the events of the Half-Rats mods DID take place in Half-Rats' dreams (which is alluded to a few times in the story).
The whole Half-Rats IP was a big, crazy mess that was always changing, being gutted, evolving, being gutted again, with non-canon offshoots (the mods) Except for Redridge which is the FIRST and ONLY Canonical mod.
In 2013, I conceived a prototype for the character known as "Half-Rats". He was intended to be my stage persona, but from there it developed into a concept for a video game. The games never happened obviously, but I kept on hoping and trying; paring down the scope of work over the years and changing the story, refining it, reworking it to fit, retconning, etc.
In 2014-2015, The game was originally supposed to take place during what is now the third part of this story, as well as a very watered-down version of the first half of the first part of it (where Half-Rats lives his rough daily life and causes havoc). But in 2018, I decided to try and pare down the scope of MOPAT by taking out all the hubbub and getting right into the supernatural (only barely giving you an insight into half-Rats' gangsta' nature and early background). This game was going to be called "Half-Rats: Tarnished Prospects (working title) and it was going to be a co-op. It obviously didn't even make it past the rough conceptual stage. The concept of this game went on to eventually become part two of this story. We won't touch on the "Waking Nightmare" and "Dawn of Pestilence" titles which were canceled.
It wasn't until 2020 that decided to FINALLY take the whole, fully fleshed out story from my head and commit it to paper - with some changes and embellishments/filler. The trilogy as it stands is not very game-friendly since having been written down LONG after abandoning the idea of making them into games. They are adapted to be read as stories, and not played. The third part - as you'll see would probably make for an awfully boring game as it makes for a pretty dull read as well - but as stated above: my steam has run out. At any rate - enjoy this trilogy that was 10 years in the making. This was the Half-Rats game that ya'll never got, and never will - but only in written form!
This is the end of a rough, tough, crazy, turbulent era in my life, and though part three didn't end up as epic as I would have liked it to, it gets to the point and just finally finishes the story of Half-Rats in an extremely condensed fashion. That's right. What's left of Half-Rats is finally done. Finished. The end!
- K.R. Nelson "Half-Rats"
Me in the summer of 2015. Shortly before HRAFD released. The bar is still standing, but it's slowly falling apart!
Through all the trials and tribulations of your developing a project like this, I'm glad you've been able to release what you have! Thank you for the update and best of luck in your future endeavors, whatever they may be!
Your guess is as good as mine on that one, pard! Things are terrible and great at the same time. We will see which one finally wins.
Nice! I've loved the trilogy so far. And honestly, Half-Rats is so unique I think it could make a great movie or something like so.
Of course that requires alot for something. But these stories will probably be just as good.
Thank you for everything you've done, truly
It could definitely work out as a three part movie. Id sell the rights for 1M and creator/writer credit. Half-Rats is indeed a copywritten character.
Based