The real story of Half-Rats, as it was meant to be told.
I couldn't release this story as a game, and I don't think anyone could commercially (It would be quite the undertaking to say the least)...at least not in one installment, haha. As you all know, the mods weren't canonical, as they were just Half-Rats' drunken dreams. The comic was too time consuming to do, and I lacked the sufficient talent to continue it, as well as the time - so here it is. It was quicker, and I could paint the entire picture a lot better in writing alone.
This is the first part of the complete story, as was supposed to be told in the comics. It was planned since 2014 to be the main story I was working up towards for Half-Rats and all the characters. I finally got the time to put at least the first arc into writing during quarantine last year. I'll never be able to release this in any other format, so please enjoy!
Thanks for sticking around all these years!
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 is a big, crazy mess that was always changing, being gutted, evolving, being gutted again, with non-canon offshoots (the mods)
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 and 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 (where Half-Rats lives his rough daily life and causes havok). 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.
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 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. That's right. What's left of Half-Rats is finally done. Finished. The end!
- K.R. Nelson "Half-Rats"
Why is Barnaby holding a semi-automatic pistol?
Because the story REALLY takes place in 1906.