I stumbled across Sluggy Freelance while reading the
home page for Plan 9 Publishing (the outlet for another online strip, Kevin
and Kell, a strip drawn by one of my favorite cartoonists, Bill Holbrook). I
devoured the Sluggy archives from start to the present strip in about five
days during my spare time at work and days off. The strip features a
homicidal, ass-kicking, switchblade-wielding mini-lop bunny named Bun-Bun.
More than a few of the strips feature Bun-Bun beating the pulp out of the
other characters. Kiki is a naive, joyful, mildly hyperactive [Editor's
note: mildly hyperactive?!], easily-distracted ferret. She provides a kind
and childlike presence, a well-used contrast to Bun-Bun's violent, cynical
nature.
It's important to understand that Bun-Bun is virtually unbeatable in
combat -- there's only one fight that Bun-Bun started and didn't win; that was
with a Giger-style Alien, and it ended in a tie. With how easily Kiki can
unintentionally annoy anyone, and how defenseless she is, you'd expect
Bun-Bun to have ventilated her several times over. He never has. Hasn't even
laid a whisker on her. In fact, Bun-Bun frequently uses Kiki as his
accomplice for many of his schemes and adventures. This got me to thinking:
Here's a bunny with a running vendetta against Santa Claus, for crying out
loud. Why hasn't he taken on Kiki? Then it hit me -- perhaps Kiki is one of the
few characters who could actually defeat him.
Shortly thereafter, this game was created. From that moment of inspiration
to full-fledged completion, I figure it took about 10 minutes.