Unleash the chameleon in you.
Spy Chameleon - RGB Agent (or Spy Chameleon for short) is an indie puzzle top-down stealth-based arcade game made by Unfinished Pixel, made in the Unity engine. The player, an unnamed, mostly silent, chameleon so-called "RGB Agent" for hire, steals a valuable object every mission; a painting, a secret formula to a new cola, celebrity pictures... you name it.
But first, you have to get there.
You do this by going through a set of levels, and completing them by changing the colour of the chameleon to either Red, Green, Blue, or Yellow to match the surroundings you are on or near, in order to avoid being detected by robots, cameras, and other things that might out you on your mission. It has five missions spanning 75 levels overall, and it was released on 11th June, 2014 for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux via Steam here
. You can also find the game on modern consoles (and the Wii U), said Wii U port was released on the 6th of January, 2015. An Xbox One port was released on the 22nd May, 2015, a PS4 port was published on the 21st of July, 2016, and finally, a port for the Switch was published on the 9th of March, 2018.
Note: To avoid confusion, this page refers to the Xbox One "A,B,X,Y" buttons and colors in trope examples.
Tropes you were hired to steal:
- 100% Completion: Completing the game this way requires finding all ladybirds (which necessitates replaying the levels a second time), collecting all the flies, beating the staff time, and completing all challenges; some of which are only completable on Hard mode.
- Acceptable Breaks from Reality:
- Cameras do not spot you immediately, you have two seconds to get out of range, or change to the color of a coloured surface to evade suspicion.
- The whole point of the game is getting to the object, not getting out the way you came in. The mission ends when you obtain that missions' item.
- There are only four colors used to get past spotters like cameras and robots: Red, Green, Yellow and Blue, which are precisely the ones you can disguise as. Doing otherwise wouldn't be fun, and could be considered Fake Difficulty.
- You are able to freely move around in sight cones while disguised as the specific color of the environment.
- all lowercase letters: The text in-game has all the letters be in lowercase.
- Anti-Frustration Features:
- There's a checkpoint system in each level, often two per level, sometimes more if it's a particularly tricky section.
- There is a very tiny bit of leeway when it comes to hiding behind objects, as the hitbox of the chameleon is based on the feet, not the head.
- Sight cones can be seen for the camera's and the robots, as well as anything else that may spot you. This works for and against you, as while that makes all actions predictable, it also means you can go right next to them and they'll be none-the-wiser you're standing there.
- Blatant Burglar: The chameleon wears a Domino Mask, turtleneck and gloves, as per the stereotypical burglar image.
- Blending-In Stealth Gameplay: Quite literally so. You disguise as a color to evade the sightcones of cameras and robots and other things you meet along the way.
- Broken Bridge: You require a certain amount of completed levels and flies to have been collected in order to unlock the final level for a given mission.
- Chameleon Camouflage: The entire premise of the game, really. You, the chameleon, have to change colors to your surroundings to get from point A to point B. The unique gimmick is that the colors are tied to the color of the Xbox controllers' face buttons; X, Y, A, B, which mirrors exactly the Blue, Yellow, Green and Red respectively used in-game.
- Changing Clothes Is a Free Action: When you change color, the turtleneck and mask also changes to that color, and it is instantaneous.
- Caught on Tape: Getting caught by a security camera in time will have the pop-up show this to you. As the player, you're actively avoiding doing this.
- Domino Mask: The chameleon wears one to hide his identity.
- The Faceless: His mask covers up some of the chameleons' features, but is otherwise a downplayed trope.
- Gotta Catch Them All: There are two collectables in the game; Ladybirds and Flies. Keys can also be found, but those are needed to unlock further rooms. 100% completion relies on collecting the former two collectibles.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: You can invoke this by hiding behind objects, or simply stand near a robot, and they'll be none the wiser.
- Insecurity Camera:
- Robot sightcones can be blocked by moving panels, as well as being fooled by your color switching abilities.
- Camera's cannot be killed, but can be avoided if you disguise as the right color in time.
- Lovable Lizard: Completing a mission has the chameleon joyfully cheer up and down in a rather adorable way.
- Macguffin: Each mission has a variation of one:
- The first is a Memento Macguffin, you have to steal back photograph's of a famous model.
- The second and third missions have you grab a painting of Potato Jesus your client wants, and the third mission has you steal a Coca-Cloaca recipe for a rival company.
- The fourth mission has you stealing a Living Macguffin... lab-grown monsters (including an implied Fetus Terrible).
- The fifth and final mission is stealing an early access computer program that'll change the world: Spy Chameleon - RGB Agent 2.
- Mobile Shrubbery: The final missions requires you to use a cardboard box to move around in. The upside is that you can use it to hide in sight cones of any robot, but the downside is that you cannot move around in those sight cones (as the box is brown, not any color you can disguise as, so you're not "invisible").
- No Name Given: The Chameleon hasn't got a name, other than a designation of RGB agent. All the player knows is that that you're a chameleon to steal stuff.
- No Plot? No Problem!: There's no driving plot, other than "you are a thief, get past each level, steal the thing in the final levels' mission".
- Rule of Fun: Cameras do not instantly spot you; if they did, then it'd be extremely frustrating to play the game.
- So Much for Stealth: Your goal is to avoid doing this. This being a stealth game, you will be invoking this trope as the player by messing up a puzzle or not timing the color changing correctly. If you get caught, a pop-up and alarm sirens play.
- Top-Down View: The game somewhat plays like the early Metal Gear Solid games (which too are top-down and stealth-based), and you even get to use the "Box Trick" in Mission 5's levels.
- The Voiceless: The chameleon has exactly one voice line; a really quick "Hah!" sound, which plays when you change color.
- With Cat Like Tread: The sight cones are the only way for anyone/ anything to see you. You can stand in specific spots, or even right next to robots and they won't care you're even there.
