15 years before Dishonored, Thief devs considered letting Garrett shrink himself rat-sized so he could scurry through drains and mouse holes
Developers of Thief: The Dark Project considered implementing a shrinking mechanic that would allow protagonist Garrett to become rat-sized, enabling him to navigate through small spaces like drains and mouse holes. While this feature was ultimately rejected during Thief’s development, a similar concept would later appear in Dishonored, where protagonist Corvo Attano can possess rats to access otherwise unreachable areas.
The comparison highlights how Thief and Dishonored share similar core design philosophies—both feature protagonists skilled in stealth who become entangled in supernatural conspiracies. However, Dishonored realized the rat-access mechanic through the possession ability, which became one of the game’s most distinctive and celebrated features.
According to the article, there were “good reasons” why the shrinking mechanic was abandoned during Thief’s development, though specific details aren’t provided in this excerpt. The decision to cut the feature likely reflected technical limitations, gameplay balance concerns, or design philosophy differences between the two titles released more than a decade apart.
This revelation offers insight into the iterative nature of game design and how ideas can evolve across different projects and generations of technology. While the shrinking mechanic never made it into the original Thief, its spiritual successor in Dishonored demonstrates how creative studios can revisit abandoned concepts and reimagine them within new gameplay systems.