Through the Cat's Eyes

Instructions:

The game focuses on exploring, always push buttons to test if any item is interactable or scratchable. When you are satisfied with your current progress, end the game, see which ending you get. There are three endings in total, which complements the plot.

The two bars on the corner records how much the cat scratched and the owner's mood. If the scratching is being caught, a red sign will appear above the owner's head, and her mood would drop. These two stats are related to the endings.

AD to move left and right.

Space to jump.

J to scratch furniture

K to interact with furniture

L to end the game and see the ending you get.

R to restart the game all over again.

1: game description

This game is about me and my cat.The player plays as the cat, explores some particular rooms of my home, makes comments about furniture, and scratches them. I chose this topic for several reasons. She is a stray cat I adopted when I was in high school. This lovely cat always stays on my bed and sleeps with me at night. She helped me to come over a lot of difficulties in my life, and without her comfort I may not even be here now. Another reason is related to an incident this summer. If you trigger the special ending in this game, you will know.

2: my process

The initial idea is my cat hiding behind furniture and scratching them. I had this idea simply because she is naughty sometimes. But as a sidescroller, where to hide becomes blurry and may confuse players. So I chose to set up a distance detector between the AI “me” and my cat. In this way, the cat’s task is scratching furniture and avoiding being caught by me. Then I decided to write some short brief sentences about myself, by interacting with furniture, the player can know a little bit about myself, from the cat’s view.

3: one specific development challenge and how I solved it 

The message box is so hard to code. I do not know much about canvas and text stuff. So I asked a professional for help. After some tutorial videos and documentation reading, we figured it out. By using switch, I was able to print the words I want. He also composed the music of this game. EPIC.