Needy Pixel Kitties by Aaron Smith
Needy Pixel Kitties!
A fast-paced puzzle game

Needy Pixel Kitties is a simple, fast-paced puzzle game featuring cats.
Note- Also has a touch interface for tablet play!
It features: - kitties - power-ups - laser pointers - voiced tutorial - mad music!
| Link | https://revoincubus.itch.io/needy-pixel-kitties |
| Link | https://1drv.ms/u/s!AikaqlFaGXKEifIZ_7tGAfChQQ20RQ?e=23ROLz |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51/need-pixel-kitties |
Ratings
| Given | 26🗳️ | 38🗨️ |
The tutorial is very cool :)
When I use my superpower on many, many cats, the sound is probably too loud, but you get used to it easily.
Great job!
Mabey do a little each level instead of everything in the first (tutorrial)
The tutorial was such a last second thought, but I think spacing it out and introducing each element as they arrive would be better.
Right now, I'm working on extending the gameplay systems without changing the complexity. As it stands, its pretty unplayable past about level 10-12.
Nice graphics, music and I had a blast.
Good job.

The only useful input I could give would be to vary the meows some as when you use the shift ability it gets loud.
Ultimately you did a great job and your daughter did amazing on the credits!
(also thank for you having commented and played my game <3)
As others have mentioned, the gameplay is smooth and the graphics are really cute...phenomenal work. I agree with @madeofst that the first level felt a bit slow, (even taking into account getting used to the controls)but that's just my preference. In the future it could be fun to make a dog version of this.
Hats off to you for creating a polished game and giving your kid a chance to do something new.
Yeah, that super power sound is just too much. Lol.
Can’t change it post compo, but will fix it for any future versions.
On a side note, the game is also really fun, especially with the sounds and the occasional golden cat! Nice job!
I has so many weird UI ideas before I realized I could just differentiate the individual cats by design.
The music is good but the loop is a bit short, it becomes quickly anooying.
Overall fun to play, especially when getting to higher levels.
This game was super cute, the sound effects were great, the tutorial was engaging.
In terms of room for improvement, I think some sound balancing between the tutorial and game would be nice and the ability to back up in the tutorial would be nice because I ended up skipping one spot too fast completely by accident and couldn't go back. ;-; I went into the game nervous, but the slow first level helped calm me down.
Very very well done. Super adorable, a fun take on an old school game style and I enjoyed myself greatly. Thank you. =)
Pros:
- The VA is brilliant!
- Cool cats designs
- Cute graphics
- You get a lot of kittens in later stages
- The mechanics are easy to grasp around
Cons:
- Wish it was a bit more demanding, but I understand the scope for this game as a kids' playground
A really nice entry. Good job!
But it had cats ! Tons of cats ! And that's awesome too ! :smiley_cat:
Anyway, a fun little game, I liked it.
Too be honest I'm still a little bit disapointed that the tutorial isn't in Comic sans MS :laughing:
Great tutorial! The art was very nice and cute and it's a simple concept that works very well. I like how the cats have physics for each one! I lasted a fair while and enjoyed myself! I'd also love to see this as a match 3 game btw!
I'd never tried a game with so casual a design before and I REALLY liked making it, so I will seriously consider trying a match 3, and maybe bash up a prototype or two.
Thanks!
Tbh making casual games feels like a lot of fun! I think that's why I'm really starting to like the jam format, it forces you to kind of lean towards making a short and more casual game and it's such a good way to learn just how fun a small amount of core mechanics built around a few minutes can be! This game was great so I'm sure your next project will be great!!
OMG I love the voiced tutorial, perfect match with the theme of the game! The cat noises were good, except when I used a power and it triggered a dozen at once, then it got a bit much ^_^.
At the beginning, I would have really liked a way to speed things along, I spent a while just staring at an empty board. Once the game got moving, it was pretty great, though!
Some thoughts:
- I loved the tutorial on the kid's voice
- It's confusing why the actions change instead of being always in the same order
As for why the items cycle randomly…as i thought about the design, just having easy access to all abilities does not create any choice for the player. It actively reduces gameplay. At that point its just a speed matching game.
With the abilities cycling randomly, the player has to 1- watch carefully or miss what they are after, and 2 - make a choice between cycling the items to get what they want at the expense of faster dropping cats. It becomes a gameplay decision point each cycle.
Lol, at least that was the theory. I thought a lot about how to provide the items, i changed it a few times.
What are your thoughts on how it could be implemented? I work entirely solo so far, so i rarely get to hear input from others on this sort of thing.
visual reminde me one board game:"Kitty Paw" ^^
@bhaa-su omg, i’d never heard of that! Had to get it for my daughter. She’ll love it! Thanks for the recommendation!
Thanks for the comment on the voice acting. She did all the cat meows as well and is so excited to hear people liked it!
You are correct, this was a blast to build! I had a lot more fun with this one than I did in previous jams. Getting my daughter to see the process and watch her eyes light up when she saw the results was great!
Also I love how kitties meow and look :3
all 5 stars for the cats theme haha
I also have a game with cats thats is my first game ever :hearts:
I would be very happy if you would rate it :sweat_smile:
But after that everything was great.
The tutorial was great :)
But meow thinks this is a purrfect game to paws the time! Ok, I'm done.

Personally I felt the difficulty curve to be a bit sharp, it starts off really easy and then immediately ramps up in difficulty and the random cycling of tools detracted from the experience imo. There was multiple occasions where I'd need one or two specific tools and I'd have to cycle through the tools 5 or 6 times to get the ones I needed which made it feel like when I lost it wasn't entirely my fault for misplaying but rather the RNG working against me.
I truly appreciate the feedback. Item selection and pacing are the two most common comments on the design (other than the decidedly hilarious sound bug).
I’m already working on a version with many changes including an Open item selection feature where you simply swap items with key presses and a completely revamped kitty delivery so the curve is both less boring to start and far more gradual.
It’s been a wild ride experimenting with how to alter the difficulty and pacing. Strange things have a really big impact on the pace.