Whiskers in the Dark by SlaQr

[raw]
made by SlaQr for Ludum Dare 58 (JAM)

Note: The files are too powerful! Please download from https://slaqr.itch.io/whiskers-in-the-dark

Listening to your cat get up to mischief in the middle of the night is a nearly universal human experience. But have you wondered what it must be like from the perspective of the cat?

Take on the role of Bob the tabby as he tries to make his owner jump with excitement when they see the gifts you've collected. (Although maybe not in the way Bob intended)BobPounce.png

Ratings

Overall 54th 4.111⭐ 29🧑‍⚖️
Fun 18th 4.212⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 110th 3.788⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Theme 76th 4.212⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 285th 3.904⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Humor 30th 4.25⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Mood 94th 4.12⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Given 23🗳️ 31🗨️

Feedback

Derek Glennon
Oct 07th · 00:48 UTC
Very charming! Graphics and gameplay were great
penumbrah
Oct 07th · 02:05 UTC
Very funny! The scream when lunging actually made me laugh. There could be a total points so you can get high scores! Other than that great job very funny and enjoyable!
zzbond
Oct 07th · 02:09 UTC
这音乐太棒了!猫的视角也很有趣
🎤 SlaQr
Oct 07th · 02:10 UTC
@penumbrah The score at the game over screen is your total. It could be a bit bigger in a future release :)
Adrien Tremblay
Oct 07th · 02:18 UTC
I loved this. I love the concept. PSX artstyle with postprocessing was great. Gives me inspo. I liked jumping up on top of stuff like the bed. Its a bit hard and takes practice though. I didn't like how E is the button to drop rats though, should be LMS.

Also bro's house is infested with rats wtf. They're so cute though.

Game felt a bit too hard, I got up to score 7 but then the human wakes up.

Also, I didn't like how you can clip into the cats arms when u look down.
Winter2277
Oct 07th · 04:15 UTC
Great immersion, first time ever playing a game as a cat I found this very interesting and innovative. My only regret is not seeing the reaction of the human when he wakes up wiht 10 rats on him. I found the controls very adapted to cat movement, especially the jump as I felt I needed to calculate my jumps just like my cat does when jumping on a table. The graphics were a difficult hard to parse and I think that made the game more difficult but it looked good aesthetically. Amazing work
LDJam user 410492
Oct 07th · 04:46 UTC
Awesome! Running around as the cat feels great, most fun gameplay I've played so far! How are you supposed to save up 8 rat points though? The human wakes so quickly I'm barely getting the 3 each time lol!
b0guslaw
Oct 07th · 05:50 UTC
Very funny and super well made! Loved the soundtrack which perfectly fit into the very tight and neatly done gameplay loop.
Emiliaye
Oct 07th · 12:00 UTC
The game is good, controls are so smooth! And I like the graphics style a lot!
LDJam user 148539
Oct 07th · 13:00 UTC
Very fun, cat controls great, was able to get up to 11 rats. love the goofiness of the run animation, and the music fit perfectly. really well done.
tardis2snej
Oct 07th · 21:28 UTC
GENIUOS
I had so much fun playing this.
It was a little bit difficult to get used to the controls, but after that the hunt is on haha
Pcho
Oct 07th · 22:58 UTC
Literally lost for words. This is pure genius! 100/10!
eloc
Oct 08th · 03:28 UTC
Yo. This rocks. Graphics, art direction, lighting, controls, and sfx/music are an A++
Ciphereo
Oct 08th · 06:37 UTC
The perspective of a cat is so fascinating!
YurisCat
Oct 08th · 09:24 UTC
Very interesting game! Next time, try placing the gifts by the bedside; the owner might be even happier.
Sohei
Oct 08th · 09:32 UTC
Super sloppy gameplay but super fun. Music made the game. )
evil23
Oct 08th · 15:23 UTC
This game was really fun to play! The controls were a bit hard but once you get used to them, it becomes ok.
You could maybe have a difficulty setting because I couldn't manage to get to open the second door after 3 attempts (but maybe that's just me being impatient).
Sound was also great, did you record it yourself?
Things to improve:
- balancing difficulty

Good effort!
🎤 SlaQr
Oct 08th · 16:38 UTC
Thanks for the feedback everyone!
@evil23 the music is not ours (and attributed in the credits) but funny enough bob isn't the voice actor. That would be another cat called Georgie.

I do think that after playing it so much that the cat could stand to be a little less floaty, but I am attached to the idea of cat behaviour of sliding past doors.

I would like to further balance the game post-jam but have some tips to try and match our scores in this version:
There's a bug where the rat spawn rate increase is ticking up during the tutorial, so just wait around for a bit.

The meta appears to be to open a door before keeping your owner timer on life support (doors increase rat spawn cap by 2)
Bunny Hop! Your air velocity is higher than your ground velocity and has only a small dropoff if you keep hopping. Your pounce is equally valuable as a velocity reset mid-air or on the ground.

Your mission: match my score of 31 or @matt-silvestri's score of 33

Good luck, soldier.

(Maybe we can even get in the karambit idle animation in the post-jam edition)
Keys Presser
Oct 08th · 16:59 UTC
Cool game, really funny idea! I laughed while playing it
ConCaerus
Oct 10th · 00:00 UTC
Very cool game! Loved the music and the cat legs!
Ismael Rodriguez
Oct 10th · 01:13 UTC
Fun take on the theme! Gameplay was pretty simple, but I appreciate the visuals and the overall mood.
BlushingCrow
Oct 12th · 06:35 UTC
Cat perspective is nuts, I love the 90s graphics and cat audio! I could not gather rats quickly enough but I had a blast trying, great stuff!!
JohnStarich
Oct 13th · 02:17 UTC
I had a blast. Who knew it'd be so exhilarating to be a cat?!

![Pasted image (2).png](///raw/9f7/56/z/6f56b.png)

Fantastic choice of music, it matched the fast pace and reminded me of the good ol' Tom and Jerry cartoons. Thank you for the in-game tutorial taken at my own pace, those are so valuable. And I love the variety of mice patterns, plus the hilarious picture of way too many of them stacked on top of our poor, unsuspecting owner.

I liked the addition of other rooms. Some surprise upgrades hidden inside would've been the cherry on top of an otherwise excellent game. Great work here folks.
squashi
Oct 15th · 22:53 UTC
yo this was actually super fun!