CatChaseZero

by donvermo

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.61

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.54

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.11

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.64

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.68

Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.36

Humor★★★★★★★★★★3.36

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.56

Coolness★★★★★★★★★★58%

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POSTJAM VERSION
===============
Postjam version is now live!
The Postjam version includes enhanced graphics and sound effects as well as some balancing fixes.

Find them here:
VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV
http://tinyurl.com/PostJamWINDOWS <<<<<<<<
http://tinyurl.com/PostJamMAC <<<<<<<<
http://tinyurl.com/PostJamLINUX <<<<<<<<
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

===========
DESCRIPTION
===========
CatChaseZero is an attempted throwback at the retro arcade of old.
You play as a cat trying to save the world from the evil mice.
Run around the room trying to prevent the cheese from being stolen, but watch out! Eating mice makes you fat and slow, keep walking and running to burn off those calories before the horde overcomes you.

=========
CONTROLS
=========
Mouse for menus (sorry folks, didn't get to finish it retro style, will do so post jam)
Arrow Keys to move
Space to run

=========
Mechanics
=========

Eating mice makes you fat and slows you down, move to burn those calories and run to burn them faster.
Watch out for coloured mice, each one has its own effect.

Brown: nothing, just makes you fatter
White: restores your stamina and doesn't make you gain weight
Green: these ones make you gain extra fat (they are worth more points though)
Purple: they invert the rules of the game until you eat another (non-purple) mouse, movement is inverted and they make you lose fat instead of gain it.

==============
Post compo plans
==============
These are finished! check the top of this post for the post compo version of the game!

Comments26

Fough16 Dec 2016, 22:59

Pretty nice, needs some work on animation for mice and juiciness when nabbing them, but overall it's cool :)

donvermoauthor17 Dec 2016, 22:27

@Fough, Thanks for playing! I uploaded a postjam version where I got to fix some things I didn't get around to during the jam, feedback on the postjam version is also greatly appreciated.

stefvanschie18 Dec 2016, 10:26

Pretty fun game. The first time I played it my score counter wasn't visible, though. And the fat meter obscures the lives text. However the game is very enjoyable and very polished.

donvermoauthor18 Dec 2016, 10:30

@stefvanschie, interesting bug you have there. Would you mind telling me what platform you ran it on and what the native resolution of your desktop is? The game should be running on 1920x1080 by default.

indrkl18 Dec 2016, 11:00

Very well executed, the fat and stamina mechanic was pretty interesting. I found out that you can abuse the mice to gather cheese in one place to make it reaser to catch them, don't know if that's intentional, but that was a good strategy.

donvermoauthor18 Dec 2016, 11:03

@indrkl yeah it was a good strategy that would sadly make the game a little too easy down the line. I made it less of an issue in the postjam version though. Thanks for playing!

Dejvo18 Dec 2016, 11:42

really good game! I love Cats. My game also has mice but in a different way :D

PlugRobots18 Dec 2016, 11:45

Can't launch. Have the "Program isn't run"(5) error.

Kalm00418 Dec 2016, 12:07

For me it's a really good game. I'll tell you some things to improve. The collisions detection and the controls can be improved. And you have a problem with the visualization of the hud. But as I said, really good job, it's a funny game!

KappaIX18 Dec 2016, 12:27

Damn those mice, stealing my cheese.

I liked the graphics, I particularly liked the idle pose for the cat (where it sits down), a nice touch. The music was very authentic for an arcade game. Good work also taking the time to put together an intro.

I think the area to work on would be when you get down to just a couple of bits of cheese? It's possible to just sit on them and grab the mice as they come to you - some sort of escalation at this point would be good.

On the whole a fun game! Well done, thanks for sharing!

AcuadoyStudios18 Dec 2016, 12:32

Hey, I liked your game it was actually fun.
You can improve the audio and the graphics at some point but overall not bad!
And please go and try out my game!

Yami no tenshi18 Dec 2016, 13:21

Really funny and great realization ! Would have been perfect with sound effects.

Good job ! (My best score is 720).

donvermoauthor18 Dec 2016, 16:27

@PlugRobots would you be able to give me some more information? What OS were you trying to run the game on? Maybe I can fix the problem.

kleinzach18 Dec 2016, 20:28

Good entry. I like the pixel art, especially of the cat. It got pretty repetitive after a while, I would like to see you mix it up a bit, though the different mice are a good start. Sound effects and any sort of reaction to eating a mouse would make a world of difference.

martymon18 Dec 2016, 20:30

Nice graphics...would have liked to see animations for mice. I've never felt so fat as a cat.

thedashdude18 Dec 2016, 21:03

The fatness meter was a cool mechanic, but I don't think you did all you could with it. Also, why were there 4 cheeses but three lives?

Ekilibr18 Dec 2016, 22:15

The game is pretty fun and intuitive. I managed to score 500pts at first run :)
The "fat" mechanic is really well thought, also!
Well played!

onixowl19 Dec 2016, 04:11

At first, I was like "ok, that pretty easy". Couple of minutes later started to literally scream on mouse "PUT IT BACK YOU GODDAMN MICE!"

Liked the game. Looks, plays and sounds pretty good

SoulBound19 Dec 2016, 04:25

Very good game

donvermoauthor19 Dec 2016, 06:15

@thedashdude, it has one more cheese than there are lives because if there is only once cheese left you can just sit on top of it. Did not manage to think up a way around it other than this so far.

@Ekilibr, @onixowl, @SoulBound: Thank your for playing!

radmars19 Dec 2016, 23:13

Nice! The art and sound are really great. Pretty fun though straightforward, some other mechanics might have been cool since with the way stamina worked I could just hold down space the entire time. Introducing the enemies earlier might help too, I only saw one green one and never saw any purple. Loved the intro too. Nice work!

Thijs Tak21 Dec 2016, 07:23

I liked the game. I love cats. The mice AI wasn't the smartest though. Half of the time they walked right into me (even when holding cheese) instead of walking toward the cheese or back to the holes.
Also, I never saw a purple mouse.

nick.bota24 Dec 2016, 14:56

The cutest game of LD37 :D, it's funny, looks great, sounds great, has great mechanics and it's fun to play! Would like to see some more levels and new level patterns though.