Catreams

Summary

A small quasi-idle relaxing game about a Cat and his Human. The Cat will not ever have to leave its cosy house (unlike its Human), rather mostly sleep for the whole day and see dreams about the stuff its pet primate is occupied with. Funnily enough, this fellow truly thinks they're in control of their life and are fully capable of fending off by themselves.

What a ridiculous notion.

Obviously, they won't survive for long without your care and help.

Guide them to the right decision before they do something stupid.

Also, in this world, every day (or night) only takes 10 seconds, as for cats, the time is relative and flies by anyway. Do not worry, it will be plenty of time to decide where the Cat should spend his day, so no rush shall be required.

Theme

While the interpretation of "Every 10 seconds" is pretty straightforward and obvious - the whole game is structured in 10-second loops. However, there are also more intricate theme interpretations inbound.

I've felt like with this Theme, a lot of games will be about doing things quickly, within a limited time, etc. and realised that would be kind of stressful. So, why not go for an opposite route instead?

Rather than making as many things as possible within 10 seconds, why don't we get the player to only do one thing per 10 seconds at most instead? Why don't we let the player relax for a bit?

Let's see how well that idea fares:sweat_smile:

Gameplay

Your role as a Player is to choose the sleeping place for the Cat (be it the Bed, the Bowl, or the Chest) to affect human behaviour and hopefully get him to live on through the next day. Don't worry though, it's not like you can't get more humans if you need to.

While there is no __big epic goal__ there, the game _will_ congratulate you if you find out everything there is to see. Make the Cat happy ^-^

Hint: earn coins and sleep on the big chest in the middle of the room to get your Human to buy something nice for the house ;)

Use the Mouse to control where the Cat should sleep (and press any other key at all when prompted for restart).

While you can jump around and sleep anywhere generally, it's where you sleep _at the beginning of each day_ is what matters for your Human the most. The Cat shall see a dream of what is Human going to do next day, provided that the Cat is sleeping, of course. Sometimes you might see that the Human ate some food or lost some hearts due to starvation at night - make sure to keep them fed :)

#### Guide on the game mechanic (do not read if you'd like to figure it out yourself)

_The game itself was meant to be a puzzle that you'd get to solve based on Cat/Human behaviour dynamic and Cat dreams (hence the game name) that hint at what Human's been occupied with last night. However, since I've got multiple complains about the game's complexity and lack of obvious feedback, so here's a full guide on what you can do to get Human to do what you'd like._

There are three places you can move the Cat onto:

1. The Bed - sleep there to motivate your Human to (re)gain Health (Heart icons at the top left of the screen)
2. The Bowl - sleep there to motivate your Human to get some Fish (Fish icons at the top left of the screen)
3. The Chest - sleep there to motivate your Human to get some Gold (Coin icons at the top left of the screen) or spend them if there are items that can be bought

*Note*: since there are multiple ways to get different resources, Human won't always do the same thing. Gold can be earned by selling Fish, stealing Gold on the market, adventuring with a Sword or hunting with a Bow - and the Human will try the most lucrative options first. Also, Human has to eat from time to time, spending either Fish at night (if present) or Health if lacking Fish at the moment. I highly recommend keeping a supply of Fish handy just in case Human gets hungry so they won't starve and lose valuable Health.

Resting in Bed (1.) is the only way to get Health back, and it requires the Human to spend the whole day in Bed and eat Fish as well - so you'd need to have some in order to rest efficiently.

_How do you get Fish?_ The most efficient way is to have the Fishing Rod, of course - and if you do not have one at the very beginning, the Human will resolve to buying Fish for Gold or stealing it on the market (risking losing Health in the process). I highly recommend acquiring 2 Gold coins in any way possible and sleeping on the Chest once afterwards - that will usually get Human to go to the market and buy something useful - like the Fishing Rod that costs exactly that amount of Gold. Afterwards, sleeping next to the Bowl should bring you more than enough Fish to both feed and heal your Human (and potentially, sell the extra Fish on the market by resting on the Chest).

Alternatively, if you have a Hunting Bow in your possession, you can also sleep next to Bowl to get your Human to hunt with a Bow, which always yields 1-2 Fish and 0-1 Gold per hunt while also risking losing 1 Health in the process. You should be careful not to kill your Human this way, but it is generally a good way to earn Fish as well.

Finally, if you get your Health and Fish supply in order, it would be a good opportunity to spend some time earning Gold, which is best done with the Sword - so, make sure to get it first for 3 Gold from the market. As soon as your Human gets enough Gold stored, they will go to the market and buy a new Vanity item, like a comfy carpet or a wall painting to make your house a better place. "Winning" the game is all about collecting those items. I see no need to spoil what kind of items there are, only to say that the most expensive of them cost 5 Gold per piece.

Hopefully, after this explanation you'd have a better idea of what's going on and could enjoy the game in its intended way :wink:

Tools Used

*Programming* - Unity

*Graphics* - Aseprite

*Music* - Online Sequencer

*Sounds* - BFXR

It was a blast to use those during the past three days, and I wouldn't be able to make it all by myself without them. Also, my heartfelt thanks to one particular person that helped me test the game on the last day <3

Update 04-10-22: uploaded Windows and Mac versions. Also, fixed the cut resolution height issue on WebGL. No logical changes to the game made.

Update 11-10-22: made the Cat dream about Human's present/future activity rather than the past one. That should make the overall process more clear than before. It still takes time to fall asleep, but at least you should get a more-or-less immediate feedback what your Human is up to.
Also, added extra icons for human being asleep or dead, as well as changed the Bow icon so it's obvious that Hunting yields both Food and Money (sometimes).

The update affects WebGL version, old Mac/Windows version are still there for the ones who'd like to play the original one.