By Alec Meer on January 30th, 2012 at 2:03 pm.
Instructions: “be a cat.” This is all you need to know about VVVVVV creator Terry Cavanagh’s free and cannily-named mini-MMO, ChatChat. Go on, be a cat. Do what cats do (bum-licking not included, mercifully). Hang around with other cats in the way that cats do, i.e. doing your best to ignore them with barely-concealed hostility. Catch mice. Leave dead mice as gruesome offerings to your owner. Be completely unmoved by the discovery of treasure, because if treasure doesn’t run away, scream and bleed, what possible use is it to you?
No, there isn’t crafting or raiding or or bosses elite items. It’s a game about being a cat. When did you last see a cat wearing a mystical hood or worrying about what level it was? Pfft. Miaow and purr and nap and explore and hunt and be a cat, stupid.
In passing, I’ve been kicking around ideas for a puzzle-based cat sim myself for a while now, so it’s vaguely distressing that someone else has dabbled in similar territory there before I could talk myself into doing anything. Still, it remains fertile territory – one day I’ll find a programmer and empty my cat-obsessed brains into a game project.
Play ChatChat in your browser for free here. Oh, and if you don’t like cats, you could always figure out the secret way to turn into a dog…
30/01/2012 at 14:07 Headache says:
Sounds like the purrfect game for cat lovers.
30/01/2012 at 14:15 jon_hill987 says:
I can’t wait to get my claws into it.
30/01/2012 at 14:20 BoZo says:
It’s hard to put down.
30/01/2012 at 14:28 DanPryce says:
Gave it a go and meet and this one girl. We got quite friendly; I can’t wait to whisker off her feet.
30/01/2012 at 14:28 Orija says:
I have a feeling it’s gonna hairball into something big.
30/01/2012 at 14:30 JB says:
I can’t purr-lieve he’s done it. When I read the news, I almost had a stroke.
30/01/2012 at 15:09 NathanH says:
Dan, I think the EULA has a claws against that sort of behaviour.
30/01/2012 at 15:12 McDan says:
You’d be barking mad not to try it
(I turned into a dog so I’m allowed to say that one)
30/01/2012 at 15:22 HothMonster says:
Another one of these? Ill be napping.
30/01/2012 at 15:45 SanguineAngel says:
I didn’t find this article all that purrrsuading, sadly.
30/01/2012 at 19:44 Trillby says:
I’m feline pretty good about this.
30/01/2012 at 20:17 Alien Rope Burn says:
Does it have TF2-like mechanics?
That is, can I have a cat in a hat?
30/01/2012 at 21:06 Shroom says:
Wow, really anything is fur game for a pun thread on RPS isn’t it?
30/01/2012 at 21:26 LozTaylor says:
These puns are starting to tail off.
30/01/2012 at 23:04 pmanpman says:
I’m worried it’l be a catastrophe if I start playing
31/01/2012 at 11:27 jrodman says:
I should try this right meow.
31/01/2012 at 12:51 Ridnarhtim says:
This might’ve seemed like a good idea on pawper, but in practice it could’ve been petter.
30/01/2012 at 14:08 Meat Circus says:
I’m feline in the mood to play another MMO. I hope it isn’t full of pussies.
30/01/2012 at 14:18 Lars Westergren says:
I can haz pun-thread?
30/01/2012 at 14:21 Nathan_G says:
Always brightens my day to see new Cavanagh code released into the wild.
30/01/2012 at 14:29 Inigo says:
Where is the eat-grass-and-vomit button?
30/01/2012 at 14:32 Antsy says:
It doesn’t even have a paws button!
30/01/2012 at 15:03 InternetBatman says:
You can eat grass, but the vomit button only appears over expensive fabrics.
30/01/2012 at 14:33 CMaster says:
After finding the way to become a dog, I spent the rest of my time trying to convert the entire server to dogs, with some success.
Also playing a really bad version of “skip to my loo” on the keyboard.
30/01/2012 at 14:41 heyincendiary says:
I think I spawned as a dog. Highly unfair. I’ve always billed myself as a cat person but I’m taking this symbolically.
30/01/2012 at 14:44 Tei says:
Well.. since people put cats to play iPad games, I am looking forward for a internet where half the population of a chat room are cats in real life, and everybody is sharing photos of cats.
30/01/2012 at 14:51 yhancik says:
That suddenly reminds me of Alley Cat http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTFpuUJhP2Q
30/01/2012 at 18:28 Skabooga says:
Oh, Alley Cat. You were so ridiculously hard.
31/01/2012 at 01:01 MadTinkerer says:
It was made back in the era where game-levels were synonymous with diffficulty-levels.
What? You want to “choose” “easy difficulty”? Fine. Insert the token and see how long you can stay on level one.
30/01/2012 at 15:10 InternetBatman says:
I feel like this is going to be super successful. I was reading Scientific American the other day, and apparently a recent study found that “Everybody wants to be a cat, because a cat’s the only cat that knows where it’s at. Fascinating.
I think Disney songs get better as they get more racist.
30/01/2012 at 22:50 sinister agent says:
I quite liked the “Fortune cookie always wrong” bit. It’s completely ridiculous, to the point where it’d be quite a challenge to get worked up about it. It’s just unfortunate that the voice and appearance are so, well, y’know.
Also relevant. (youtube link).
30/01/2012 at 15:11 Gnoupi says:
An impressive thing with this small game is an observation on human “nature” in anonymous online places.
Besides exploring, you have a way to score points, by bringing mice to the house. It’s as little as that, no bigger goal or anything, just incrementing a counter. So what are some people doing? Joining a room, and leaving their cat to stay exactly on the doorstep for hours. Thus preventing anyone from bringing a mouse and scoring anything.
It’s impressive to see that no matter the game, the context… If there is a way for people to exploit and troll others, there will be some idiots to exploit and troll.
30/01/2012 at 15:57 Tei says:
It depends on what community you publish your game. If you publish here on RPS, you will get a few people like that. If you publish the game in 4chan or something awnful, you will get way more people acting in a disruptive way. Theres even communities where people will just poke around in the game, and quit without breaking a window.
About two years ago I did a experiment like that (with a thing to draw stuff), and thats where my conclusions.
30/01/2012 at 16:35 Gnoupi says:
I haven’t thought about the community angle, indeed, it might be a factor. I assume that going to the game right now is more likely to find rooms filled with people making meow-puns.
30/01/2012 at 16:40 jon_hill987 says:
They might just have been taking the whole cat role playing a bit too far. Cats love sleeping right in everyone’s way.
30/01/2012 at 17:17 Bluerps says:
Cute. Even though some other cat followed me around wherever I went for no discernible reason. That was kind of weird.
30/01/2012 at 17:36 Tams80 says:
When the treasure stops moving it is no longer fun and becomes a present for my owner. Honestly.
30/01/2012 at 18:08 Jae Armstrong says:
Funny that, so have I. Though, mine was more in the line of a “Hyperborean Mice”-style murder-em-up.
Anyone else been nursing dreams of disdain and grooming simulators?
30/01/2012 at 21:05 Shroom says:
Wow, really anything is fur game for a pun thread on RPS isn’t it?
30/01/2012 at 22:35 Rikard Peterson says:
I’ve been screeching outside the house like it’s april, but nothing happens. :(
30/01/2012 at 22:38 sinister agent says:
I became a dog literally the instant I started. Worst cat experience ever.