Naughty Cat Simulator: Catlateral Damage On Kickstarter
Play as Cara's worst nightmare
Catlateral Damage is an inevitability within the physics-based mischief genre. What in life is more knowingly and gleefully destructive than a cat? Certainly nothing we'd welcome into our homes and tickle under the chin while cooing (it's too early for me to wrestle with the morality behind answering "humans"). This genre was destined to spawn a game where you play a cat knocking things onto the floor.
We've had a bit of a giggle with it since the first alpha build last August, and it's been updated a fair few times since. Now it's turned, as so many weird ideas do, to Kickstarter.
Creator Chris Chung hopes to raise $40,000 (£24,000) to expand Catlateral Damage's demo into a full game. He envisions procedurally-generated houses where you'll systematically trash everything then move onto the next one, then the next, until you get to break something very expensive in a mansion at the end of the street. Power-ups and different cat classes, with some able to jump higher or more fond of trashing plants, are planned too. Pledging at least $12 (£7) will get you a copy of the finished game.
You can play the current alpha version in your browser with Unity or download it.
It's a simple joke--cats break things--but I have found myself returning every now and then to see what's new and trash a few rooms. Knocking stuff over is relaxing and I find the controls pleasing. The left mouse button swipes your left paw, right swipes your right, and clicking your mousewheel is a poke. Something about that poke is very satisfying, the perfect button for this action. I can't imagine playing it for long stretches but it is nice to revisit, which is a fine way to experience a game.
RPS story time: My own cat's getting on in years now but still makes time to antagonise people, and especially Cara (who's allergic to cats) when she visits. She once sat staring directly at Cara, who stared back, then firmly placed her paw on the rim of Cara's tea before pulling it back and turning away. She knows full well what she's doing. They all do.