I took inspiration for this game concept from my experiences wrangling my cat when she doesn’t want to leave a room or generally refuses to cooperate. I thought a wholesome and adorable version of this experience could be captured by a momma cat searching for her kittens who have escaped the comfort, safety, and warmth of their home.

In this game, the player will control a cat who must venture outside of her home to search for her kittens. The kittens will be scattered around an outdoor environment with a mixture of urban and natural scenery, found in mischievous locations.

The art style for this game will be top-down 2D / 3-quarter view “Frankenstein” style, similar to 2D Zelda games or Stardew Valley. A purely top-down perspective would be easier with my limited experience, but this approach will provide greater depth and opportunities to play with height as an axis of exploration.

My custom controller for this game will be a simple design that forces the game to be playable with only one hand and minimal controls. I expect the game will only need movement controls and perhaps one button for various interactions. This can be accomplished with a single Playstation/Xbox style joystick that can be pressed in. The design of the controller should be large enough to comfortably hold in one hand, but no larger as it only needs to house this single joystick and any necessary internal hardware. A Wii nunchuck will serve as a base for inspiration.

The map for this game will place the cat’s home in the center, branching off into a unique area for each lost kitten. The map will include 4 of these areas, in an effort to keep the scope small initially. This could be easily expanded to 8 areas, allowing the final result to stay contained within a 3×3 square of explorable areas.

The color palette for the game will use dark, cool colors for the outdoor elements (which will be the majority of the game). This will contrast with warmer tones for the home, which will only be seen at the start and end of the game, as well as whenever a kitten is returned. White and shades of gray will be reserved for the cats, providing contrast and ease of visibility in all environments.

The gallery below holds inspiration images for the game.