La Nuit, Tous Les Chats Sont Gris
A downloadable game for Windows
This game is our end of study project for our Game Design Diploma. We are three people who worked four months on this project. We are no artists, only three game designer. So we didn't make any of the visual assets with the exception of all the UI. But we did all the design and the programmation ourselves and we also put everything in the game in places.
In this game, you play as Mist a little kitten who wake up in the back alley of a street and need to find his way home. Hopefully, at the start of the game you encounter a red cardinal who will help you achieve that.
This game is a 3D Platformer with a hidden message in it. I won't say more at the exception that this game attracted a LOT of attention during our three days of exposition. Everybody was moved by the subject, touched by the simplicity and developed a love for Mist. A lot of people were coming to see us and were like "Oh ! This is the cat game we were told about !" and we were like "Yep, that's us".
So have fun and don't read any further if you don't want any spoiler. Also, the video on the right is a complete gameplay of the game so... SPOILER ALERT!
SPOILER HERE :
This game was made to raise awareness about the abandon of pets. In the game, Mist is looking for it's home, but when he finds it, it is empty and there is a sold sign on the front. To make the player understand the loss of Mist we made a transition in the music and given to the player the objective "Find your family". The player then wanders into the house where all of the furniture vanish to make him understand that Mist family has left him behind and they will not come back. On the second level, Mist needs to survive alone in the city. His first task will be to find food by himself in this cold harsh world.
The reason we made a game about this subject was to raise awareness about all the alarming numbers concerning left alone and lost cats. About those numbers, we found out that more than 80% of cats found in refuge or who lives in the street will die or be killed because no family wants them. Practically nobody reports a lost cat vs a lost dog when they found one. Which is really sad and the reason we made a game about that. We wanted the players to feel the same emotions of being left alone and the necessity to survive that those cats (and other animals) live every day.
So people, adopt don't shop !
Technical information :
- Game style : 3D Platformer/Serious Game
- Engine used : Unity
- Time spent on the project : 4 months.
- Number of people who worked on the project : 3 really cool human being and 1 sly cat.
- Félix Leblanc : game design, C# scripting, UI design, sound and music implementation, juice master.
- Maude Roussin : game design, C# scripting, level design, cuteness director.
- Cristelle Sinnett : game design, C# scripting, level design, raccoon trainer.
- Mist : a cool looking cat.
Thank you for playing and don't hesitate if you have any question or comments !
Peace Out !
Status | Released |
Platforms | Windows |
Author | Khalios |
Genre | Platformer |
Tags | 3D, 3D Platformer, Animals, Cats, Cute, jumping, message, serious-game, Short |
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Comments
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I love the idea of this!
But I think it could deliver its message better.
I mostly say this because it is too platforming-focused. I understand you want to demonstrate that it can be a tough life for a cat to navigate the outdoors, but the controls and collision detection are so poor, it feels artificially frustrating.
For instance, the ability to adjust your speed even while in mid-air just feels wrong, and I found myself exploiting this to get past the tricky platforming jumps.
I also understand you use the bird to direct the player through the levels. I liked this when the game first started, and the red feathers make it an easy target, but it gets old.
My favorite part was getting to the house and seeing the bed disappear in- front of kitty.
I personally would have preferred this to be an experience you could fully complete in 10-minutes. As it is, I gave up after about 12 minutes, partly into level 2. I just don't think the gameplay matches the theme and I didn't want to keep playing. I don't think you need all these ridiculous moving platforms and such...and if you do, the control and collision needs to be much better. I also found myself taking damage for reasons I didn't understand.
And just on a graphical note, I know you didn't create these art assets, but the post-processing effects are really strange. Many times kitty's face seems blurred when it shouldn't be, and the effect is especially pronounced when standing in front of a window or something like this:
Here is footage of me playing the game in case you are interested:
Please don't give up, because I would love to see this evolve into a really beautiful message about adoption and strays.