FINALLY a realistic housecat simmulator.
Mice could make some sound not to run catfirst into them in the dark but that's a nitpick.
A really heartwarming and lovely game. Well done!
Play game
Paws of Purity's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Enjoyment | #3 | 3.850 | 3.850 |
| Overall | #3 | 3.925 | 3.925 |
| Design | #4 | 3.900 | 3.900 |
| Presentation | #7 | 4.150 | 4.150 |
| Metroidvania | #11 | 3.800 | 3.800 |
Ranked from 20 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Engine
Unity 3D
Team/Developer
Team Supurr Catroid
External assets
Corgi Engine by More Mountains (Unity code, a couple sounds, a couple images)
Comments
Good:
- Aesthetically, it's absolutely lovely. The sprites are charming, the environment all feels cohesive, and the use of musical notes for sound effects is really interesting.
- I liked the level design. It looped back on itself very nicely, and I felt like there were lots of directions I could explore. I also liked how the camera zoomed in on the vent sections. That made them feel darker and spookier. Since it also made it easier to run into enemies, I had to be more cautious, which felt appropriate.
- I'm impressed with how clean and simple the control scheme is. You managed to get three fun abilities into the game, with only five buttons. In fact, I never needed to drop through a platform, so it was more like four buttons.
Bad:
- I liked the sound design overall, but I feel like it was a missed opportunity not to include cute cat noises. More seriously, the landing sound feels a bit odd for such a soft-footed animal, especially when landing on cushions or sofas.
- There were a few dead ends with just enemies in. At first I thought I was supposed to purify all the toy mice, but some of them seem to come back, while others stay purified.
- I'm splitting hairs here, because there were so few problems with the game, but the ending animation made the girl seem like a 2D cutout. Nothing had used that aesthetic before, so it was a bit jarring.
Overall, this was a beautiful, thoroughly enjoyable game. I really enjoyed it, although I am biased towards anything cat-centric. I think you scoped really well for the jam, and hope you consider a more expanded version in the future!
Submitted
Seeds of RebirthThanks for for playing—we're so delighted that you enjoyed it!
The sound designer would agree with you on the sounds. He had lots of plans for doing foley of his own cat, but had some things come up during the jam, so was only able to get us a first pass of his instruments -as-sound-effects concept, and only the one BGM track at the end. Still, we're happy we got some of the idea in there, and it looks like it resonated with players, so we're excited to possibly expand on that concept in future projects (or maybe even continue this one).
The animation of the ending, of course, was a product of how much time we had. But we felt it stronger to have some representation of the story in there, even if we didn't have the time to create sprite animations for everything.
I appreciate your comments on the level design. It was challenging to fit those sort of core metroidvania level ideas of backtracking, multiple paths, and having abilities change the way you can traverse the areas you've already visited all into the relatively tiny world of a single house. I'm super happy that you noticed the effort and it worked for you!
Thanks again for your feedback and for spending the time with our entry!
This was a great entry, the first one this jam I stuck with to the end! I liked a lot of things:
- The passive aura "attack" worked nicely, particularly when chasing/fleeing
- Pleasant visuals. Possessed cat toys, oh no! And the pixelated bits at the beginning were interesting, I expected that to return.
- Most SFX, jump in particular
- Appreciated the checkpoint on the top level of the library
- [Edit] Oh yes and the ending was adorable!
A few complaints:
- Some platforming was irritating, like bumping into shelves from below. I was afraid the ending was going to have trickier platforming, thankfully it wasn't too hard as I was starting to get frustrated.
- Dark vent sections, especially since I thought I needed to explore them. At first I had guessed my goal was to cleanse all the mice (since the floating things respawned), thus why I sometimes found nothing in the corners of the vents but enemies.
- I guess there's a closed window at the far end of the ground floor of the library, but it looks like it should be passable (the solid part is only visible while scrolling)
- It's tricky to hit F as it's so close to the direction keys.
- Sometimes the snap for the cleansings was significantly louder and detracted from the jingle, I couldn't see a pattern to when it worked that way so might just be a bug.
- The landing sound effect seemed inappropriately hard, I quickly got tired of hearing it.
- I'd have liked an easier way to return to a checkpoint than seeking out an enemy to force a reset. In the last passage along the top level to the door to the final area, I kept falling down, and then it would reset to a lower checkpoint and I'd had to go all the way around again.
The complaints are mostly minor, sorry for itemizing so many of them. Excellent job!
Submitted
SpeleomorphHello again! And thanks for trying out our entry. Proud to be the first you were willing to fight through to the end (and that you enjoyed the ending)!
I appreciate the list of pain points! Some are interesting to hear, like the vent areas and the closed window in the library. I had intended the vents to simply be dark maze areas, the first with a mild penalty for missing the jump (you'd have a longer way up the dining room), and the second just being a straight maze. Was there anything in particular that made you want to explore them instead? The closed window (in my mind it was a door) in the library was me just trying to make it make some sense of the layout of the house. I put the door there to "make sense", but it wasn't where I wanted the player to be, so I closed it off. I'll be more careful with the visuals for something like that in the future.
I hadn't thought of making a forced "death", but it's a good fix for some of the design problems I'd run into (and easy to explain premise-wise with the blossom spirit doing teleports already). Trying to make different parts of the room contain different parts of the main path (i.e., the dining room has path 1 through the middle, path 2 along the bottom, and path 3 along the top) was tricky for the checkpointing. I think it suffers most there and in the dash part of the top of the library. (We did provide a path from the bottom of the dining room straight up to the top that was possible once you had all the unlocks, but you're not the only one who felt like they had to go back the long way, so I wonder if there was a better way for us to point it out.)
Thanks again for the feedback and the nice praise. Glad it wasn't too frustrating in the end ; )
I really like how this game doesn’t have combat. Instead you dispel dark energy from animals and things. I never died in the game - I’m not even sure it’s possible. And that’s not a bad thing either. You just get a little penalty with the size of your aura. So, the game is engaging without requiring lots of the usual fighting. It’s a breath of fresh air.
Of course the art is very good, and the cat and other things are cute. I actually like the choice of using instruments for the sound effects. But if a sound track is ever added, then there may be a conflict here.
My only issue with the game is the control scheme. Once dash was introduced I had problems timing it with jumps and such. (I’m left handed and not used to using wasd.) Game pad support would have been great. Or maybe the ability to rebind keys.
Could this be made to work on mobile? I think it’s style of engagement would work well there. But then how would the controls work? That’s even more challenging that appeasing picky south-paw judges. :)
If you would be so kind, please play, rate and comment on our game! We’d love to know what you think! Thanks!
Submitted
Glowstar EmpireGlad you enjoyed the cleansing mechanics! We were experimenting with making a metroidvania that didn’t require the usual kind of combat. What’s in there is a fraction of what we wanted to do, of course, but it seems to still resonate with people! (You can “die”, by the way. I put it in quotes, because the effect for it shows the kitty being saved by the little blossom spirit at the last second and teleporting it to a nearby checkpoint ; )
I feel your pain with the the controls. I’ve had similar problems in reverse on many entries. It suggests that giving the player the ability to remap keys is almost a necessity. It’s something I’m definitely going to be developing between jams, so I can put it into future projects. That being said, did you try with a gamepad? I think the engine actually supports it, I just never tested it.
It could probably port to mobile okay. If I did, though, I now know to add a lefty flip for it ; )
Thanks for trying out the game and leaving a comment! If my machine supports your team’s entry, I’d be happy to give it a play! [Alas, I just checked, and you don’t have a Mac or web build, so I’m out of luck >_< ]
cleansing glow! wow that brightened my day, super cute. I got pretty far but couldn't get beyond the jump up past the 2 windows in the 4th? section, that could be on my dexterity tho. the double jump was very enjoyable! fun game!
Submitted
Glowstar EmpireWhat a cute game! I love the sound effects, and kept trying to make music while jumping haha. The dash sound is a bit loud.
The combat is pretty unique, the environment is lovely, and the ending is charming. Great work!
Submitted
Transmachinareally loved this entry... the cleansing mechanic was very cool, original and fun (I never got tired of turning mice into toy mice). and the cat was really well animated, and the game while not overly long felt complete and satisfying!
Definitely one of the most fun entries in this jam! Kudos to the whole team!
Submitted
Somethings on moon colony 6Really a cute and pretty big game, loved the ending.
Big probs to the level designer, it was a bit difficult to navigate with the controls at times but overall lovely levels. Using F to dash felt a bit awkward since I had to leave my D button for that and I needed the finger on D to navigate better after the dash. Used both hands in the end.
The cleansing aura worked great, really had my fun with that.
And I love how you made the ending cutscene happen with the ressources you had. Really cute and rewarding.
Submitted
Awkward Crow GameReally a cute and pretty big game, loved the ending.
Big probs to the level designer, it was a bit difficult to navigate with the controls at times but overall lovely levels. Using F to dash felt a bit awkward since I had to leave my D button for that and I needed the finger on D to navigate better after the dash. Used both hands in the end.
The cleansing aura worked great, really had my fun with that.
And I love how you made the ending cutscene happen with the ressources you had. Really cute and rewarding.
Submitted
Awkward Crow GameI actually do the same hand position when I play it. We didn't get around to remapping the dash after the initial prototype, just got used to it, then the jam ended, haha.
Glad you appreciated the ending. We pulled a little bit of retro JRPG animation for that one ; )
Thanks for playing and for the kind words!
A neat little game, liked the musical noises of the cat's movement. Though a few of those sounds at the end cutscene seem slightly out of place (like the snap as the darkness vanishes), but nothing major or anything.
The real question is, is the architecture of some of these rooms due to the darkness, or is it just one of those modern house design trends?
Submitted
Octolost-MM16VersionA nice game! The controls respond well, the art is very cute, I really enjoyed playing!
If I had to say something that could improve it would be the sound effects, not specifically their quality but their implementation. For example, when an enemy enters the cat's attack radius a glowing sound starts playing, and if the enemy leaves that radius the sound ends abruptly. This happens with all sounds, as they are musical and depend on movement. They should have some extra tail, a subtle reverb that modulates so the sounds don't completely shut down. This can be easily done in an audio middleware (I don't know if there's a way to do it directly in unity). Increasing the amount of variations for the sounds would also make the result even better.
But these really are details for future improvements. The result you showed for the jam is perfect, congratulations!
Submitted
CyclopvaniaThanks for the feedback! I'd guess that you're a sound guy? : ) But yeah, you caught us out, we didn't spend spend a lot of time on the sounds—we didn't even get around to doing a pass to normalize the levels. Admittedly, what's in the game was just the early prototype draft of the audio. Our sound guy had stuff come up and wasn't able to finish up before the deadline, so I was stuck using the placeholders.
I'm glad you enjoyed the game otherwise, and appreciate you spending the time to provide feedback!
Nice game! A bit bummed the cat can't interact with the mice, balls of yarn, etc., but I'm only disappointed by that because everything else about this game is very good at portraying the character of a cat! (Spoken by someone whose game didn't really make any effort to do that)
Submitted
Reverie of Strange BloodThat stuff would definitely be fun! I'd have loved to have the cat bathe itself in its idle, and do something trippy with catnip, too. Alas, as is the theme of most all responses in these jams: only so much time. It hurt, too, that I had to spend a third of it getting back up to speed on the engine. Corgi was a godsend for that, though. I can't imagine trying to do the GBA thing like you did!
Lovely game and atmosphere. Definitely the most interesting one I've played so far in this game jam.
Great job :)
Submitted
CoalescenceWhat a beautiful little game. It's nothing ground breaking but the vibe it gives out and the gorgeous hand drawn art made me really enjoy this one.
The approach to combat is very unique and the platforming segments are decent. But the sound effect made everything come together for me. ( Even though I think the dash sound is a bit too loud)
Also the ending is very cute.
Submitted
A Reconnaissance of Envi 5So glad you enjoyed it! The vibe was super important to us, and we're happy to hear that it's working and people are appreciating it.
Thanks for playing! Considering the amazing entry you put together, I especially appreciate your positive comments!
(PS - I agree with the dash sound—it'll definitely wake you up the first time, haha! I'd completely forgotten to go back and do a levels pass on the sounds before the end >_< )
Unfortunately, I think I got soft locked right after the jump and dash puzzle sequence. I made it through, but I was mid dash and I ended up falling out of the screen. How much more is there to it?
You really evoke this peaceful vibe throughout the game. The piano key jumps, the piano chord dashes, and twinkle sound really tie everything together. And your approach is to combat is peaceful as well.
Congrats on having a solid game!
Submitted
Shapeshift ShatterThanks for playing and for the kind remarks! We worked hard to come up with a more peaceful twist on a metroidvania. I'm glad to hear it came through!
I'm impressed you found a soft lock. As probably all of us do, I'd thought I'd sniffed them all out, haha. Do you recall what the background color of the area was for where you fell out of the screen?
As far as what's left—if you'd gotten through the dash puzzle, you were in the last quarter of the game. I can guarantee you a cute ending if you ever decide to give it a shot again ; )
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