Introducing the game Catie in MeowmeowLand
Narrative
Little girl, named Catie, spots a White Cat through the window of her house. The curiosity takes the best of her and makes her follow White Cat to the garden. Just as she is looking for the kitty, the next thing little Catie knows is that she is pulled down the rabbit hole.
After a long fall Catie finds herself in a bizarre world of MeowmeowLand – the world of cats and ludicrous characters. To find her way back home she needs to undergo a journey full of unexpected adventures eventuated into surprisingly humorous situations.
About
By creating an absurd locations – levels – which Catie visits with the view of looking for the way back home to our real world, represented by her room she originally run from, she gives the player a chance to discover the ridiculousness of MeowmeowLand world.
The narrative of Catie in MeowmeowLand is an allusion to Alice in Wonderland story. And just like in Alice’s story, the main goal of the Catie’s game is the journey itself. The motif of looking for the way back home is subjected to discovering the bizarre world. Humorous, surrealistic and visually fantastic.
Type of the Game
Catie in MeowmeowLand is point-and-click adventure (indie) game. The player’s task is to solve, often ridiculous, riddles and puzzles to get Catie from one point to the other and so pass the level.
Audience
Albeit the childish visual, the game aims at adult players. Nevertheless, kids will enjoy the game as well, however in a different kind of way. Catie in MeowmeowLand is full of stunning illustrations and funny animations that cite other stories and characters in content and visual form. At some point, the player feels as if he/she is looking at nostalgic book illustration.
The world of MeowmeowLand is beautiful, charming, attractive and amusing at the same time. Boredom is definitely not a threat in this world.
Inspirations & Ideas
The absolute source of inspiration of Catie in MeowmeowLand game is Lewis Carrol and his great story Alice in Wonderland, but also the sequel Through the Looking-Glass or his other small children’s fictions. The surreal touch in narrative and visual is very prominent as well. Some elements of surrealism originate from the end of 60’s British TV show Monty Python’s Flying Circus.
From the game world, the main inspiration comes from Neverhood game and from Amanita Design studio and its Samorost series, Machinarium and Botanicula.
Gobliiins series served as an inspiration to create funny absurd type of puzzles. It is also necessity to mention by now veteran games Legends of Kyrandia and mainly Loom. Its poetics brought an inspiration of strange and mystical atmosphere.
Title “Catie in MeowmeowLand”
Little Catie love cats of all types, sizes and colours. The world, where she finds herself, is also full of cats. Logically, this matter had to be taken into account while creating the name for the game. The first idea for the title of the game was “Catventure”. However, research shown that this name was already taken. Thus started a play with variations of the title Alice in Wonderland. And so the name Catie in MeowmeowLand was born.
Birth of the Game
The idea creator of Catie in MeowmeowLand game is Marek Hlavaty. His absolutely first impulse to create a project like today’s Catie in MeowmeowLand came with playing the game Neverhood. The originality and shiftiness of Neverhood game got stuck in his mind for a long time. After few years, when Amanita’s Samorost was published, Marek was hit with similar fascination. Influenced by the style and mechanics of these games made him create a more concrete idea of Catie in MeowmeowLand project in 2010.
However, the realization of the game happened in 2016, when Marek and his colleague Martin Szolgay made a prototype of actual Catie in MeowmeowLand game and received a public founding. This financial support from Slovak Art Council allowed them to employ an animator as the animation plays an essential role in the game development. With the newly created staff team the game development process of Catie in MeowmeowLand as whole could start.
The financial grant brought a playable demo and some raw materials for new levels of the game. Unfortunately, the game development had some hardships that resulted into another long pause. Luckily, the team found a small private investor who provided founding. With his help the team has been continuing with the work from the second half of 2019 till now, the first half of 2020.
Release of the Game
Catie in MeowmeowLand is supposed to be released in 2021. We are looking for publisher and founding to finish the game on time and in the best quality. So if you are interested in supporting us or you know someone, who would love to contribute to Catie creation, let us know on contact@artillery.sk 🙂
Do not forget to check out Catie in MeowmeowLand TRAILER and support us on social media!