At the TGA annual event in 2022, an ordinary "stray cat" defeated fairy opponents such as "Vampire Survivor", "Sifu" and "God's Scales" to win the title of best indie game of the year.

Although there is a controversy about the "overreputation" of this game called "Lost", and we don't have to talk about it again, but since then, the category of "Cat Simulator" has gradually been valued by players, which can bring players a simple and pure happiness, which may be closer to the essence of "game".

If you want to talk about the best "Hakimi simulation game" of the year, I think "Kitten Big City", which will be released in May, should be worth a vote. This heartwarming game tells the story of a kitten who finds his way home.

The game sold more than 100,000 copies within 48 hours of its release, and sold more than 200,000 copies in its first week. It has been played more than a million times on Game Pass and is firmly in the top five of Nintendo's eShop download charts.

This may not be a good result compared to this year's solo games, but in fact, it is enough to make developer Double Dagger Studio and its founder, Matt T. Wood, a lot of money.

Recently, Matt T. Wood was interviewed by foreign media, introducing the design concept and development story behind this "cat simulator", which was compiled by the matrix.

Cyber sucking is today

Wood started his career as a game developer at 3D Realms in the late '90s, then spent 16 years at Valve, working on such well-known titles as Half-Life, Counter-Strike, and Survival Road before deciding to leave and start his own company. He founded Double Dagger Studio with the intention of challenging himself as a game developer.

"It was a very difficult decision," he said. "V provides a great working environment, and starting a solo business is a huge risk, but it is all worth it to be able to meet the challenges and try new things. I want to bring something new to the industry, work with new people, and do something that hasn't been done before. ”

Starting his own business has also allowed Wood to spend more time with his three children, who have become the "gatekeepers" of his game ideas. He did demos of several games, but one of them resonated with all the children, and that was a game that played as a cat.

"I made a very simple demo, made a video, put it online, and it went viral," he says. "I was like, 'Wow, people seem to be interested in this. Maybe I should put a little more thought into this. That's how it all started.

Expressing oneself like a cat, doing things the way a cat does, and seeing things through the eyes of a cat are all interesting concepts, but the question that arises is: what can players do as cats in this game? What is the goal?

"You can choose a fun direction mechanically or technically, but it can diminish the natural connection between cats and people, the sense of wonder and immersion that comes with playing cats, and make the game dramatic," Wood said. ”

Wood wanted to capture that special, pleasurable, exhilarating emotion when a player is playing with or seeing a cat, like a spark burning in their hearts. "When you cloud suck a cat online, when you play with your own cat, or just look at it, that feeling comes out of the box – I want to make sure that feeling is present in the game."

Wood wanted the game to focus not on the design, but on the player experience and the connections they make during the game. On this basis, he also needs to find an entry point. "It took some time to try and experiment with all sorts of interesting things and figure out how to turn it into an interactive experience."

The early concept of Kitty Big City was for the kitten to explore his way home in the city, but with a greater emphasis on survival gameplay, such as the need to find food and resources, and sleep at the right time. But the playstyle that includes these elements comes with some problems.

"I realized that when people are playing with cats and connecting with them, the last thing you want to think of is them struggling, failing or getting hurt in a difficult situation," he says. I quickly realized that I couldn't really make a good, fun survival game if I didn't put the cat in danger. So I gave up on the idea. ”

Create a world where no cats are hurt

Interestingly, the author himself has handled the development of games such as "Half-Life 2" and "Road to Survival", and it has to be said that it is a "professional counterpart" to give players a sense of urgency and crisis, but this time, players need to play a cat, and the situation is different.

"I don't really care about the unfortunate things that happen to people, like injuries, deaths, etc., in the game, it's not a big deal," he said, "but if it's the same with animals... That's not cool at all. ”

It's crucial for Wood and his team to keep the kittens out of harm's way, as many players feel the same way. "Over time...... I was contacted with various questions. In particular, some parents will say, 'We've played similar cat games, cats get hurt, and we're really worried that your game will do the same.' I assured them that this would never be the case with Kitty Big City.

"I wanted to make a game for all ages, a game that parents and children could play together. It's really important to me. Playing as a cat is a very healing thing, everyone can feel happy and don't have to stress about anything. So it's important not to get your cat hurt. ”

In fact, the biggest danger the kitten encounters in the game is the occasional contact with water, or being gently carried out of the store by a disgruntled shopkeeper. Even if a kitten falls from a great height, it will always be on all fours (like a cat) unscathed. Kittens have no pressure to survive, wander around the city, interact with and help all kinds of quirky animals, rub the legs of passers-by, knock potted plants off high places, take a nap in the sun, and occasionally eat some fish - cats always like to do these things.

Simulating such a variety of cat behaviors in a game means that the movements also need to be precise and natural. Judging by the feedback Wood has received, he and his team have succeeded – and not all feedback has come from humans.

"I've seen videos where the player's own cats react to the little black cat in the game, and maybe they also find the little black cat's movements come to life," Wood said. "That's what we wanted, and at first, I just knew it was going to be done at the animation level, but how it would be implemented was unknown."

Thanks to animator Micah Breitweiser, the team was able to do just that. "When I started working with Micah, she made animations that were so natural and exceeded my expectations for the game," says Wood. "Now we just need to focus on highlighting those animations and putting them in a more prominent position so we can show more of her work."

In fact, Micah's animation for Kitten raised the bar so much that the team had to tweak other aspects to better match the animation.

"I used a system where the spine follows the head, and now when you turn around, you're actually controlling the chest, and the head and everything else are animated. You get very smooth cornering movements, just like a cat does when it moves around. The old way it used to be that you moved around, turned, and then stopped, and then went back to the idle animation. In other games, this unnatural articulation is common. But when you look at this cat up close, it's only animated, and it's accurate in many ways, and it gets a sense of abruptness, so I started to dive into dynamic spine animation. This undoubtedly makes the cat's movements more natural, rather than just a few animations that are simply connected. ”

In fact, there are a lot of platforming elements in the game, and the kitten needs to jump to different places, which is especially tricky in the handling of animations. Many platformers don't have a "cat" character, and the team had to approach its animations differently.

"Platformer animations have elements like ideal jump arcs, timelines, etc., which can be very effective in certain situations," says Wood, "but we tried to find a balance in Kitty Big City that was both like a platformer and as realistic as possible." I've tried a lot of floating jumping animations, like the ones in other platformers, but when you put them on the kitten and want to have a natural and fluid effect, it's pretty bad. ”

Indeed, even with great experience, there is still a lot to learn for Wood to suddenly challenge animal-themed games across disciplines. Especially since this is the studio's debut, it is very important that it will be liked by everyone, so Wood wanted to lower his expectations to alleviate this uneasiness.

"We put a lot of effort into the playtest, and we got positive feedback and encouragement from our players," he says. "I was worried that the game might lose for some reason, but this is not the first time I've encountered this situation. Experience has taught me to find a balance between the struggles, not to focus on the basics, not to think about superfluous things...... but in the end you will find that "many things are not important." ”

Fortunately, as mentioned at the beginning, "Kitty Big City" became a hit overnight, and Wood was relieved. Of course, what is even more unexpected is that this game has also exploded on XGP, attracting players from different fields, such as a racing game enthusiast who sent a thank you note to Wood, saying that this cat simulator is "very Cooooool~"

epilogue

Whether it's the hugely successful 2022 Lost, the recent meteoric popularity of Kitty Big City, and the upcoming Fake Cat Mystery later this year, Cat Simulator is gaining traction, and Wood considers himself lucky that Kitten Big City was the first to join in.

In the future, this track will only become more crowded, the standard will be higher and higher, and even how to find a new breakthrough after this gameplay is solidified will become a big challenge. In his opinion, it is necessary to seek something deeper, not to make some cartoon characters who are just with cat ears, but to put a "real" cat in the game. In short, there is still unlimited potential in this direction.

This article is from Xinzhi self-media and does not represent the views and positions of Business Xinzhi.If there is any suspicion of infringement, please contact the administrator of the Business News Platform.Contact: system@shangyexinzhi.com