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Adventures of a Cat in Space - Demo Impressions
by Adam DilevaAdventures of a Cat in Space will have a demo releasing February 24th, but we were lucky enough to be able to play through it early. While I wouldn’t normally take notice of a game meant for a younger audience and families, I saw that developers Tall Story Games was behind it, and I absolutely adored their last point and click adventure game, Lucy Dreaming which you can read my review HERE), so I had to see what their follow-up game was all about.
Described as “An interactive musical adventure for the whole family”, Adventures of a Cat in Space is a family friendly, and admittedly adorable, point and click adventure that follows, well, a cat in space, if you couldn’t tell from its exceptionally accurate title.
Tall Story Games has teamed up with composter David Gibb (Little Seeds Music) to make a purrfect for all ages cozy adventure game, and have really created something that took me by surprise. Even though the demo was short in length, I’ve been playing the opening theme song on repeat as its insanely catchy:
“Adventures of a cat in space, you’ve got to get home to the human race.
Adventures of a cat in space, shedding cat hair all over the place.
Adventures of a cat in space, planets and puzzles, music and song.
Adventures of a cat in space, with a hero this cute, surely nothing can go wrong.”
You are said titular cat, noticing a mouse outside as you stare out the window from the comfort of your home. You do what cats do, and of course chase said mouse. This leads you into a rocketship that’s parked outside and has an ever-so-convenient pet flap door, which of course is where the mouse retreats to, as you follow suit. About to catch the mouse, you accidently hit a lever and the rocket takes off, being blasted into space.
Now you’re in a rocket, in space, without gravity, and no idea what to do. This awakens the ship’s computer, voiced by Olivier Award-winning actor and musician Arthur Darvill (Doctor Who, Broadchurch, Legends of Tomorrow), who also performs the catchy main theme song. But you’re a cat, how are you going to communicate with a computer, you simply meow. You need to find a way home, but it’s not going to be that simple, as you’ll need to explore a number of planets and solve puzzles along the way.
Even if puzzle solving isn’t your strong suit, being a family friendly game and for younger audiences, there’s enough hints that it shouldn’t be a problem with becoming stumped. For example, with one puzzle I needed a red lightbulb. I found a regular bulb and a few cans of colored paint. Clicking on an item will have a thought-bubble pop up for the cat, essentially hinting to you what you need to do next. This prompted me to dip the bulb into the red paint, and voila, I had my puzzle solution in paw.
With a single item inventory, there’s no need to fumble of which item to use or having to combine, it’s very simple, so younger audiences shouldn’t have much issue actually playing. Being a demo, the length wasn’t very long, but I surely did enjoy my time with it, especially the two songs included and the hand drawn animation.
The narration from Arthur Darvill as the ship’s computer is done wonderfully, somewhat reminiscent of the iconic Wheatley from Portal 2. Again, with such a short demo I didn’t get nearly as much time with the cat and ship as I wanted. The full game will include 11 original songs across different genres, all composed by critically acclaimed musician and children’s author David Gibb, and if they are even half as good as the two included in the demo, I’m really excited to hear them and sing along.
The hand drawn aimations are wonderfully done, and I really enjoy the squiggly moving lines aesthetic. There’s plenty of color and is very vibrant, looking like it’s out of a children's coloring book. While there’s no hint system or anything to indicate what’s clickable or not, I opted to try clicking everything I could to see what the interaction would be like. And yes, you can click on the cat’s butthole when he’s facing away from you for a funny reaction.
The cooperation of music and theatre specialists, Little Seeds, and Tall Story Games, seems to be a wonderful relationship, and if the demo is any indicator of how the full game will be, I’m eagerly awaiting its release. It’s clear Adventures of a Cat in Space is being created with a lot of heart, and it shows with even this short demo, as it had moments that actually had me laughing out loud (like when the cat calls the support desk line), something you should definitely download and try, even if only for the catchy main theme song or the cat’s adorable “mew”.
