Cat Utopia

This short narrative game is based on Mittens, a cat boy.
You will be playing Mittens, who is looking for his mother.
Mittens woke up from a nap on his lawn. Mittens can’t find his mother.
He is on a search throughout Cat Utopia to find his mother.

Design Process

This game inspired me to reflect on my childhood life with my mother. When I was 3-5 years old, I would hide from my mother at convenience stores or malls, and she would always panic about where I was.

I can reflect Mittens as me as a kid. I pick to do a cat theme because I always resonate with cats. I have two cats that I adore so much. In some ways, both of my cats contain characteristics relating to my personality.

Level Design

I envision the main levels that would lead to Mittens finding his mother. For instance Mitten’s home is first a bus stop. The second scene would be a ice cream store and the third scene would movie theater. The fourth scene is a crash milk truck, and the final scene is the beach.

Eventually, I add a forest and a police station to expand the world of Cat Utopia instead of the main character following the main levels.

I thought of some questions for each scene to reveal the main character traits and any second characters that interact with Mittens.

The first scene when Mittens woke up on the lawn. These questions inspired my design around it.

Mittens Home

“How might I show the Mittens losing his mother.”
“How might I start the first scene after Mittens loses his mother.”
“How might I design the game to be mysterious and adorable.”
“How do I tell about the innocence of the Mittens?

Bus Scene

“How might we show Mittens interact with the first character in the game.”
“How might we show Mr Scotch react to Mittens.”
“How might we show the boy coming back to Mr Scotch for an important clue later in the game if Mittens found an object that is valuable toward Mr Scotch.”

Yarn Messages

Throughout Cat Utopia, I want to place messages for the player to interact with, which can help progress the player but always contain thoughts of myself that I conjured as a kid. For example:

“Why is everyone taller than me?”
“Time feel slow. At the same time it feels fast.”