What Does The Cat Say?

If the video demo above is not working, it can also be viewed at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWJk5y97BC8
The game can be downloaded and played at:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h3zyhvKy3i3DpV7hqPj1hLgWT9huu1F1/view?usp=share_link
The whole project can be downloaded and viewed at:
https://github.com/yanchen-hu/WhatDoesTheCatSay

Introduction

What Does The Cat Say? is a cooperative game where one player plays as a kid reading novels on his computer when he should be working, and another player playing as a cat that acts as a sentinel, monitoring movements of his mother to keep the kid from getting caught.
Note that the current build of What Does The Cat Say? is not an actual co-op game. Everything in the game is pre-determined. This prototype serves as a demonstration of how the final game should work.

Inspiration

The idea of this game comes from a childhood wish of mine: I always played video games when I should be working, and my mom had a way of catching me. At the time I wished I could have a sentinel watching out for my mom so I don’t get busted every time. Over the years I talked to many gamer friends of mine and realized that this experience has been shared by others too. It became my inspiration to create What Does The Cat Say?

Game Design

Overall

Player 1 plays as the kid in his room who needs to finish reading a novel within a given time window.
Player 2 plays as the cat wandering in the living room that needs to alert the kid when his mother is about to enter the room.

Player 1’s Gameplay

Player 1’s goal is to finish reading a short novel before the game ends and tell the story to Player 2 afterwards.

The entire game ends in about 3 minutes and the story played at normal speed can be read with in 2 minutes 30 seconds. However, mom would enter the room at some point to vacuum the floor and the monitor must be turned off during her stay. It is up to Player 2 to send alert when mom is about to enter.

Being caught by mom when reading the novel results in immediate failure of the game.

Turning the monitor back on would result in a 15-second waiting time.

Player 2’s Gameplay

Player 2 plays as the cat that sends alerts. Player 2’s goal is to keep Player 1 from getting busted by mom. However, mom would appear in the living room more than once and Player 2 needs to determine whether mom is actually entering Player 1’s room. Too many false alerts would result in Player 1’s turning the monitor off and on, wasting too much time on waiting, and not being able to finish the story in time.

Mom trying to water the plants in another room.

Mom picking up laundry from the laundry machine

Also, as a cat, Player 2 is easily distracted. If it stares at the sun light for too long it would go to sleep and no being able to see anything for 10-15 seconds.