We stack cats here!
Hi! I'm using this site to track the development of my new game dev venture -- CATSTACKS!
Breifly, Catstacks is a board game about stacking cats. It uses resource management and engine building mechanics to enable you to construct any type of cat stack you could dream of. Tall stacks, wide stacks, square stacks, multiple stacks converging into one larger stack - the stacking possibilities are endless!
Follow the development of the game here!
Dec 3rd, 2023 / UPDATE 1 - CatStacks: Origins
The idea for this game started as many of my game ideas do: "What if there was a board game where you have lots of cats and you stack them on top of eachother and stuff?"
After that, I spent an afternoon hastily scrolling out potential ideas and mechanics onto scrap paper, which you can see pictured below. As you can see, I explored a few different avenues, the most notable being dogs instead of cats (I know, such an absurd idea). In the end I decided that cats served the design better, as their relatively uniform size makes sense with the modular card setup I was imagining.
For a few months, this is all there was. Winter hit and I fell into my usual slump. Luckily, we happened to be hit with a decently warm day yesterday, and I decided to use my subsequent energy boost to push this idea a bit further.
Tomorrow I will follow up with the process of my first prototype! Woo!
Dec 5th, 2023 / UPDATE 2 - First Playtest!
In the past, the process of producing my first playtest would be an entire thing. I (or my partner) would spend hours designing the cards, formatting them in photoshop onto 9x9 sheets, printing them, cutting them out, hunting down card sleeves and bulk mtg cards to sleeve them in. And all this before the first playtest.
This time I put my foot down. No longer would I fumble around with scraps of paper and ink like a caveman. Now I would ascend - to the DIGITAL FUTURE! With Tabletop Simulator!
I've been scared of this program for so long because my freaky little artist brain recoils at the thought of programming, but as it turns out, it's incredibly easy to pick up! After just half an hour of watching tutorials (check out Ludo Lodge's TTS Intro) I had my own basic playtest up and running! Check it out!
As you can see, the visual aspects are panning out just as I had hoped - these cats are exceedingly long. Beautiful.
Like any designer can attest to, the first playtests left me with a million problems to solve. The engines aren't engine-y enough. The resources aren't resource-y enough. The game isn't game-y enough. I've always been fond of the feeling a first playtest leaves you with. It's the first time you get to really sink your teeth into how the game actually functions. Everything before this has been entirely theoretical.
The main thing I wanted to get a feel for in this playtest was the adoption system. As of the first playtest, each head has a minimum length requirement that players must meet to adopt them. They must also match the cat's colors and have access to a matching tail as well. As soon as I tried it I knew it wouldn't work. The requirement of finding a matching head and tail in the spread was too needlessly limiting. The functionless tails take up too much space in the deck next to the heads, which provide all the function.
Look at the cute treat token I made!
After musing about it at work today I've decided to add a currency system (using kibble instead of money so it's extra cute). This should enhance the engine/resource management aspect of the game while also making the adoption systems a bit easier to manage. We will see what the next playtest brings.
July 15th, 2024 / UPDATE 3 - The Food Update
Yeah, ok, so it's been a few months. Spring has passed, summer is already partway over, and I have left you poor, miserable folks without your CatStacks update for months.
Let's jump into it.
The primary focus of this new playtest was to test the implementation of our resources - Kibble, Treats, and Tuna Cans. Kibble will be the foundation of our kitty economy, used primarily to adopt cats and to grow your cats. Treats are meant to trigger an individual cat's ability and Tuna Cans are meant to trigger the whole stack.
This game is an engine building and resource management game, so the distribution of these new resources is primarily up to the cats. Right now, we have a few different types of cat abilities - some give you resources upon adoption, some let you exchange resources, some give you kibble depending on their color or length. The possiblities are really endless here.
After a few playtests with this new setup, I've concluded that, while our base cat stacking system is solid, the game simply needs more. The main issue I'm running into is players having nowhere to turn to when they run out of kibble. Though stacking cats is the name of the game, it is something that isn't supposed to happen every turn, so players need some additional sources of income to keep things going. The resource system we have now has lots of good design space, so I will be looking there for further development.
