Ludum Dare 22: A Tale of Kittens and Forever Alone

The time to make games for Ludum Dare 22  is over and now it is time to look over the games. With 891 game entries playing all of them would take quite a bit of time. Two types of games really seemed to stand out during this Ludum Dare for me though, which were kitten games and forever alone.

Kittens

The joke during voting for Ludum Dare 22  was to vote for kittens. Many people have taken that joke into their games making it about a kitten or adding a hidden kitten. In a way cats go with the theme since many cats just want to be left alone, like the cat in Gravity Cat Thing that just wants to get away from the Evil Dr. Cuddles. In this game you use gravity to get away from the doctor running through different terrain. The doctor chases you in various strange vehicles like a wooden ship in the city.

Since I love cats so much I have been playing every game I could find that had cats in the title. Here is a brief description and link to most of them.

Felinus: The Cat Gods: Strategy Game with cats, you can fight each of the cat gods.

Cat Match: Help get rid of the cats by matching them.

Furever Alone:  So much Matlock to watch and so few friends. Catch some cats with nets and food to watch with you.

A Lone Kitty: Navigate through the maze to get magic milk which helps you to glow and find the exit.

 Kitty Box: Do cute things and try to get people to adopt you.

Lost Kitties: Search quickly through trash cans to find lost kitties.

Cardiac and fireproof Kitten alone in Alps after a plane crash: You are a kitten who is burning trees so  he doesn’t freeze. You also can’t move too fast or you will have a heart attack.

ToastCat: You are trying to solve the puzzles so you can get toxic waste.

Kittens the Great: A board game where you are gathering resources to fight humans so you can be left alone.

Lone Kitty: Scare away the kitty’s bad dreams by squishing them against the rocks.

Stray Whisker: Platforming journey to find love.

Cat Capture: Save a cat and then make sure that it makes its way safely to your home.

Below is a slideshow with screenshots from the cat games above.

Forever Alone

How could you possibly have alone as a theme without a few people referring to forever alone. The title of forever alone is one of the most popular ones after just the word alone. Some games have even gone so far as to just be an homage to the meme. Many didn’t even pick just one joke and named their game furever alone. My favorite forever alone piece so far is Zombie in love must remain alone. The face on the zombie is a really nice version of the forever alone face. Also, I like how they were trying to say forever alone without actually saying those words.

 There are many other games in Ludum Dare 22 that don’t fall into either of these categories and hopefully we will cover some of those later.