The Cat Lady

[m0ds]

Nothing my end, so as predicted, time clears the gremlins in the PayPal system Good stuff tho, thanks for letting me know!

ps. Jenimad just in case you noticed it wasn't there, your "thank you" page will now have the Desura key for your recent purchase. (thanks for pointing that out to me jugwhisky)

[fire]

Same here. Thanks for not doing anything, Mods!

[El34]

I only discovered The Cat Lady got released half a year ago today (guess when I finished it as well )! I was watching it on the harvestergames website until the domain expired? So I thought maybe the game wasn't being produced after all, only to my surprise while watching random horror let's plays, I see one for The Cat Lady.. at first I was just going to watch the LP and be happy with it but I soon decided that would be impossible. I played Downfall back in 2009 and I remember I e-mailed Grim asking for a walkthrough (at the time there weren't any) and he said his next game wouldn't have the free used sound effects like Downfall.. but that's not quite true!

Anyway, enough of that. Spoilers for the whole game in the hidden post:

Spoiler

I thought Warmer - Inside was a perfect kickoff to start the game for when Susan has her arm chopped off. And WOW, Doctor X's 'gallery'? That was some seriously sick stuff, his portryal as a completely psychotic serial killer was stomach turning for sure, I wish I had more satisfaction killing him (I liked that you got two choices of weapons to kill him though, I tried both and found the spear more satisfying.

I did find the final confrontation a bit underwhelming but expected, if that makes sense. It seems to be a formula for captivating mysteries broken up into chapters to start with something very grisly and then change into something more 'intellectual'. I did manage to get the best secret ending on the first go, but I agreed to do what the Queen of Maggots wanted Susan to do (everything else I seemed to have fulfilled as forum posters mentioned).

I didn't even figure out that the neighbors 'J and I' were the Joe and Ivy from Downfall! Not until I got into the dream sequence and heard about her being in the room a week... boy talk about SLOW. It has been a while since I played Downfall though, so I guess I wasn't expecting them to make an appearance again (along with door 666 - FINALLY I got to see what's inside! the image of the woman by the toilet was right creepy!) I really did appreciate his cameo appearance though. Seeing two very messed up worlds collide like that was interesting.

Also, the Queen of Maggots isn't the same entity as the one from Downfall? I thought they were this whole time! I'd have to play again to see.

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I also found the controls a bit of a hassle at times, usually bouncing in and out of the items menu and even the save/load screen. However, I didn't pay much heed to it, likely because of the fantasic story this game has. Downfall for all its macabre and grisly atmosphere made an impression on me, but I honestly didn't expect The Cat Lady to be this good (I can't imagine a third game being able to top this). A huge part of it is Susan. I can't think of the last time (or any time) a woman in her 40's was used as a protagonist and portrayed so well. That's not to say the other characters aren't either, but there is so much life breathed into the main character and supporting cast, particularly Mitzi, that it's impossible not to be taken in. The issues of depression made it all the more real. Basically, the writing is beyond brilliant.

I've also played Resonance the day before, and I enjoyed The Cat Lady far more, (of course, it lacks the ability to appeal to a more general audience ) though these types of stories are more my cup of tea. The Cat Lady also had far easier puzzles though, and these days I don't particularly like puzzles in games that are too complex.

In the end, the game was worth more than what I spent on it, and I'm glad I didn't decide to just watch an LP and have the atmosphere and immersion ruined. Big props to Harvester Games, and if there's a third game coming, I hope I don't miss out on it for this long again!

[Diath]

Since I love horror and eerie games(hence the only type of game I ever made), I finally Purchased it. This was a well done game. The Surreal environments and the music was perfect for a game like this. A few thoughts I had during the game

Spoiler

1. I like how you left some things ambiguous, but the overall message clear to the player!

2. I was second guessing myself the whole time in the hospital on who the parasite was. You opened both to the Nurse and the Doctor, so both had the "getting close to you before hurting you" aspect that the maggot queen warned you about.

3. I performed the correct actions to have the nurse leave you a parting gift down in the hospital basement, but I felt I would have had horrid repercussions if I didn't do as the maggot queen requested(which is excellent since she symbolizes depression)

4.Out of all the parasites, I found the pest control couple to be the most interesting. I wondered if the wife was actually demonic or not or if she actually existed since it was not in the other realm were the cat lady often visited. 

5. I know now after reading earlier on this thread that the developer said there wasn't time to do a fully developed story to the man that visited you with flowers, but I initially thought when I answered the door that it was the man from years ago that tried to ruin your previous marriage. Well...until he tried talking when he wanted you to play the piano hah.

6. I was thinking the whole time that the neighbor was a parasite and wondered why he wasn't dealt with until I read that he was a nod to Downfall

7. I thought the monotone babysitter associated was hilarious!

[close]

I figured the developer would be interested on a players initial thinking when they played his game so there ya go! And as I said before, a very well done game!

[m0ds]

Thanks for weighing in duane

New cusomers...our site now accepts direct cc payments. No more paypal signups.

[m0ds]

From 11th-14th July only you can pay what you want at IndieGameStand. You will get a Desura key and a GOG key. So it's a great time to get the game via GOG if that's your thing. Thanks to Cesar, Katie and the Phoenix team for doing all the hard work

Small update: No official word on the Russian version yet as our contact is out of office til next week, but they have released official artwork for it.



If anyone would like to playtest the French translation for me please PM me. It's just French subtitles but I need someone to spot if it goes off the rails at some point through the game. And then that will be ready for distribution of some kind. Thank you

[Mati256]

Hi. I have a couple of questions.
Is there going to be a Spanish translation? Is there any ETA on that?
If someone would buy the game now, from Indie Game Stand or from the Screen 7 site, would it be entitled to a translated version in the future?
For example, I preordered the game, but lets say I would like to play it in French or Spanish. Could I download an updated version with subtitles?

[m0ds]

Hi Mati! Sure, hiding it because it's not official, but FYI:

Spoiler

French subtitles is 100% complete, waiting testing
Spanish subtitles is 90% complete, waiting to put the translation into AGS and then have it tested
German subtitles is 10% complete

When all three are done there will be a Version 1.3, which has the three translations, an update to the vSync (horizontal tearing issue) and minor update to the save & load screen. This version uses a different font to the original English version, and the translation files cannot be used with the original version 1.2 (you can try, but the font is messed up and doesn't show any of the special é or á style characters)

The plan was for it to have been a free download for the .tra translation files (tiny things, 10kb). But that's not the case, the .tra files cannot be distributed alone - the whole game (minus audio elements) has to be redistributed (300mb roughly) for people to get full use of the vsync and translations.

So whether this v1.3 will be distributed as a free or paid update is unknown at this point. I'm still testing all the distribution stuff out, and don't want to make a promise I can't keep about it.

So really it's "watch this space" on that one. Sorry to be vague. Mind you, the max benefits should come to you if you're a specific Screen 7 customer as you say you are

ETA though... Latest I want to have it released is TCL's 1st birthday.

[close]

[Peder 🚀]

Spoiler

Are you saying the next game update might be charged for? :O

[close]

[m0ds]

Just a small update as it's been on the cards and people have been a-wondering: French, Spanish & German translations are complete! Thank you to the gentlemen for their help (Français - Hervé Appriou, Deutsche - Thomas Schneiders & Español - Ignacio Parentella), If you would like to proof-read (in game) to make sure it's working in your language, please get in touch with me via PM, thank you

From here testing of the translations begin and our aim is to release a new deluxe version of the game around end of Oct or early Nov. More information on this soon enough (please don't ask Peder, I don't know yet )

[fire]

Congratulations!

[an Urpney]

Excellent! Well done!

[Vince Twelve]

Awesome!  Congrats guys!

[m0ds]

Thank you

[CosmoQueen]

Yay congrats! !!!!!

[m0ds]

You can now download a free update for your DRM-free copy of the game here:
http://agsarchives.com/thecatlady.html (direct download) or more info at http://www.thecatlady.co.uk/updates

(any problems do let me know please!)

Essentially adds French, German + Spanish subtitles, so some people may not want/need to update their copy.

Thanks to Hervé Appriou for French translation, Thomas Schneiders for German translation and Ignacio Parentella for Spanish and his help with testing stuff..
Thanks to Peder Johnsen for hosting the file..
And thanks to Ali for the tip to use Patch Maker

The game will be available on Steam from Dec 4th, with achievements and trading cards and stuff, thank you to Michael (monkey_05_06) for his help with that

[m0ds]

The Cat Lady is 1 year old today from its release, so here's a silly video to celebrate With strong language...as you'd expect from let's players and youtube comments...

[embed=480,360] <iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/m9vf2KP7NBI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> [/embed]

Steam is just around the corner! S7 customers should get their keys emailed to them in the next few days before 4th. On release day there, do keep an eye out for a 10 minute special video by Remi

[embed=480,360] <iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/sb9biBAP5VY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> [/embed]

[m0ds]

It's available now on Steam*!  http://store.steampowered.com/app/253110

And a special 10 minute video for fans of the game (to celebrate the Steam release...whoop!)

[embed=480,360] <iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/5Ls5AnvZFnQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> [/embed]

*Phew. What a long epic not so fun experience that is far from over. Please direct your questions about keys to the moon. Thank you.

[Surdy]

Hey Mods,

What are the new things in the Steam Edition?

[m0ds]

Nothing new beyond achievements, trading cards and the translations really...