The Cat Lady

Started by Grim, Sat 01/12/2012 09:33:54

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Grim

 
Susan Ashworth, known in her neighbourhood as the crazy Cat Lady, is a lonely 40-year old on the verge of suicide. She has no family, no friends and no hope for a better future.

One day she discovers that five strangers will come along and change everything... But those five, "The Parasites", are also the most ruthless, deranged and cold-blooded bunch of psychopats the city has ever known. They will stop at nothing to hurt Susan. Unless, she hurts them first...

Susan's few weeks journey doesn't take her across the world and won't turn her into a hero. She has little faith in others and hardly even cares about herself. She can't fight and has never fired a gun in her life.

But she's hanging onto that thin thread of hope, that in the end, as promised, there's an ilusive reward waiting for her. Something worth trying for. Something that'll help her find an unlikely friend. Something that'll give her life a purpose...

Susan's journey takes her on a rollercoaster ride between the world of the living and the world of the dead, where the only way to survive is to overcome her biggest weakness: her own self.

[embed=480,360] <iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Wx6j2I8v2Z0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> [/embed]


"A horror story that should be enjoyed for years to come" - Link Dead Gaming


The game contains themes of violence and gore, strong language and nudity and is suitable only for persons of 18 years and over.

Reviews & player bloggings:

"Despite the surreal nature of the game, the realism of the dialogue is spot on. The developer absolutely nails emotional trauma, whether it�s a character discussing her partner�s reaction to a cancer diagnosis or the painful ways in which we dig at and hurt each other when we argue with the ones we love. 4.5/5"
http://www.adventuregamers.com/articles/view/23373

"It�s so good that it single-handedly breathes new life into the adventure game genre and shows that mature storytelling with an artistic presentation is not dead. 10/10"
http://emotionalmultimediaride.wordpress.com/2012/12/11/horror-games-week-2012-review-of-the-cat-lady-pc/

"Susan Ashworth is no heroine, she is a flawed and damaged human being, with a past so devastating it will bring you to the verge of tears."
http://www.thereticule.com/the-cat-lady-review/

"Altogether, this muddy patchwork of horrific imagery, terrifyingly real emotion and superb sound design comes together to create a horror story that should be enjoyed for years to come."
http://www.linkdeadgaming.com/that-indie-kick-the-cat-lady-fibrillation/

"If you are looking for a shallow, quick play this game is not for you. However if you are looking for a lasting experience that will most likely keep you thinking long after you have finished the game, then you�ve spent your money wisely and will not be disappointed."
http://www.pcgamereviewsandnews.com/2012/12/the-cat-lady-release-information-and.html?spref=tw

"The controlls are very easy to master, the characters are lovely, as is the voice acting."
http://goodgamefelicia.wordpress.com/2012/12/02/the-cat-lady-review-eng/

"Susan Ashworth may be one of the most human characters I�ve encountered in a game."
http://indiestatik.com/2012/12/13/impressions-the-cat-lady/


an Urpney

#1
At last I can fully express how much I enjoyed the game and loved (almost) every little bit of it. I think the best recommendation is this: The Cat Lady managed to give me a nightmare. The actual “plot” of that dream had very little to do with the game itself (it was about a plague and dying people â€" much more like King’s Bastion) but I had it the night I finished the game and I remember a scene with text floating in the air, much like in
Spoiler
one of Susan’s memories
[close]
.
Most of what I want to say would probably contain heavy spoiler, so I’ll hide it ; )

Spoiler

What I loved:
- Most notably of all â€" port sequence. It was dark, it was stylish and it had one of most creative puzzles I’ve seen in any adventure game (the padlock code puzzle).
- My second favorite part was the tale about the Cat Widow. I laughed out loud â€" at ~1 AM â€" when Giant Zombie Cat appeared on screen.
- All little (and bigger) references â€" to Maniac Mansion, Dark Seed, Planescape: Torment, Sanitarium (still can’t decide if the monster behind the mirror is more Dark Seed or Sanitarium â€" I think I’ve seen something just like this in Cyclops chapter), Stephen King and probably many more I can’t remember now).
- To my own surprise I liked Susan. I thought I wouldn’t after her initial “quiet surrender” speech to X (people like this tend to annoy me in real life, especially when they fight like lions to defend their point of view) but her bitterness, misanthropy and sarcasm made me like her and care for her… and then I had to tell her to shot herself… and then I couldn’t stop playing before Edna and Weird Ed died in pain… then I missed my bus).
- Art style is simply amazing. Anything more realistic would hurt the story.
- The cats and how tastefully they are treated in this game â€" if something bad happens to them, it’s hinted and rarely showed (and even if â€" it was still as tasteful as it could be). And my character is never responsible for it. I know it was necessary in Downfall and was justified by Joe’s past experience, but for the whole game I was afraid I’ll have to do something similar.
- Coffe’n’Cigarette interface (although many cigs burned themselves on the ashtray and many cups of coffee went cold as I forgot about them).

What I didn’t love so much:
- Micromanagement part when Susan returns from the hospital. That’s the only part I didn’t enjoy that much â€" must try to fail in on my next playthrough.
- The florist. Of all characters he was the only one I felt was a plot device rather than a real character. He appears out of the blue, motivates Susan to tell the final piece of her story and dies without much effort. Some back-story for him would be nice.

What I still wonder about:
- Parasites. Why are they parasites? Those we met were more like predators. Of all characters those with really parasitic nature were Adam feeding on other’s life as he didn’t have his own, Lady of Maggots feeding on Susan and Susan (unwillingly) consuming lives to sustain herself.
Why were those Parasites important in grand scheme of things?
Why did Lady of Maggots want them dead and why did she want Susan to do it? If Lady of Maggots was what I think she was, she would want to keep Susan apathetic and resigned, and yet she forces her to take action and makes her practically unable to fail.
- Immortality. Why does some death take Susan to the Dark World (X, Florist, Adam’s gas) and some not (most notably Pest Control part)?
- Does The Cat Lady take place after Downfall? If so, why does nobody know about murders committed in this building (hole in the floor suggests it’s the same building)?
(BTW, I replayed Downfall after finishing The Cat Lady (v 2.0 from Gamersgate) and found a gamebreaker â€" in PASSION + SURRENDER ending, when Joe asks Ivy for help, game crashes to desktop with a message that variable “Sex with rec” is missing â€" can send a savegame if needed). A minor one - I can still open the secret room with manequin's left arm missing.
[close]

Anyways, this was a great experience and no game since Planescape: Torment gave me so much sleep deprivation.
Thanks!
Born to the sound of marching feet,
Trained as a military elite.
Each of us drilled and singled out to be,
An Urpney.

Stupot

Congrats on release guys!

viltaket

#3
Grim you're a genius!
this game is the best thing that happened to me this year:)
this game is very cinematic.on the game, you can shoot a movie (laugh)

but I had one question.
Spoiler
in Chapter 3, the moment where you have to feed the cats.the first time I took the food in advance and everything was okay.
when I was playing for the second time, I went for a cat food, when the cats were in the house.
But Susan, is not allowed in the kitchen.
this is another quest, or a bug?
[close]

I loved everything in this game!)
I love the freedom to choose different actions!!)
Spoiler
But it's a pity that at the end of the game it has little effect.
[close]

Many thanks for this masterpiece!!)

p.s. I am very sorry for my bad English :-D

p.p.s. 
Spoiler
Giant Zombie Cat-I laughed to tears.wonderful humor!!))
[close]

LTGiants2000

Congrats to everyone involved, I can't express how happy I am to see this completed and it is worth every single penny in download. DO YOURSELVES A FAVOUR AND DOWNLOAD THIS GAME NOW! Good luck sleeping afterwards though...

SquirlyGirl

Omg this makes my day off so exciting!!! bought and downloading now! I was just curious, will the dvd that is coming out later have any kind of art label on it? I know it was said before big box editions are very expensive to produce so I just wondered about the dvd

an Urpney

Quote from: viltaket on Sat 01/12/2012 16:48:57
but I had one question.
Spoiler
in Chapter 3, the moment where you have to feed the cats.the first time I took the food in advance and everything was okay.
when I was playing for the second time, I went for a cat food, when the cats were in the house.
But Susan, is not allowed in the kitchen.
this is another quest, or a bug?
[close]

Spoiler
Seems it's a bug - I reproduced it myself and couldn't find any way around for some time. Easy to miss by the testers as adventure gamers are mostly serious cases of compulsive hoarding.
[close]

Quote from: viltaket on Sat 01/12/2012 16:48:57
I love the freedom to choose different actions!!)
Spoiler
But it's a pity that at the end of the game it has little effect.
[close]

Spoiler
True, and brings another thing I wonder about - why does Susan in two instances (Joe's flat and the ending where she takes the gasmask) spontaneously falls into the Dark World without dying?
[close]

Quote from: viltaket on Sat 01/12/2012 16:48:57
p.p.s. 
Spoiler
Giant Zombie Cat-I laughed to tears.wonderful humor!!))
[close]

Spoiler
[close]
Born to the sound of marching feet,
Trained as a military elite.
Each of us drilled and singled out to be,
An Urpney.

arj0n

Gratz on the release Grim!

m0ds

Quotewhen I was playing for the second time, I went for a cat food, when the cats were in the house.
But Susan, is not allowed in the kitchen.

Thanks, do you know if you have version 1.0 or 1.1 installed please? :)

SquirlyGirl

download keep breaking for me, and also it goes very slow. I had same issue when i bought summer batch but got it before all download chances were gone. I sent a email to the email it says to contact about this.

m0ds

Quote from: SquirlyGirl on Sun 02/12/2012 03:26:41
download keep breaking for me, and also it goes very slow. I had same issue when i bought summer batch but got it before all download chances were gone. I sent a email to the email it says to contact about this.

Thanks, you have mail. I'm also looking into something more stable for the downloads, I have a feeling it won't come cheap but I'll keep you posted. I realize it's not always worked optimally for some people, but it's not always easy to diagnose especially when the places you're using to do it assure you it's good quality. It will of course be available other places, but it was just time to get it the hell out.. ;) Anyway, to quote ejunkie:

Quote
We use Amazon S3 to store and serve downloads on a long-term basis, which is about as high-performance and robust a download service as one can get at the current state of the art. In the unlikely event of an outage at Amazon S3, data would be served from our Tucson data-center, which may result in less than ideal download speeds, as we need to throttle the bandwidth allocated to such downloads in order to keep the rest of our service available to the Internet at large.

Alan v.Drake

Congrats on completing the game Grim.  ;)


- Alan

viltaket

Quote
Thanks, do you know if you have version 1.0 or 1.1 installed please? :)

yes,it is version 1.0!)

Crimson Wizard

Quote from: SquirlyGirl on Sun 02/12/2012 03:26:41
download keep breaking for me, and also it goes very slow. I had same issue when i bought summer batch but got it before all download chances were gone. I sent a email to the email it says to contact about this.
Have you tried download manager programs (like FlashGet etc)?
I always use one, when size of file is larger than 50 mb.

Grim

Thanks all! :) It's been a busy 3 years... ;)

an Urpney:

Quote from: an Urpney on Sat 01/12/2012 12:12:57

Spoiler

What I loved:
- Most notably of all â€" port sequence. It was dark, it was stylish and it had one of most creative puzzles I’ve seen in any adventure game (the padlock code puzzle).
- My second favorite part was the tale about the Cat Widow. I laughed out loud â€" at ~1 AM â€" when Giant Zombie Cat appeared on screen.

Thank God- I thought I went a bit too far with that... ;) Then again, this game can't be all dark and gloomy; it needed some funny moments too!:)

- All little (and bigger) references â€" to Maniac Mansion, Dark Seed, Planescape: Torment, Sanitarium (still can’t decide if the monster behind the mirror is more Dark Seed or Sanitarium â€" I think I’ve seen something just like this in Cyclops chapter), Stephen King and probably many more I can’t remember now).

I'm glad the Maniac Mansion reference didn't go unnoticed. The whole setup of the ground floor in Pest's house is one big tribute to MM. Just thought it would be interesting to see what it would look like in a serious game... and David Firth gave a fantastic performance as both Pest Control Man and his wife, his creepy voice out of hell giving those two very unique personality. It took me weeks to persuade him, even though he initially said "yeah, I'll do it" it took a while to record his lines. He did keep his word in the end and I love that guy. If you are not familiar with his work, look up his stuff on You Tube!
And for the record, I've never played Sanitarium or Planescape, so if there are any similarities they are most accidental!:)


- To my own surprise I liked Susan. I thought I wouldn’t after her initial “quiet surrender” speech to X (people like this tend to annoy me in real life, especially when they fight like lions to defend their point of view) but her bitterness, misanthropy and sarcasm made me like her and care for her… and then I had to tell her to shot herself… and then I couldn’t stop playing before Edna and Weird Ed died in pain… then I missed my bus).

A lot of credit here should go to Lynsey Frost who will definitely have a very bright future in videogame voiceovers (although she is already a professional va artist, this is her first attempt at voicing a character in a game- and a huge role with thousands of lines too!). She would record each line up to 10 times and it was my (and mOds') job to filter them and choose the right one. I am absolutely amazed that she was able to make the same sentence sound so very difference every time she said it! Maybe that's some skill most actors have, but this was my first ever encounter with someone like that and I am very impressed... ;)


- Art style is simply amazing. Anything more realistic would hurt the story.
- The cats and how tastefully they are treated in this game â€" if something bad happens to them, it’s hinted and rarely showed (and even if â€" it was still as tasteful as it could be). And my character is never responsible for it. I know it was necessary in Downfall and was justified by Joe’s past experience, but for the whole game I was afraid I’ll have to do something similar.

Nah, I love cats;) (and really dislike dogs!)

- Coffe’n’Cigarette interface (although many cigs burned themselves on the ashtray and many cups of coffee went cold as I forgot about them).

haha That's cool that someone actually listened to my ramblings- I probably said that in one of my interviews;) Coffee and cigarettes have been my fuel for many years now. Now that I've finished the game maybe it's time to finally give up smoking?... Then again... I probably enjoy it too much;)

What I didn’t love so much:
- Micromanagement part when Susan returns from the hospital. That’s the only part I didn’t enjoy that much â€" must try to fail in on my next playthrough.

I thought it was extremely difficult NOT to fail this one!- I'm very surprised you actually got the good outcome in chapter 3! Well done you for not following the top-of-the-screen clues that were meant to lead you into a bad ending (so basically, to succeed you needed to disregard your objectives and do things in a bit of a different order). Just for the record- Susan did not break the mirror and cry herself to sleep at the end? Right?

- The florist. Of all characters he was the only one I felt was a plot device rather than a real character. He appears out of the blue, motivates Susan to tell the final piece of her story and dies without much effort. Some back-story for him would be nice.

Totally run out of time on this one. I did plan a backstory, and it would've been a great one... but the game was already 1GB in size and- lucky as I was to be able to cram most of ideas I wanted into it- I decided to cut this one short. I call this character a Carpenter. He was indeed not much than a plot device... but at least his death is quite a satisfying one (if there is such thing as a satisfying death!... ;))

What I still wonder about:
- Parasites. Why are they parasites? Those we met were more like predators. Of all characters those with really parasitic nature were Adam feeding on other’s life as he didn’t have his own, Lady of Maggots feeding on Susan and Susan (unwillingly) consuming lives to sustain herself.
Why were those Parasites important in grand scheme of things?
Why did Lady of Maggots want them dead and why did she want Susan to do it? If Lady of Maggots was what I think she was, she would want to keep Susan apathetic and resigned, and yet she forces her to take action and makes her practically unable to fail.

I guess it's left open to players' own interpretation. The way I see it, the Parasites represent all the evil of this world, all that has bothered Susan for many, many years, but in a physical form. It's not as much about a parasitic behaviour- feeding off her or others, as really about how Susan perceives other people- ugly, trecherous, back-stabbing and cruel. When you assume The Queen Of Maggots's role in the game is to personalize her depression, everything she says takes on a different meaning. She tricks Susan into thinking that she is her only friend and only she knows how Susan feels, because she watched it for years... and in a way it's all true- every single word she says- because she is a part of her. The part that is ill.

The Parasites create a challenge for Susan. They are the obstacle on her way to freeing herself and finding a way to rebuild her life, but in the same time, at the cost of destroying that obstacle she would have to destroy herself... and that's what her illness wants her to do.

- Immortality. Why does some death take Susan to the Dark World (X, Florist, Adam’s gas) and some not (most notably Pest Control part)?

The game would then take me another 3 years to make!:) and as it is already, it's pretty much 8 hours or over in lenght (which I believe is rather decent)!:)

- Does The Cat Lady take place after Downfall? If so, why does nobody know about murders committed in this building (hole in the floor suggests it’s the same building)?
(BTW, I replayed Downfall after finishing The Cat Lady (v 2.0 from Gamersgate) and found a gamebreaker â€" in PASSION + SURRENDER ending, when Joe asks Ivy for help, game crashes to desktop with a message that variable “Sex with rec” is missing â€" can send a savegame if needed). A minor one - I can still open the secret room with manequin's left arm missing.

It takes place shortly before Downfall, in which the police discover the floor was boarded up by Joe- and as it looks suspicious they decide to dig it up. All this happens before Joe goes completely mental and murders some folks at 12 Helen Rd... The strange encounter with Joe in TCL does not actually take place. Well, it does, but only in Susan's imagination;)

[close]




viltaket:

Quote from: viltaket on Sat 01/12/2012 16:48:57

Spoiler
in Chapter 3, the moment where you have to feed the cats.the first time I took the food in advance and everything was okay.
when I was playing for the second time, I went for a cat food, when the cats were in the house.
But Susan, is not allowed in the kitchen.
this is another quest, or a bug?

Just fixed it. Uploading new version right now;)

[close]

I love the freedom to choose different actions!!)
Spoiler
But it's a pity that at the end of the game it has little effect.

And yet, if you played the game very carefully, you'll see the ripples of your decisions showing every now and then, and in the end, there's a rather special reward. It is very well hidden, though... ;)

[close]



Igor Hardy

Congratulations on the release Grim!

m0ds

#16
I added some reviews to Rem's post and will continue to as they come in. Also, if you're interested in the DVD's (and AdventureX and Screen 7 games), I suggest you join the new Screen 7 mailing list at http://www.screen7.co.uk/#!/page_Home - the next newsletter with details on TCL DVD's etc will be out a day or two before AdventureX. And don't forget if you come to AdvX you'll be able to find some Screen 7 discounts (and a Cat Lady DVD or 2) :)


an Urpney

Quote from: Grim on Sun 02/12/2012 21:53:55

Spoiler


Thank God- I thought I went a bit too far with that... ;) Then again, this game can't be all dark and gloomy; it needed some funny moments too!:)

Just perfectly fit my sense of humor. And it's totally optional, so if anybody doesn't like it he's free to skip that part.

I'm glad the Maniac Mansion reference didn't go unnoticed. The whole setup of the ground floor in Pest's house is one big tribute to MM. Just thought it would be interesting to see what it would look like in a serious game... and David Firth gave a fantastic performance as both Pest Control Man and his wife, his creepy voice out of hell giving those two very unique personality. It took me weeks to persuade him, even though he initially said "yeah, I'll do it" it took a while to record his lines. He did keep his word in the end and I love that guy. If you are not familiar with his work, look up his stuff on You Tube!

It's hard not to notice, especially after the initial sequence with lights going on in the building : )
And the characters are greatly written and performed - I physically coundn't stop playing before both of them went down.


And for the record, I've never played Sanitarium or Planescape, so if there are any similarities they are most accidental!:)


If you are on GOG I'll gladly gift you one of those as a big thank you. They're really worth playing and in many ways they are similar to both Downfall and The Cat Lady (Sanitarium is about a man who has to relive his personal traumas in "another dimensions", where each dimension symbolises different trauma) and Planescape does something very similar to what you did with immortality and resurrection. But most importantly it's great narratively.

haha That's cool that someone actually listened to my ramblings- I probably said that in one of my interviews;) Coffee and cigarettes have been my fuel for many years now. Now that I've finished the game maybe it's time to finally give up smoking?... Then again... I probably enjoy it too much;)

Hey! And what about next game? : )
I know what you mean - cigs and coffee really keep me going in my idiotic corporate job.


I thought it was extremely difficult NOT to fail this one!- I'm very surprised you actually got the good outcome in chapter 3! Well done you for not following the top-of-the-screen clues that were meant to lead you into a bad ending (so basically, to succeed you needed to disregard your objectives and do things in a bit of a different order). Just for the record- Susan did not break the mirror and cry herself to sleep at the end? Right?

Well, unwillingly I kind of cheated ther. Halfway throught the chapter I had a technical problems with my computer and had to play the chapter all over again. That allowed me to skip the part with light going out and I was able to make my meal instead of burning it.
At the end Susan peacefuly went to bed.

Totally run out of time on this one. I did plan a backstory, and it would've been a great one... but the game was already 1GB in size and- lucky as I was to be able to cram most of ideas I wanted into it- I decided to cut this one short. I call this character a Carpenter. He was indeed not much than a plot device... but at least his death is quite a satisfying one (if there is such thing as a satisfying death!... ;))

Maybe that backstory and the character himself can be used in another project? : )
His death reminded me of one of King's shortstories... one about a killer hired to kill a cat.

I guess it's left open to players' own interpretation. The way I see it, the Parasites represent all the evil of this world, all that has bothered Susan for many, many years, but in a physical form. It's not as much about a parasitic behaviour- feeding off her or others, as really about how Susan perceives other people- ugly, trecherous, back-stabbing and cruel. When you assume The Queen Of Maggots's role in the game is to personalize her depression, everything she says takes on a different meaning. She tricks Susan into thinking that she is her only friend and only she knows how Susan feels, because she watched it for years... and in a way it's all true- every single word she says- because she is a part of her. The part that is ill.

The Parasites create a challenge for Susan. They are the obstacle on her way to freeing herself and finding a way to rebuild her life, but in the same time, at the cost of destroying that obstacle she would have to destroy herself... and that's what her illness wants her to do.

...but finally passing those challenges makes Susan stronger and able to defeat Queen - not a a smart move by Queen (BTW, one of the reasons I replayed Downfall was to check if she was the same character Agnes encounters in her dream. I guess she's not - is there any connection between those two?)
And once more - it strongly reminds me of Planescape ; )


The game would then take me another 3 years to make!:) and as it is already, it's pretty much 8 hours or over in lenght (which I believe is rather decent)!:)

OK : ) Just thought there is some deeper meaning behind it : ) Maybe a still - opened portal would be good (at least in Pest Control part) to justify Susan's returns? And the portal may remain opened as Susan at the edge of death all the time.

It takes place shortly before Downfall, in which the police discover the floor was boarded up by Joe- and as it looks suspicious they decide to dig it up. All this happens before Joe goes completely mental and murders some folks at 12 Helen Rd... The strange encounter with Joe in TCL does not actually take place. Well, it does, but only in Susan's imagination;)


Hell, I went too far with that, imagining that Billy was another of Joe's creations (his guilt and desire for punishment maybe) and the final scene of Downfall wasn't real as well.
There isn't enough time between Billy's discovery and Joe's final breakdown for the whole story of the Cat Lady.
[close]
Born to the sound of marching feet,
Trained as a military elite.
Each of us drilled and singled out to be,
An Urpney.

IndieRetroNews

#19
The Cat Lady - Horror Adventure Game
http://www.indieretronews.com/2012/12/the-cat-lady-horror-adventure-game.html

Your game is up on our website, looks great, well done :)
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