Where to get it

2017 · Adventure · Indie

Cat Bird

An adorable journey across worlds.

Released: 23 August 2017
Platforms: Android iOS
Genres: Adventure Indie Platformer Puzzle-platformer
Developers: —
Publishers: —
Perspective: Side view
Themes: Action
Age ratings: CLASS_IND L ESRB E

About

Cat Bird (sometimes stylised as Cat Bird!) is a 2017 mobile puzzle-platformer game developed and published by Ryan Carag, under the pseudonym Raiyumi, for Android and iOS. The game revolves around the titular character, a cross between a cat and a bird, who tries to get back to its home planet by travelling through portals at the end of each level. Cat Bird's main gimmick is that the player character can glide upon jumping, which can be used to overcome obstacles within the levels. Instead of giving the player a limited number of lives, the game instead just counts the number of deaths the player accumulated throughout the game.

Cat Bird was developed over the course of four months and changed mechanic ideas from a rechargeable jump to the gliding mechanic for an easier time in designing levels. The game was released on 23 August 2017, with additional content released subsequently. Cat Bird received positive reviews, with critics praising the level design, music, and art style, and criticising the onscreen button layouts. The game was downloaded over five million times.

Keywords

animal protagonist
freeware
cute
puzzle platformer
speedrun mode

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Cat Bird is a two-dimensional (2D) puzzle-platformer game set in outer space with a pixelated art-style. The player character is a half-cat, half-bird hybrid named Cat Bird. In the game's opening scene, Cat Bird is launched away from its home planet during a meteor shower and must return home. Buttons to control the player character are positioned on the lower-half of the phone screen.

The core gameplay of Cat Bird consists of the player character's ability to glide by holding down the jump command. The gliding mechanic is used to avoid hazards and obstacles, such as spikes, saw blades, falling rocks, and enemies, as well as to solve puzzles. The game consists of 45 levels split across three planets, fifteen levels per planet, with a boss fight at the end of each planet. Some levels hide a crown collectable for the player to find.

Development

Cat Bird was developed by Ryan Carag (Rayumi), the founder of indie mobile game developer Raiyumi Inc, who used the Stencyl game engine. Julien Mier composed the music for Cat Bird. Cat Bird was Carag's first release, and according to him, it took four months to develop. In an interview with the website Indie Zoom, Carag mentioned that during the early stages of development, the initial game mechanic was that the player character would need to recharge its jump.

However, Carag opted to switch out the mechanic due to his difficulty with designing fun levels around it. Upon implementing the gliding mechanic, level design became easier for him. Citing level design as the hardest aspect of the development process, Carag mentioned that he would "create a rough of each level, test, and work on the next level" before later on adding detail to the levels.

Reception

Cat Bird received positive reviews from critics, with websites such as Pocket Gamer and Game Rant citing it as one of the best games on mobile. TouchArcade listed the game in its "Best iPhone Games of 2017" list.

The game was praised for its pixelated art style. Some critics compared the environmental detail to other video games such as Fez and Cave Story, with Pocket Gamer's Chris James stating that the game's art style rivals that of Fez, feeling that each world had variety. In his review for TouchArcade, Jared Nelson commented on how the environments in the game were detailed and "full of life" due to the creatures in the level backgrounds. Nelson added that, compared to other "pixel art 'throwback' platformers", he felt that whilst not doing anything new