We’re Cat in Hat A small indie team, and this is our first time joining Ludum Dare.
Right now we’re somewhere between excitement and impatience, waiting for the theme to drop so we can finally start building.
We already know one thing though: we want to make a strategy/management game inspired by a cartoon we genuinely love.
Curious… how many of you know it? 👀
We're Cat in Hat — a team that came together during a game jam back in November 2023. Today, we're a distributed team of 15 people across the world, and game jams mean a lot to us.
Right now, part of the team is here at Ludum Dare 59, while the rest is finishing Intersectio — a game that also started as a jam project.
A management/strategy game where you run a complex containing an immortal celestial being — balancing exploitation, safety, and the constant risk of everything going wrong.
The vibe: Inspired by a cartoon universe we genuinely love — we want to capture its humor, absurdity, and that slightly chaotic energy. Something closer to watch-control balance with playful systems than high difficulty.
We're aiming for a short experience (5–10 minutes) with multiple endings (currently: Suppression and Dialogue) — depending on how you choose to deal with the celestial and upcoming objectives.
4 game designers — each responsible for their own system. Not sure yet if this pipeline survives a jam. That’s part of the test.
during the jam, we have only one programmer working on the core.
(Luckily, it’s our strongest one)
Others will join development after game jam
Character models standardized — all share a standardized body, with identity defined through helmets.
(It saved us a lot of time.)
We also locked in our visual direction —
colors and palettes that will guide the entire project moving forward (see moodboard & palette below)
You assign characters to roles inside the facility. Each role pushes the system in its own direction — and eventually everything escalates into a Crisis.
From there, you either stabilize the situation… or it collapses.
On the audio side, things are already coming together — we’ve got an atmospheric, playful main menu track ready, and our sound designer is absolutely on fire as always.
Since it’s our first time at Ludum Dare, we’re still figuring things out… what’s the best way to share audio during the jam, if not just in the final build? 🎧
Honestly? This is our weakest point right now. We're still searching for a way to make it feel natural, not just stitched on top.
For us, the goal isn't just to "make a jam game." We use jams as a way to start something bigger — to test ideas, systems, and directions that we might later expand into full projects. Pinky Guard: The Celestial Facility will be one of them
A few intense days can sometimes unlock things that would take months otherwise.
We'll keep sharing progress — including the messy parts.
This project means a bit more to us than just a jam entry.
Pinky Guard is based on a cartoon series by Luke Humphris — something a few people on our team have genuinely loved for a long time.
A few months ago, we decided to take it seriously and try to reach out to Luke. It took a while (and quite a few attempts), but we eventually got in touch — and received his permission to create a game in this universe for the jam.
He knows about the project, and that matters a lot to us.
We treat the original with a lot of respect. Even though the source material is quite compact, we're trying to explore its potential — carefully expanding the world while keeping its tone and spirit.
Right now, this is a prototype — a short experience we're building during the jam. But we also see it as a way to introduce more people to this universe.
And, honestly, we really hope Luke will like what we make.
This is where things get… complicated.
Maybe we were just one day short. Or maybe… one programmer.
Having a bigger team sounded like an advantage — but in reality, it slowed us down more than we expected. And now we're at that familiar point where a lot is done… but not the most important part.
The core gameplay isn't fully there yet — which, as you can imagine, is critical.
Content-wise, we've made strong progress:
Some systems are already working:
* Character movement
* Role assignment
* Tech tree
* Task system
Right now, we're pushing to finish character spawning and at least bring everything into a playable state.
Testing… didn't really happen. Balancing — even less so.
What do you do if you don't make it in time?
Submit something unfinished? Or admit that you didn't make the deadline?
We're still trying to push through. There are a few hours left, and we're not giving up yet.
But at the same time, we care about what we're making. And releasing something that doesn't reflect that — doesn't feel right.
So we'll finish it either way.
With or without the deadline.
Because this isn't just about the jam anymore — it's about doing justice to something we love.