Cat In Hat games

DIG_POD by a333 2026-04-25T19:40:58Z

Since the planet is called Wasabi, I immediately pictured the pilot looking like Jean Reno.

From the art and previews (I’ve actually been following your game since the very first post), it reminded me of Noita and Barotrauma (my misconception about the sonar, which I mention below), and I was curious to see how much you’d end up implementing.

I was surprised that the arc shown in the screenshots turned out to be a suction tool—I thought it was sonar, which would’ve fit perfectly with the signal theme. Like, you scan, explore, search for something in the soil, and fend off enemies.

I didn’t like that any hit, even a minor one, takes away health. On the other hand, crashing into a wall at high speed results in the same punishment… I guess that can be attributed to the short development time.

I only really understood the game on my second attempt. It’s not obvious at all that the monsters’ blood, which gets turned into gold by that thermo-gun, can then be collected by shooting the gold (really not intuitive). It’s also unclear why you even need to collect gold—what’s the point of the total cargo mass increasing (and why is it shown in blue, like it’s water)? I also lacked an immediate understanding of whether I could upgrade my digging arc. As soon as you reach stone (which happens almost right away), the digging speed drops, and you instantly want to improve it. Unfortunately, that didn’t seem possible.

= = = = = But my complaints about the inconveniences became irrelevant once I progressed further and finally looked at the screen properly, noticing the key for upgrade configuration 😅 Same with collecting gold using the gun (still, it probably would’ve been better to have auto-pickup for it, or at least allow easy collection even with a weak tool).

= = = = = The game is great. So far, it’s the best thing I’ve played from Ludum. Atmospheric, sounds great, and feels good to play. The map generation really encourages you to replay and start over again and again. It’s very cool that there are new systems you encounter during the run. At the same time, it’s a bit disappointing that armor upgrades are only visible in the menu, not during gameplay.

About the sudden explosion and the need to run… that was a nasty trick. I had to replay just to see the ending… but didn’t manage it. After collecting 600 gold on the level, I tried to grab all four golden bubbles from the boss, and the explosion caught me off guard again. It really needs some kind of visual and audio indicator to show how much time is left, so you can properly assess the risk… I didn’t go for a third attempt.

It’s a bit disappointing that the jam theme is only implemented as intermediate goals (I just can’t consider a distance-to-finish bar a gameplay mechanic—it’s just an indicator). If there had been sonar like I originally imagined… but that’s not really important—the game is great, and the work is excellent. Thanks for the experience.

During gameplay, I also ran into a situation—I’m not sure if it’s a bug or a feature—where I went back to collect previously left golden blood, and suddenly a pack of four-headed monsters dropped down on me from above. That turned into quite an unexpected challenge.

Signal City by cax 2026-04-28T19:36:19Z

Overall, the game really hit those nostalgic notes of the early SimCity titles.

But I still don’t understand why the towers have to be placed so close to each other. In that sense, upgrades seem to matter only for throughput, not for increasing the radius.

Also, something feels off with the task spawning. It gets overwhelming to the point where it quickly stops being enjoyable.

But a big thumbs-up for the visuals and emotions you give me

Signal Garden by KenForest 2026-05-06T12:51:36Z

At first, it felt pretty strange. I didn’t really get it—I even wanted to complain. It seemed like a weird connection to the theme (though I should note, the visuals are amazing).

Then the next phase kicked in—I realized it’s actually a fun, addictive incremental game.

After that, I tried to break the game and ended up looping the bonus plants. I noticed that this case is actually handled—there’s a cap of 64 signals (which is great) for basic plants. Though I didn’t fully understand how it works, since with other chains it can go up to 512.

For a long time, I didn’t notice the numbers above the door acting as a global goal. Honestly, replacing plants/creatures is very неудобно. You have to check first, then delete, then go pick a new one. It would be much more convenient to:

pick what you want go to the desired spot replace it This whole “you can’t pick it up because there are no free slots” thing feels unnecessary.

Continuing that point: to reach a million, you basically have to remove everything and rebuild properly from scratch. You can’t reposition already placed, purchased objects. Sure, you can rotate them, but major mistakes with expensive plants can happen right at the start. For me, even 100k would’ve been more than enough as a target.

I also felt there was a lack of tools or objects for intercepting signals outside of plants. Yes, you can run around the room catching them with the phone—but that becomes tedious in the later stages.

Overall though, it’s really enjoyable. And the fact you made this in three days is genuinely impressive. I’m just sharing my experience—thanks for it.

Oh, and one more thing. I left the game running in the background to farm signals. When I came back a couple of hours later, I had reached over a million. I opened the door and… nothing. I was about to get annoyed, but it turned out the game had just frozen.

The catharsis hit when I took the elevator down and saw THAT. And honestly, in that complex farm setup, I would’ve liked to interact with it a bit more. I get that it’s more of a joke—and a way to show how far the game could theoretically expand—which is great. So yeah, you definitely achieved the intended effect.

Please respond, over. by wingear 2026-04-28T18:50:30Z

It’s too easy to miss enemies, they shoot at you too quickly, and you have too little health. Sometimes you can even get hit from off-screen. Enemies move quite chaotically, and situations can arise where you can’t escape them, while your objective is still right there in sight.

I also didn’t understand why the enemies look the same as the player… You could’ve at least recolored the asset.

Cabined by TheSecondLeft 2026-04-25T18:44:09Z

Playful, engaging, and atmospheric. Short and snappy. The clicker segment felt a bit awkward—having to mash E repeatedly isn’t the most pleasant experience; holding the key, like with the screws, would’ve been better. The screw puzzle itself, though, made me smile.

The theme feels more loosely attached, mostly there to support the narrative—it could’ve easily been something entirely different. Despite that, a separate thumbs-up for the absurdity and **Родной советский лифт**

But I really can’t stand it when games bind crouch to C instead of Ctrl.

ESCAPE_OS by Sylvic 2026-04-25T18:33:14Z

I honestly couldn’t figure out how to save the humans or get them into the escape pods, so I ended up helping (I think I did, at least) the spiders wipe them all out. And even then I didn’t quite succeed—one human was left stuck in a room whose doors I’d accidentally closed, and I couldn’t reopen them afterward.😅😅😅

Overall, it’s fun and enjoyable. But during longer play sessions, the sound really starts to get on your nerves. Next time, try looping the sounds or a track for yourselves to check how they feel after a few minutes.

Missile Protocol by Pacelin 2026-04-25T20:06:13Z

Since you were targeting an international audience, it would’ve made sense to have English set as the default language.

The error-switching buttons are very small—they could’ve been bigger (I was playing in windowed mode). The art looks like it might be AI-generated. I don’t have anything against AI, but stylistically it feels a bit undercooked.

Because the defusal instructions are quite complex and take time to memorize, I couldn’t manage it. It’s a pity the game doesn’t automatically pause when you open the instructions. I didn’t attempt another run.

That said, it’s a really enjoyable game. It’s great to see the theme explored from different angles through gameplay—that definitely deserves a high score.

Missile Protocol by Pacelin 2026-04-25T23:18:55Z

@pacelin Okay, my bad. Sorry for assuming it was AI.

Receive & Repeat by TurboLaser 2026-04-28T18:14:40Z

Mixed feelings about the game. It looks cool, but the gameplay is extremely unintuitive. It feels like there’s some kind of optimal strategy, but I don’t really feel like searching for it, since all meaningful actions only happen during placement—and then you just find out later whether it worked or not.

If you could rearrange, add, or sell signals while they’re being sent, that would add the sense of dynamics the game is currently lacking.

But honestly, I probably just didn’t fully understand the game.

System Invader by heat 2026-04-28T18:27:26Z

The sound is pleasant. Though at some point it gets a bit scary how many enemies start appearing :) It was fun—thanks for the experience!

Astroscanner by DiElecktrik 2026-04-25T20:33:28Z

Alright… this game really impressed me. Even though it definitely has its flaws. I’ll just write this as a stream of thoughts.

First of all, I really like how the jam theme is tied into the core gameplay. It’s great that every signal comes with its own story, commentary, and image.

The “wow” moment for me was the player. I took a closer look at the interface and realized you could apparently switch audio tracks. At the end of another in-game workday, I gave it a try—and sure enough, you actually can. And the soundtrack is absolutely fantastic.

However, the long-term goal of the game isn’t very clear. For a long time, I didn’t understand what I was actually supposed to do to reach the ending (aside from just maxing out upgrades). Correction: later I noticed in the menu that we’re supposed to buy a ticket… but it probably should’ve been highlighted with a separate button or color, because at first it reads like just another top-tier upgrade.

The color indicators of the signals also don’t really communicate their value or variety. Maybe there is a system behind it, but there’s just not enough time to figure it out… although I doubt it, since the scanning speed and rewards—for example, for two red signals—are different.

And that brings me to time. Unfortunately, all the jokes, Easter eggs, and interesting content are hidden in text blocks and images—which you don’t really have time to look at, because you need to rush through as many signals as possible in a short time. Yes, you can upgrade the workday duration, but the core loop doesn’t change—you’re still pushed toward quickly processing as many signals as possible. And the description texts also appear too slowly…

I really missed some kind of system to track which signals you’ve already explored. When you’re trying to move as fast as possible, at some point you just lose track of which sectors you’ve already checked and which you haven’t. Hovering over everything with the mouse just to check “maybe I missed this one” isn’t very fun. (And no, the slow blinking of the scanner doesn’t help—it actually confuses things, because for a split second it feels like a new scan is starting.)

Lots of praise for the “Wow” signal, and for the Dune reference. I didn’t see a reference tied to the “42” answer at first and was about to be disappointed—but then, thankfully, I found it :)

But it was really disappointing that the signals start repeating over and over again. I put in the effort to finally slow down and read them—and then realized they’re the same ones… At that point, the game turns into a grindy routine, because I’ve essentially already seen all the content, yet I still need to grind those 100k.

Radar Alert by GreatPasta 2026-04-28T19:09:28Z

At first I thought about dropping the game, but then I got into it. Still, over time the monotony became tiring, and when reaching the ending got pushed back by another five minutes of the same actions, I ended up closing the game.

I might’ve encountered a bug—or maybe it’s just not well communicated—but I couldn’t distinguish the failsafe missiles. It ended up feeling like a sneaky kind of randomness, where even after doing everything in time, the missile just wouldn’t work. If that’s intentional, it would help to mark broken missiles with a different color—like blanks or duds.

And the repetitiveness… why stretch it out for so long when there’s no new gameplay being introduced? It feels like artificial padding. There was no real sense of catharsis, which was disappointing… though visually and audibly, it’s very impressive.

GIMME TV by pocketdog 2026-04-25T19:50:20Z

I tried to destroy the satellite boss, but it just wouldn’t go down, even with the help of the asteroids. Other than that, it’s a fun game. The theme feels only loosely connected through the narrative, so it gets a small point for that.

Link the Shrink by TOSHIY 2026-04-25T20:36:59Z

The leaderboard table in the description is a really great idea—we’ll definitely take it into account. Thanks a lot for the example!

Link the Shrink by TOSHIY 2026-04-25T23:03:34Z

изображение_2026-04-26_020311564.png This game is insanely addictive—honestly, unbelievable. I think I spent about an hour and a half on it.

I really missed having a way to go back to the menu with Esc, and the option to restart mid-run. I was playing in the web version, so I ended up refreshing the page and starting over.

Special props for the interactive animated element on the page (please teach me how to do that). And the wow-effect of the soundtrack distorting as you move the camera—such a great design choice.

I still didn’t understand what that bull is that I get when building a human face… Also, once you go past 100, the numbers don’t display correctly, which is a bit inconvenient.

And with the right strategy, the game basically becomes endless… So I wasn’t even sure whether to sabotage my run just to lock in a final score, or keep going forever. I went with the first option, since it felt like there was no real challenge left, and I wanted to try other games.

Signal Through the Blizzard by anku 2026-04-25T23:15:51Z

Atmospheric—especially since I really love survival games.

Pinky Guard: The Celestial Facility by Cat In Hat games 2026-04-21T11:24:04Z

@7uc4s Oh, assets! Thank you for reminding. With all this hurry, we forgot to mention that some of the environment assets were from Unity Asset Store (free assets: "Cosmic Retro" by **The PolynestLab** & "Animals Free" by **ithappy**).

Animations – Mixamo.

Our 3D artists created rooms, organic masses, characters, and also some other stuff that is not in the game.

We will add this information into the game later.

= = = = = =

Glad you got some positive emotions even in this cut version. Subscribe on Itch, updates are coming.

Pinky Guard: The Celestial Facility by Cat In Hat games 2026-04-22T06:30:00Z

@gideongriebenow Thank you!

*... is ever finished* - Someday it will be!😋

Fading Signal by RushB 2026-04-28T18:41:58Z

I never managed to find the 13th duck… 😅😅😅 Overall, from the very first frame I understood what the story was about. And regarding the theme—it’s interesting, thank you. It doesn’t even feel right to “rate” something like this; clinical death is a heavy subject.

On the downside, objects are placed quite close to each other, which leads to overlapping or interrupted lines from the protagonist. You either needed to shorten the texts or increase the distance between objects. As it stands, the player can accidentally limit their own access to the content.

Radioblet by Dwang 2026-04-25T23:09:55Z

The audio tracks are absolutely fantastic. There isn’t a whole lot of gameplay, but what’s there is genuinely engaging. Thanks for the experience.