Cat-a-Pillar

Cat-a-Pillar is a competitive card game about ever-elongating cats in a fierce battle for dominance. The game features a system of elemental weaknesses and lots of cat puns.

Cat-a-Pillar was originally developed in 2016 in the lab section of the Game Design Workshop class, for which I was the instructor. The game, originally titled Monsters & Monsters, grew out of an assignment to make an emotionally evocative game, which Mia and her team continued developing for the final project for the class. I helped the team refine some of the more complex mechanics and improve the game's presentation so that it would be easier for players to understand. After the class, Mia, Katie, and Katie were interested in taking the game further, and trying to launch it publicly. To support them, a colleague and I ran a directed research for their team the following semester, teaching them the process for finishing, polishing, and self-publishing the game. This directed research would eventually become the Finishing and Polishing class, which I have taught three more times and which has helped several additional projects prepare for a public launch outside the university.

Cat-a-Pillar was an Official Selection at the 2017 IndieCade Festival, and was successfully crowdfunded on Kickstarter, with $8,215 from 276 backers. It is now available to purchase through a print-on-demand retailer.

Website: https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/cat-a-pillar 
Kickstarter Page: http://kck.st/2aaKoYK 

Press: Buzzfeed: http://bit.ly/buzzfeed-catapillar