Cat with Monocle spoke with the GentleBros, the team behind the purrfect adventure, Cat Quest. Game is set to release on the PlayStation 4 on November 14th North America, November 10th for Europe. Nintendo Switch on November 10th for both North America and Europe. The game is already out for iOS, Android and Steam.
About the GentleBros, how big is your team and has that changed since your first game, Slashy Hero?
Our team is currently three people, but we were four when we worked on Slashy Hero.
Have any of your team members had experience on other games aside from Slashy Hero and Cat Quest?
Yes, in fact our whole team was originally from Koei Tecmo where we worked on titles like Dynasty Warriors, Nioh, Fatal Frame and Dead or Alive.
What inspired you to come up with Cat Quest? Did it involve having actual cats around the office? Are you hiring more cats? Kitten internships?
The main inspiration was that we wanted to create a fantasy RPG involving cats, since there was a serious lack of one in the industry! We felt like it could be a really fresh experience because we could design a world with cats in mind, and all the puns that would come with it. And we’re always hiring cats, who wouldn’t?!
In your blog, you explained that the game was going to be a dancing game. Will the dancing appear in the final game in some form or perhaps a dancer character? May we suggest a cat with a top hat and monocle?
There is an armor with a top hat. ;P
No dancing in the final game, but tons of references to the time where it was!
You mentioned on your site that the game was heavily inspired by Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy and Skyrim. Can you elaborate on that?
Heavily inspired might be too strong a word, we don’t want to give people the wrong expectations! What we did was drew inspiration from various aspects of those games that we love.
From Skyrim, we drew the open world aspect of those games. We love the freedom those kinds of games give you, not forcing you down a linear path and letting you create your own adventures.
From Final Fantasy, we were inspired by the overworld designs of their older titles. We really like the aesthetic quality of those kinds of worlds, but they were mostly designed with a linear story in mind. We thought it might be interesting to combine the open-ness of Skyrim with the overworld of Final Fantasy, creating something of an open overworld.
And lastly, from Zelda, we wanted to take the simplicity of its combat, and the feel of exploring a world, finding its secrets and expanding it bit by bit using the new abilities you learn through the game.
How did the timeline for creating Cat Quest compared to your first game, Slashy Hero?
In Slashy Hero, we worked on it mostly in our free time, so that took a lot longer. For Cat Quest, we were on the project full time, and it took us about 11 months!
What did you learn from Slashy Hero that you were able to take with you for Cat Quest?
Localisation was a big one. In Slashy Hero, we didn’t really take into account other languages, and our UI took a real beating because of that. We had to revamp our UI to give enough room for languages like German which has notoriously long text.
For Cat Quest, this was something we prepared for right from the beginning, so when it came to localisation, it was *mostly* smooth sailing! Cat Quest did have almost 10x more text than Slashy Hero though, so it was a new challenge in some ways.
After releasing Cat Quest on PC, iOS and Android, what made you decide to bring this pawsome game to the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch?
A mix of luck and chance meetings! Consoles was always something we thought only the ‘big boys’ did. We never thought we’d actually be seeing our game on our favorite consoles, let alone in the retail stores! All these wouldn’t have been possible had we not met reps from Nintendo and Sony. They saw Cat Quest and really liked it, so they hooked us up with the right people to make sure we had all we needed to bring the game to their platforms. Honestly, we feel really lucky, and without them we might not have ever been able to work on the PS4 or Switch!
If any of the bosses are cats, do they have nine lives?
Having nine lives in our world is something of a legend. Cats of old are believed to have been able to live to their 9th life, but nowadays, they only manage up to the 6th or 7th. Maybe it’s the magic dwindling from the world, or something in the water, but living to the 9th life is an anomaly now. It doesn’t stop cats from using superstition to prolonging their lives though. There is a cemetery in the game where cats believe if they bury their loved ones there, they will be reborn with nine lives. Is it just a fairy tail, we will never know.
What are some key components that make the game catastic? Is catnip an essential item in the game? If it is, can we get a free sample?
All the lovely puns! All our stories are also crafted with cats in mind! You’ll learn stuff about cats you never knew before. Cat Quest is also something of a rapid-fire RPG. You can play the game for 5 minutes, or hours and still feel like you’re constantly accomplishing something. We really love open world games, but feel some of them have gotten so bloated through the years, and Cat Quest is our way of trimming down the fat to give a really concise and concentrated experience. For us, this is an open world RPG condensed to what makes them fun and we hope we managed to succeed doing that!
Catnip is also kinda like a medicine in our world, and its a key item used in many quests.
I love the cat puns in the game (e.g., the Catpital). Which ones are your favorites?
Catpital and Furbidden Fields for sure!
Cat Quest has been out for only a few months for PC and mobile, and it has already won several awards. That’s a-meow-zing! Can you tell us what kind of recognition you received?
Best Action RPG from Intel Level Up.
Best Art Direction from Intel Level Up.
Best Visual Art and Design from IMGA SEA 2017.
Nominated for Best Mobile game at the Unite Awards.
People’s Choice award from Gamestart 2017.
People’s Choice award from Unite 2017.
Nominated for Best Mobile game at Casual Connect Asia 2017.
Wow! That’s a lot of awards, congrats!
Any plans for future downloadable content? Meow
Yes, we have two free updates in fact! The one coming soon in November is called Mew Game and it will introduce a whole new mode to the game. Basically, its a throwback to the old days of people playing JRPGs by introducing limitations to themselves. Mew game allows players to do exactly that. So you’ll be able to try to beat the game at Level One, or with no armor etc. Depending on how many meow-difiers you turn on, the reward you get at the end is also better.
After that we’re releasing a story update that introduces one whole new questline to the game, and also adds more lore to the world.
Is there anything else you would like to share about Cat Quest or the future of the GentleBros?
It was incredibly fun to develop Cat Quest, and the love from all the fans have made the experience extremely humbling! We definitely want to make more games like this and continuously expand this world we’ve created. Hint: The Lupus Empire is coming!
Purrfect! We can’t wait! Thank you for your time and best of luck on your pawsome console launch!
