Cat Secretary @ MIX fall Showcase
Maybe this game will teach me about B2b Sales?
Written By Cervando
I mean with a Business tie like that, how can it not know everything about B2B sales?!
What I Knew Going Into The Demo
In the business world, I know there is a hierarchy that is typically respected, and true company men cats that make their way up from the mailroom, and eventually become successful business men cats are the most respected. (WAIT! COULD THE B IN B2B BE BUSINESS?!) Now clearly I am not much of a business man cat myself, but what I am is an adult with a stressful life and the last thing I need after a long day at the Business Factory is to get home and be more stressed out by a game. Enter into my life: cozy gaming. While I will often go back and replay Halo, or anything to capture that twinkle in my eye from when I was 11, I also find myself gravitating to content centered around these cozy games, even if I don’t actively play them much. Games like: Animal Crossing (I WILL NOT LET YOU PEER PRESSURE ME INTO LIFESTYLE INFLATION TOM NOOK), Stardew Valley, Spiritfarer, and Little Kitty Big City. The whimsy of these games has a charm that tickles me, and quite honestly I am glad is an option for gamers out there.
Going in to the MIX Fall Game Showcase, I must admit that I had not heard about Cat Secretary before, but was immediately hooked by its premise. I don’t know what got to me more, the art, the whimsy, or the fact that I have a penchant for putting my pets in business ties and pretend to have board meetings where we eat salami and watch TV.
If you could send us the status report on treats by COB, that would be great.
Regardless, I went in expecting something more akin to a maybe point and click adventure, or something more whimsy with more anthropomorphic animals. Turns out I was wrong on both, and I was pleasantly surprised!
The Story
When I walked up to the booth, I knew nothing about the game, but the developers at the booth were all super friendly and fantastic at pitching an idea…of a cat secretary. It turns out that the cat has been hired by this family friendly company to do a day job in a bustling office, keeping everyone productive. Meanwhile at night, the cat tries to solve puzzles and stealth around trying to help his robot friends and ensure that the company continues to run smoothly despite the overburdening workload.
It was a surprisingly human story about how work sometimes just can’t be left at work, and how we often end up caring about the success and wellbeing of those that we share the grind with even as pressure from above and at home drains us. In the game play, I was able to meet Business Mouse who seemed serious and respectful, and after helping him organize some boxes all I (as a player) wanted was to earn his respect. I was able to meet a tiny robot whose battery was running low and I had to evade security to ensure my little coworker could keep chugging along. And while I was playing an early version of the game, the art style and the little personalities of these minor characters had already hooked me in.
There’s Business Mouse and my robot friend!
The Gameplay
When I walked up to the booth I was given the option of a keyboard or an Xbox controller. And given the type of game, I opted for a controller. I find that games with controllers are a lot more casual, and it does help sell the vibe that I am on a couch, and I am not worried about my K/D ratio. As I was getting set up, the developers let me know that this was still an early Alpha build of the game, and pointed out that there was some limited options for game play, and an occasional visual bug here and there. Even with that warning, I will say that I experienced very few issues, and the gameplay controls of the cat seemed pretty intuitive and I was soon running around exploring. I have played AAA released titles with more bugs than this Alpha version
The missions I got to play involved stealth, where I was trying to bypass the security robots, while I went and found a battery for my robot friend, as well as helping Business Mouse move some boxes that were blocking his little hole in the wall (does that make him a small business owner?) The stealth mission was challenging, but not brutal, and if the security robots caught you they would walk you back to the start, as they would kick you out from the secure floor. It was a pleasant little kitty challenge, and seeing the cat haunch over as he crept behind the patrol robots made me giggle and I am not afraid to admit it.
As I walked back to bring my robot friend his battery, I also found and read some documents that expanded on the lore of the game, and the company I work at as a secretary. It felt simultaneously not high stakes but also I was excited to get this right. I didn’t want this to show up on Cat Secretary’s performance review!
I even got this pin from the developers for enjoying my time as a business cat!
Closing Thoughts
While I still don’t know what B2B sales are and Cat Secretary was not very helpful in figuring it out, it was a very pleasant little cozy experience where I got to play around as a kitty trying to keep an office running and caring for friends. It also had some intrigue as to the nature of the company, its workers, and the world around the kitty and despite the fact that the stakes felt pretty low, I could see myself sinking quite a few hours playing or watching others play it. In a space where games sometimes feel formulaic or way too “sweaty”, it’s good to see that developers are taking the time to remind gamers that it’s all a game, and provide a platform for introspection on our day to day grind.
