Nice Games Jam: "Cat Time"

Sep 7, 2023

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It's been a while but your nice hosts come up with a game in roughly an hour, this one for the cat owners out there! After a fairly long meta, we get into the mind of a cat and design a competitive game for them to play.

Prompt

Create a game my mother can (and wants to) play with her cats, with the supply list below. Bonus points if this can be played a single cat or multiple cats at the same time, for optimum usefulness in listener households with single cats

Game type

Design document

Player count

Materials

At least two cats

A cat toy shaped like a die with a treat inside

List of activities the die points to

Setup

Pick an end date for when the game stops (can be arbitrary).

Rules

Give the cats the cat toy shaped like a die, they will roll the die and leave it eventually, and this determines the next activity for the human to set up. Once the die decides what the next activity is, the human sets it up based on a chart. Once the task is completed and cats are awarded points, repeat the die roll and do the next activity until the end date (since remember, you're on Cat Time so the amount of activities you do depends on your cats). The winner is the cat with the most points by the end!

Examples of tasks (there would be at least 20):

Cat task: One cat at a time for this challenge. Put something on top of the cat’s head and start the stopwatch. Whichever cat keeps the object on their head the longest gets X points.
Cat task: Make a loud meowing sound. Whichever cat looks at you first gets X points.
Human task: Award the cat who has been the best sport X points.
Cat task: Hold both cats in your hands. Whichever cat jumps off first LOSES. Winner gets X points.
Cat task: Place a ring of non-breakable objects (probably cat toys) around the edge of a table so that the tabletop is fully circled by objects. Place both cats, the task ends when both cats are off the table. Each cat gets a number of points equal to a multiplier of the number of objects that were knocked off the table.
Cat task: Put the same number of treats in each hand. Call both cats over for them to snack from your hands. Whichever cat finishes their treats first is the winner and gets X points.
Human task: Pick the cat that you feel the most sorry for and award them X points.
Human task: Pick the cat that currently looks the sleepiest and sit them out for the next challenge.