Pretty neat. Meow. :3
Author Comments
HAPPY 1-YEAR ANNIVERSARY TO POUCHIE THE CAT GAME PRODUCTION! February 21 marks one year since I first made the project file, and with that in mind, I hope the new updates will make help add more to the game!
Welcome to Pouchie's game! He's excited to play the game and have fun. This game demo features one full level with coins to collect, enemies to squash, and a building to reach in order to end the game. All game assets are custom made as a call-back to classic platformer games, while also keeping a black and white aesthetic, which matches Pouchie's theme (pronounced P-oo-ch-ee), as he was originally inspired by the old Black and White cartoons, popularized by Fleischer Studios and that other one.
Hopefully you enjoy this small project of mine!
Find my social media here! Also feel free to donate to help support the project: https://linktr.ee/ThatElfNerd
What's new for Alpha 0.4.5:
- SAVE AND LOAD: The game now has a save and load feature where you should be able to save the game and load it from now on. No idea if the feature works for the browser version, so if it's not working, feel free to mention it in your review of the game
- OPENING CUTSCENE AND IN-BETWEEN GAME DIALOG: Pouchie now has some cutscenes with and some dialog with a new character. This character, Sasha The Rabbit will provide some context as to Pouchie's mission and motivation to clear the levels and explore the world. Not necessary to enjoy the game, and you can speed through the dialog if you just want to play the levels.
- HINT BOXES: Hint boxes have been added to some of the early levels for new players who are unfamiliar with 2D platformer mechanics. More may be added in the future.
- NPCS: NPCs have been added for cutscenes and dialog scenes. Annie The Cat, and Sasha the Bunny. Also name-drop of a future foe, Grump The Pug.
- WORLD 2: World 2 is officially available for players to explore, up to Level 4! World 2 takes place underground, making it easy for Pouchie to bump his head on cave ceilings, so watch out when jumping!
- WORLD MENUS: There is now a World Menu for saving the game, as well as allowing you to go back and forth between World 1 and 2, but only if you've unlocked.
- NEW MOBS: Added three new mobs with unique gameplay mechanics. Babas are bats that are drawn to you if you enter their bubble, but they'll stop chasing you if you run far enough away. Crys-Tortles are a creature with a hard shell that spiky crystals have grown onto. They can't be damaged, but they can fall off cliffs. Fun-Guy are sentient mushrooms that'll release spores upon death. These spores will not disappear, so be careful when setting one off!
Bugfixes:
- Fixed issue where Boomer would constantly damage Pouchie, even after death, resulting in a looped death animation.
- Fixed issue where the player's max health and starter lives didn't reset after turning off no-hit and one-life gamemodes.
Known issues:
- There was feedback in the previous builds that gameplay was "too floaty" and "too robotic." I don't know if any of my changes have resolved this issue, but we'll see.
- If Pouchie jumps into two spore patches at once, he loses two hearts instead of losing the one.
- Mobile doesn't seem to work on Newgrounds. Use itchio instead: https://thatelfnerd.itch.io/pouchie-the-cat-public-demo
This creature for a protagonist is so buttugly that it looks like a racist caricature.
Also love that you decided to add pits you can't even see in level 1, good level design!
Controls are meh.
ThatElfNerd responds:
I don't know how to tell you this, but black and white cats exist in real life.
As for the level design in Level 1, the particular place you fell at was at the coin room, which is purposely made a trick. You're supposed to be suspicious of a room full of coins, and assume that the game wouldn't just hand them to you. And I know that that's where you rage quit, since every other leap of faith jump in the game has coins that indicate the safe spot to land. Which is more than can be said for the OG Mario games, which this is inspired by.