Trained cats positioned to save the world in Cranktrain’s The Cat Machine

Cats make for trendy game characters nowadays, and there's no small array of roles they can and have assumed, from fire-wielding princess to space explorer. The felines making up The Cat Machine's cast aren't quite so…talented, but they're still heroes in their own right.

Under the direction of an academic sort named Science Cat, these cats board trains in an effort to save the planet from crashing into the Sun. Certainly an unusual premise, though the game has remained true to this quality even in its earliest form. After reaching out to Matt Luard of Cranktrain, GameZone learned that while the basic concept of guiding trains has stayed since the beginning, the exploration of this concept has morphed considerably over time. In fact, cats weren't even in the picture early on.

"When I originally had the concept, it was called 'Ghost Train Simulator,'" Luard shared, "where the player would ferry the souls of the dead."

From then to now, the game adopted a tone diametrically opposed to its original form. How did the grim lose to colour? A "little" game called Goat Simulator, a crazy idea that went on to achieve crazier success. "I felt they did the joke first, and I couldn't repeat it. And they probably did it better too!"

Drafting a new theme for the game didn't happen instantly. But it shouldn't be hard to piece together how cats came in. Where do the wackiest cat ideas and stories come from? YouTube, of course. The Cat Machine probably wouldn't be what it is now if not for this entertaining video, which Luard credits as having inspired the revised theme.

"The idea of cats just sitting on moving disks is inherently funny, at least to me," Luard said, likely with a laugh. "That's when I jumped into pursuing the whole cats-on-trains idea." He's happy to have experienced what he says "almost never happens" in game development — "when you grudgingly throw out an idea…to stumble on one that you like even better."

Because of its systematic gameplay and construction element, we were curious to learn if the making of The Cat Machine was at all inspired by Rube Goldberg, but Luard made the correction that it's actually theopposite of what Rube Goldberg machines represent. "Instead of a complex mechanism to do something simple, you've got some cats sitting on trains in order to rescue the world from certain doom."

The team believes that The Cat Machine can join other logic puzzlers like Snakebird and SpaceChem in providing a challenging experience, something Luard believes more gamers long for.

"Too many AAA games try and do 'puzzle sections' and it's really just pushing blocks about, or trial-and-error," Luard shared, implying that independent titles are better-suited to satisfy these longings. "I think gamers are ready for something a bit more challenging. The resurgence of Adventure Games in the last couple years proves this."

Luard also believes there is a place for puzzle games that give the appearance of simplicity but in actuality possess depth for creative problem-solving. And that's what The Cat Machine hopes to fill.

"There was this one playtest for The Cat Machine, where one particularly determined tester refused to give up and spent six hours figuring out the solution." Speaking on the lessons learned from the experience, he continued: "It really proved to me that a game doesn't have to pander to its players to satisfy them."

The Cat Machine is currently gathering votes on Steam Greenlight, and according to Luard, early indications of support bode well for its future. Before even having a full day's worth of presence on the service, "hundreds of people" expressed excitement for the game. "We've got over 50% positive, which is crazy," Luard said. "Most games on Greenlight tend to only get 30%."

Despite this, when asked about his personal take on the service — promotion, policies and all — Luard described it as "a mixed bag." He elaborated: "It's a black box scenario: you can't ever really know exactly what you need to get 'in'." Luard then made a great analogy that developers in a similar position can relate to: "Once you're accepted, everything's wonderful of course, but before that you tend to feel like you're standing outside a party looking over the fence, waiting for someone to give you the nod that you're allowed to join the fun."

Puzzle games can go either way on Steam Greenlight, so hopefully the "wonderful and frustrating" service will be good to The Cat Machine in its quest for expanded distribution.