A new Discord friend got in contact with Gator Company (AKA Gator Box) to stream CatSacks for the first time on Twitch this past Friday!

Since 2012 Gator Company has been streaming fun tidbits, like unboxing mystery Hot Wheels cars secured in a secret storage location for 14 years (!), in addition to playing indie and hidden gem video games. Gator Box and Ness’s streams are candid and entertaining with a community of wonderful … Gators? Boxers? Boxer Gators? Will need to learn what we are called now because I also signed up to Twitch (had an account years ago but have no idea what it was anymore) to be part of the fun and learn from the interaction.

There were polls, bottle-tab points and lots of laughs during the almost 2 hour stream. I was a little nervous with how the game would be received and reviewed this first time, but glad that it would be candid – how else can I make CatSacks (and future games) better without honest feedback? Trust me, even your most unbiased friend wont catch everything during your “friends and family” rollout tests, having a streamer like Gator Box go through it live is an ideal opportunity.

So what did they find that should be changed/updated?

1. Right off the bat, the switch from the main “start a new game” to the “load” screen was mistaken for a GUI/color changer.
   • I had hoped to keep all controls completely “Ikea” style with just pictures to keep the language barrier to start low, however, it should be more clear that the “purple” screen is where your saved games will be stored.
2. Gator played completely zoomed in almost the entire time. That meant that when he found a cat, the magnifier might not be in the center.
   • SpongeCC and I had originally debated on having the “find magnifier” animation rooted to the overlay but then thought it was fun to have it “on the playing field” so to speak. I think we need both now.
3. He wanted to revisit a clue when he found a cat accidentally.
   • This is a known – the clue screens cannot be clicked on again if you’ve found a cat, originally to help make it clear that you have found them. Definitely should change this back to allowing.
4. He assumed that not being able to get the edge of the screen more centered was a bug.
   • We had hoped that the challenge of not being able to center the screen on some harder finds would be fun…and clear that it was part of the difficulty – might have to nix that and allow the camera to go past the edges.
5. One of the cats is behind something that must be slid/dragged. He only clicked.
   • Again, this might be because I chose to not have the “how to play” page open right when the game starts – which I had in initial test builds.
   • The Gator community had a great suggestion as a visual hint to help – I will add some “drag marks” to the ground underneath those objects to help!

What else did I learn?

I think the two biggest future experience takeaways are:

1. My idea to have a Co-Op option in the future will be a TON of fun.
   • Even if the Kickstarter isn’t fully funded (hoping so and working towards that, but also know it isn’t a guarantee) I plan to try to make this happen!
2. Music is critical to an experience.
   • The first board has peppy music – which mostly stayed in the mental background, which was good. The second board has a great rendition of the Meatball song (On Top of Old Smokey) but after awhile…it might be a little too chill. Someone even commented that it might put them to sleep!