Gentler where it was still hard
The game's difficulty rule is "nothing hard: intermediate, fun". An audit listed a few places still over that line, and two needed a change.
- The ice rink's back corridor. The only way over an 8 unit gap under a low roof was a trick shot that drops a bridge. A grating shelf on the far wall now halves the gap, so a running jump makes it. The trick shot is still there, and still the satisfying way across.
- The vet's waiting room. Getting off the stethoscope you climb needed a well timed jump from a narrow perch. A small holder beside it turns that into two easy hops.
Two other spots on the list turned out to have been eased already.
Achievement icons
All 17 achievements now have icons, each with a greyed out locked version, built from the game's own pixel art: Mittens, Samus, the enemies, and each world's landmark from the world map. Every icon was checked for how it reads at icon size.
Fastest run and best two-cat run
The game plays itself through every stage as an automated test.
| Run | Real time at 20x | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Fastest one-cat run | 139 seconds | 28 "stuck" warnings, the fewest yet, no errors |
| Best two-cat run | 161 seconds | No errors, 2 helping hands in the whole game (11 the run before) |
There was also a second full one-cat run with no help at all. Two fixes behind these:
- Two bouncing mints. The test player only ever dodged them, but a claw swipe defeats them. It now swipes.
- The cellar's sliding sugar steps. The test player could not stand still on them to jump. Now it can.
One two-cat finding may matter for real players too: in one fight a second cat can keep the fight from moving on, so it is on the list for a two-player playtest.
Four pixels
The world map's little house had four pixels that were not quite the game's palette colours. They are fixed.
Nobody has played these changes yet. The candy shop's sugar dome climb is the thing most worth trying with two people.