Internet trends come and go, but two hot-button topics are eternal attention magnets: cats and politics.
So why not combine them? Cat's Vote, a resource management sim about feline politics, will be available on Steam next month. The demo is available now, and its full release seems perfectly timed to coincide with several global elections, particularly the US presidential election.
The game is developed by Danar Kayfi, a name you may recognise from previous PG Connects events and our coverage of the Game Zanga community. Kayfi is an independent game developer from Kurdistan, northern Iraq.
He describes Cat’s Vote as “a whimsical yet strategic resource management game where players control a feline family and navigate the unpredictable world of feline politics through democratic voting.”
Steam Next Fest is on until 21st October and features upcoming games with free demos. You can watch trailers and wishlist upcoming titles, like Cat’s Vote, on Steam now.
In Cat's Vote, players manage resources while trying to keep their feline family happy and healthy. Can you balance supplying electricity, water, food, and entertainment while prices fluctuate based on the decisions of the gatto government? You cast votes in elections, with candidates promising to lower costs and improve living conditions. Every time you trust one of them, it impacts your cost of living, and a poor choice could lead to cat chaos.
In addition to a cute hand-drawn art style, the game offers replayability in the form of multiple outcomes – your voting strategy has consequences.
Originally conceived for the 2017 Game Zanga game jam, the team revisited Cat’s Vote this year, intending to release it formally.
“The jam theme was ‘you always have a choice',” Kayfi tells us. “We decided to make a game on the current state back then: the impact of elections and the promises candidates make which affect everyone. It is still relevant today. We thought it would be funny to use a metaphor for all that in a world full of cats, and how candidates affect the price of the cats’ needs.
"We revisited the game in 2024 to develop the full version of it and release it on Steam. [It’s about] the chaos that happens in the election period (hence the US elections as an example) and how everyone tries to promote and make promises which can be a lie… and how in the end the price is always paid by normal families like you and me. And the cute family of cats.”
You can check out the demo on Steam now as part of the Steam Next Fest, and see the full release next month.
Danar Kayfi will be at Pocket Gamer Connects Jordan on 9th and 10th November. MENA is the fastest growing region in games, and PGC Jordan is a great way to discover that market.
