Game Jams Have Officially Gone Ridiculous (and Purrfect)

Welp. That’s it. We have reached the level of internet evolution where everything is officially cats. Somebody push the panic button. We need to start over.

During the weekend of March 23, cat (and dog and other animal) food company Purina will be sponsoring an Los-Angeles based game jam through its child company Friskies. The theme? Cat games. 

“Oh,” you might be saying. “I can’t wait to play entertaining games about/including/teaching the magic of cats!”

…ABOUT THAT.

The goal of the cat game jam isn’t to give humans super cool games to play with cat heroes, or sidekicks–or even cat education games. If you take part in the Friskies game jam, you’re going to be making games for cats to play.

That’s right. Slap on that iPad screen protector, because your cat’s about to start sharing your several-hundred dollar pinnacle of technological communication to swat at some digital fish.

Obviously the goal is to be a bit more creative–innovative, even–in your application of cat games, but the jam itself really shouldn’t surprise anyone. Heck, Purina’s obviously been thinking about this for years. I personally blame Gamasutra for running a (very detailed, very serious) article called ‘Tips For Making Video Games Your Cat Wants to Play.’

What have you done, Gamasutra. If we’re inadvertently training cats to take over the world with their cute, fuzzy, murderous bodies, I’m coming after you.

There are some pretty sweet prizes to gain from participating in the competition. Third place winners take home $2,000, second place winners get $3,000, and to put the tuna on the cake, the grand prize for the Friskies game jam is a hefty $15,000. Ostensibly the award should go to something like funding your budding game development career.

Or maybe it’ll be just enough cash to replace all of the tablet devices you’ve ruined while play-testing your entry game. That’s fine too. We won’t judge.