Name: Oh-Botheration
Job: I'd LOOOVE to be a Writer
Examples of your work: I'm currently writing a book… not sure if that counts. Plz ask if you need more.
Why you want to join: Because I've been wanting to work on a video game story ever since I realized they could be really great (thx LoZ)
Previous experience: I worked on a couple collabs on my alt. acc: @thegamer2005 I've watched BOATLOADS of YT videos from accomplished writers on writing theory for my book tho.
Timezone: Eastern US
Other: Doing yikes homeworkssss

Oh-Botheration wrote:

Name: Oh-Botheration
Job: I'd LOOOVE to be a Writer
Examples of your work: I'm currently writing a book… not sure if that counts. Plz ask if you need more.
Why you want to join: Because I've been wanting to work on a video game story ever since I realized they could be really great (thx LoZ)
Previous experience: I worked on a couple collabs on my alt. acc: @thegamer2005 I've watched BOATLOADS of YT videos from accomplished writers on writing theory for my book tho.
Timezone: Eastern US
Other: Doing yikes homeworkssss

ACCEPTED! Congratulations on your all-new job! Please ask TheDreamyProfessor for the most recently updated storyline.

Oh-Botheration wrote:

Name: Oh-Botheration
Job: I'd LOOOVE to be a Writer
Examples of your work: I'm currently writing a book… not sure if that counts. Plz ask if you need more.
Why you want to join: Because I've been wanting to work on a video game story ever since I realized they could be really great (thx LoZ)
Previous experience: I worked on a couple collabs on my alt. acc: @thegamer2005 I've watched BOATLOADS of YT videos from accomplished writers on writing theory for my book tho.
Timezone: Eastern US
Other: Doing yikes homeworkssss

Ayy congrats on being accepted! Here is the current storyline! Please copy and edit when you need to. Then paste it here when you are ready!
Looking forward to your storyline! ^_^

you can copy and paste the text below! wrote:

Second edit by TheDreamyProfessor:
Please only use for Cat’s Great Escape.
2020 MLZ Studios.

Cat backstory: Fluffy is a retired cat fighter. He also works for a top-secret cat agency. In his early years, he fought against dogs, mice and even some competitive cats. One day, he was taken by an adoption shelter. Fluffy was then adopted and now lives with another cat, Snowy. But Fluffy was still a fighter cat. Whenever his owner let him outside for long periods of time, he would scatter the woods for any cats who were taking up territory and fight them. However, one day Fluffy got too engaged in his fight, and ended up lost in the woods. Eventually, the owners found Fluffy, but the owners kept him inside until an urgent mission from the cat agency needed him to do a secret task.
(Backstory is displayed to the player in pixel text form).
It is morning and Fluffy (the protagonist) wakes up.

Display text: 9:45 AM Owners House. (idea to have an alarm clock on the top of the screen to notify players of the time. A minute in-game might be equal to 1 second or 3 seconds in real life)
(Animation) Fluffy gets up and jumps down from the couch. Snowy runs through the door (preferably a small one) and talks to Fluffy.
(Displays text in a visual novel like fashion), preferably with a small version of the character beside the text box and the characters name on top of the text box.

Snowy: Fluffy! Fluffy! I have something to tell you!
MC: Huh? Snowy? What’s wrong?
Snowy: Fluffy! The cats have sent me to notify you about an underground dog clan!
MC: Really? So? It’s just a dog clan. What's so special about this one? To be honest, it's probably one that's really weak. They probably would always end up losing after anything we do with them.
Snowy: Well, then you're wrong, since they're plotting revenge against us, due to our rising fame online!
MC: Really? Revenge for that? Okay then, but what kind of revenge?
Snowy: Hmm, the cats haven't told me anything about that, but they say you need to come quick!
MC: But Snowy, I can't leave the house!
Snowy: You'll just have to, trust me! They also reported that some cats have gone missing, and are suspicious about this dog clan!
MC: Then fine, if it's really important, and some cats need help, I must go.
Yeah! That's what the cats hoped of, they knew you were a fierce fighter!
MC: If this is for the future of cats, I'm ready to do anything, even I need to make some sacrifices.
Snowy: Definitely! Now I have business to attend. Also, I have something for you. Keep this handy in case anything goes wrong.

(Animation) Snowy hands over a communications device called the “Meower” to Fluffy.
The dialog then appears saying:

You have received the Meower! This is a communications device to contact Snowy or other cats in the Cat Agency. It also works vice-versa! Press “C” or tap the icon on the bottom left to call.

The hotbar/inventory should fill up with a small version of the Meower device.
Plans for Meower device:
If the player calls using this device without anything going wrong, there will be a pause of 3 seconds and dialogue will appear, saying that nothing is wrong and the player should continue the platformer. Dialogue should be in visual novel style. However, there will be no small version of the character speaking, and the character name will be filled with a “???”.
If the player calls using this device with something actually going wrong, a text box will appear immediately, telling you to go to some location immediately. There will be arrows on-screen pointing to the emergency and also an invisible timer. If the player doesn’t get there on time, the game will restart to the most recent checkpoint. There will also be a notification in the inbox, but no prompt to click in it except for a “ping” sfx when the emergency starts and a icon on top of the inbox like this:


MC: Thanks! See you later.

The dialog closes and goes to a platformer area. Ground textures is a wood floor, with a table, couch, window, door, and a hole in the wall. It will fit a modern design. Screenshots coming soon.

The difficulty will not be challenging and will be more of a tutorial level. Traps will be:
- Mousetraps (Snaps on player. Player is prompted and taught how to do a claw attack to shake it off (maybe something like this)


After the first time, the Player will constantly lose 1 health per second and will continue until player shakes it off.

Ideas in the works

The goal will be to find the right path. This area will be similar to Henry Stickmin, where you can choose where to go and what to do, however, this will be mostly platforming (i.e. Player goes into wall hole but gets stuck, or player goes through door but gets caught by the owners walking in with groceries). If a complication occurs, (i.e. The owner catches them) The level will restart. “Ideas” will help the player find the right path (i.e. Crayons, Cat toys, etc.). There will not be checkpoints, or items to collect (other than “ideas”). The amount of “ideas” collected will help the player get through, and is also needed to finish this level. Silhouettes of these “ideas” will be in the Heads-up display, and once these are collected, they will fill the silhouettes to signify they have been collected.

Once the tutorial ends, the player is prompted with:

Congrats! You have finished the tutorial section of this first stage. As a reward, here is a map, it will help you find your way.

This map will basically be a hub world in which the player may select what level to go to, and help to find the cats. Of course, in usual platformer fashion, when progressing levels will unlock. The map also serves as a way of finding areas in levels. Certain levels, however, will not have access to the map, to make it more challenging.

Once this is over, the player is on the map. The player will select the first stage available, which is titled “Scavenging Evidence.” Plans for this level:
Might just be a regular platformer without any RPG style fight scenes. However there will be things to collect called “evidence” which is optional. However, when collected, the agency would make more progress, and thus, the game will progress faster, with less emergency fights, and more happy cutscenes.
Difficulty: A bit harder than the tutorial level
Dangers:
There are no mousetraps, and instead of that, there are cat traps which decreases -3 health. For artists reference:
There will be another tutorial that tells you to press “C” to wriggle out of the trap. (I don’t know how these traps work so….)

After finishing Secrets in the bushes, the player will unlock Stage 2: “World of Trouble”, However, when the player enters the stage, the Meower will ring. MC will answer it.
The call dialog is as follows:

Fluffy: Hello? This is-
Snowy: MC!! Help, HELP!
MC: What is it, what's wrong?
Snowy: The dog clan is trying to capture me, I see traps everywh- AAHHH
???: Now that'll teach a cat!
MC: Snowy? Snowy? Hello, Snowy?
The mysterious person hangs up the phone.

The dialog closes, and MC rushes back to the house.
MC sees 2 dogs from the dog clan holding Snowy.

Snowy: Nooo!
Dog 1 crushes Snowy's Meower.
Dog 1: You're coming with me. Hey you, put him in with the rest of ‘em
Dog 2: Yes, sir
Fluffy: What do you think you’re doing?!
Dog 1: Well well well, look who's here, tryin' to save his little brother Heh heh heh heh!
Fluffy: Augh!!

Fluffy proceeds to fight with Dog 1, triggering an RPG-like fight sequence. (Something like the fight sequence in Undertale.)
If Fluffy loses, a cutscene with Snowy in Dog 1's and Dog 2's car, driving away, and a game over screen will happen. The player will have an option to return to the title screen, and save the game with a save code, or continue. Continuing will restart the fight.
If Fluffy wins, Dog 2 will drag Dog 1 into their vehicle, and attempt to drive away. Fluffy will get attempt to get the cats out of the vehicle with the dogs, but fails and only manages to grab Snowy, which Dog 1 and Dog 2 leaves with the rest of the cats.

Fluffy, grabbing Snowy: Ahh! Nooo, don't leave with the rest of them!
Dog 1: I'll see you cats later when I capture Snowy!
Snowy: Whew, that was a fight! Thanks for saving me, Fluffy.
Fluffy: No problem!

Fluffy receives a call on the Meower:

“Hello, this is Marie speaking, from the Cat Agency. Our cats are reporting that several cats have gone missing. Fluffy, you need to get to that dog clan. Soon enough, we may all end up trapped. We have received some information from our spy cats. On your Meower press the Mail icon, and you'll receive a document on what our cats have found.”

It then prompts the player to check their mail. The document attached reads:

“Spy Cats team report #1. 12/23/20

CONFIDENTIAL DOCUMENTS. DO NOT DISCLOSE TO OTHERS OUTSIDE OF THE CATS AGENCY. Suspicious posterboard found in Dog clan lair. Posterboard seems like a plan to capture the cat agency. The rest of the cat agency has been notified of this. Searching for more information. Will make next report on Christmas.”
Enclosed in the message is a photo of the “suspicious posterboard”, which will be in pixel art form (NOT an real photo).
The photo will be used in the future, and the player can check the message to see the posterboard again if they need to.

After finishing this level, the player will proceed to the next level by pressing on the map icon. The next stage will be called “Entering Dog Territory.” This level will be a lot more difficult than “Scavenging Evidence” but not too hard. There will be a series of easy RPG fights.
Dangers include:
Dog traps. Continuously decreases -5 health until the player presses “C” to wriggle out of the trap. However, this time, it will be much harder to wriggle out.
Cat traps. They work the same as the cat traps in “Scavenging Evidence”.
The RPG fights will be very easy and the characters to fight are:
Small dogs
Hedgehogs (no offence to @zedthehedgehog)
Big rats
The goal for this level is:
To collect small pieces of “evidence”, but this time, collecting all the evidence is required.
Perks for this level:
The map is gone until you finish the level.
In the middle of the game, you will receive a call.
Fluffy: Hello! Hello? Who is this?
Bruce: Hello, this is Bruce from the cat agency speaking. Our spy cat team has requested that Snowy stay in our headquarters for a few days, since they reported that some dogs have been secretly spying on you and Snowy, and it would be unsafe for her to follow you on this mission. However, I’m sure you can still hold up. Meanwhile, please stay alert. Goodbye.
*hangs up with a beep sfx*
After this call, there will be an animation of Snowy running back to the cat agency headquarters. Snowy should have been following the player before that animation.
There will also be some puzzles and codes lying around, and the player might need to use some of the information in the posterboard to access some pathways. Some pathways are locked until the player proceeds to the next level, finds new evidence and comes back to “Entering Dog Territory” to unlock special cutscenes, boss fights, and possible stray cats.
If there is a coin system in the future, the player will collect coins as they go. Each coin equals 1 dollar in game currency. However, I do not want to have too much coins in the gameplay- that would only make it very easy, and as the coins are going in the right path, the player would easily know where to go. No, I want the coins to be situated everywhere randomly, and not just leading the pathway for the player.
Another perk I plan to have for this level is that there will also be humans walking on the street. To make the coding more easier, I plan to only make the moves randomly, and not scripted. The humans will pick Fluffy up and take him to their house if the player touches them. If that happens, a cutscene will play, showing Fluffy aboard a car with a man/woman driving. The gender of the driver depends on the gender of the person who picked Fluffy up in-game. The humans will appear a few seconds after the running animation for Snowy plays. Of course, there will not be many humans walking around, only one in 10 seconds.
Backdrop for this level: a dirty street.
Ground texture: dirty stone tiles.
Playing time: 4-5 minutes.
The next level is going to be called: Dog Encounter.
As the title suggests, Fluffy is going to encounter a dog; probably one that is quite strong.
Fluffy sets off in the platformer; looks easy enough. They have gotten enough material to return to the cat agency’s second headquarters.
The below text is displayed to the player:
“You have left dog territory. Goal: get to the second headquarters of the Cat Agency. Snowy is away, resting in the main headquarters. You will find all the evidence collected in your inventory.”
It then prompts the player to check their inventory, from which the can get the details of the objects they picked up in the last few levels.
After closing the inventory, the game will allow the player to move around the platformer.
Ideas for inventory:
You can dispose of objects you don’t need, and a smaller version of it will hover slightly above the ground. However, you are unable to dispose of the Meower, or the map.
You can get info for every object. There should be an info button; a short, informative passage is shown.
You can also craft items and weapons if you went to the 2nd Meower headquarters. There, you will receive a crafting table.

TheDreamyProfessor wrote:

Oh-Botheration wrote:

Name: Oh-Botheration
Job: I'd LOOOVE to be a Writer
Examples of your work: I'm currently writing a book… not sure if that counts. Plz ask if you need more.
Why you want to join: Because I've been wanting to work on a video game story ever since I realized they could be really great (thx LoZ)
Previous experience: I worked on a couple collabs on my alt. acc: @thegamer2005 I've watched BOATLOADS of YT videos from accomplished writers on writing theory for my book tho.
Timezone: Eastern US
Other: Doing yikes homeworkssss

Ayy congrats on being accepted! Here is the current storyline! Please copy and edit when you need to. Then paste it here when you are ready!
Looking forward to your storyline! ^_^

you can copy and paste the text below! wrote:

Second edit by TheDreamyProfessor:
Please only use for Cat’s Great Escape.
2020 MLZ Studios.

Cat backstory: Fluffy is a retired cat fighter. He also works for a top-secret cat agency. In his early years, he fought against dogs, mice and even some competitive cats. One day, he was taken by an adoption shelter. Fluffy was then adopted and now lives with another cat, Snowy. But Fluffy was still a fighter cat. Whenever his owner let him outside for long periods of time, he would scatter the woods for any cats who were taking up territory and fight them. However, one day Fluffy got too engaged in his fight, and ended up lost in the woods. Eventually, the owners found Fluffy, but the owners kept him inside until an urgent mission from the cat agency needed him to do a secret task.
(Backstory is displayed to the player in pixel text form).
It is morning and Fluffy (the protagonist) wakes up.

Display text: 9:45 AM Owners House. (idea to have an alarm clock on the top of the screen to notify players of the time. A minute in-game might be equal to 1 second or 3 seconds in real life)
(Animation) Fluffy gets up and jumps down from the couch. Snowy runs through the door (preferably a small one) and talks to Fluffy.
(Displays text in a visual novel like fashion), preferably with a small version of the character beside the text box and the characters name on top of the text box.

Snowy: Fluffy! Fluffy! I have something to tell you!
MC: Huh? Snowy? What’s wrong?
Snowy: Fluffy! The cats have sent me to notify you about an underground dog clan!
MC: Really? So? It’s just a dog clan. What's so special about this one? To be honest, it's probably one that's really weak. They probably would always end up losing after anything we do with them.
Snowy: Well, then you're wrong, since they're plotting revenge against us, due to our rising fame online!
MC: Really? Revenge for that? Okay then, but what kind of revenge?
Snowy: Hmm, the cats haven't told me anything about that, but they say you need to come quick!
MC: But Snowy, I can't leave the house!
Snowy: You'll just have to, trust me! They also reported that some cats have gone missing, and are suspicious about this dog clan!
MC: Then fine, if it's really important, and some cats need help, I must go.
Yeah! That's what the cats hoped of, they knew you were a fierce fighter!
MC: If this is for the future of cats, I'm ready to do anything, even I need to make some sacrifices.
Snowy: Definitely! Now I have business to attend. Also, I have something for you. Keep this handy in case anything goes wrong.

(Animation) Snowy hands over a communications device called the “Meower” to Fluffy.
The dialog then appears saying:

You have received the Meower! This is a communications device to contact Snowy or other cats in the Cat Agency. It also works vice-versa! Press “C” or tap the icon on the bottom left to call.

The hotbar/inventory should fill up with a small version of the Meower device.
Plans for Meower device:
If the player calls using this device without anything going wrong, there will be a pause of 3 seconds and dialogue will appear, saying that nothing is wrong and the player should continue the platformer. Dialogue should be in visual novel style. However, there will be no small version of the character speaking, and the character name will be filled with a “???”.
If the player calls using this device with something actually going wrong, a text box will appear immediately, telling you to go to some location immediately. There will be arrows on-screen pointing to the emergency and also an invisible timer. If the player doesn’t get there on time, the game will restart to the most recent checkpoint. There will also be a notification in the inbox, but no prompt to click in it except for a “ping” sfx when the emergency starts and a icon on top of the inbox like this:


MC: Thanks! See you later.

The dialog closes and goes to a platformer area. Ground textures is a wood floor, with a table, couch, window, door, and a hole in the wall. It will fit a modern design. Screenshots coming soon.

The difficulty will not be challenging and will be more of a tutorial level. Traps will be:
- Mousetraps (Snaps on player. Player is prompted and taught how to do a claw attack to shake it off (maybe something like this)


After the first time, the Player will constantly lose 1 health per second and will continue until player shakes it off.

Ideas in the works

The goal will be to find the right path. This area will be similar to Henry Stickmin, where you can choose where to go and what to do, however, this will be mostly platforming (i.e. Player goes into wall hole but gets stuck, or player goes through door but gets caught by the owners walking in with groceries). If a complication occurs, (i.e. The owner catches them) The level will restart. “Ideas” will help the player find the right path (i.e. Crayons, Cat toys, etc.). There will not be checkpoints, or items to collect (other than “ideas”). The amount of “ideas” collected will help the player get through, and is also needed to finish this level. Silhouettes of these “ideas” will be in the Heads-up display, and once these are collected, they will fill the silhouettes to signify they have been collected.

Once the tutorial ends, the player is prompted with:

Congrats! You have finished the tutorial section of this first stage. As a reward, here is a map, it will help you find your way.

This map will basically be a hub world in which the player may select what level to go to, and help to find the cats. Of course, in usual platformer fashion, when progressing levels will unlock. The map also serves as a way of finding areas in levels. Certain levels, however, will not have access to the map, to make it more challenging.

Once this is over, the player is on the map. The player will select the first stage available, which is titled “Scavenging Evidence.” Plans for this level:
Might just be a regular platformer without any RPG style fight scenes. However there will be things to collect called “evidence” which is optional. However, when collected, the agency would make more progress, and thus, the game will progress faster, with less emergency fights, and more happy cutscenes.
Difficulty: A bit harder than the tutorial level
Dangers:
There are no mousetraps, and instead of that, there are cat traps which decreases -3 health. For artists reference:
There will be another tutorial that tells you to press “C” to wriggle out of the trap. (I don’t know how these traps work so….)

After finishing Secrets in the bushes, the player will unlock Stage 2: “World of Trouble”, However, when the player enters the stage, the Meower will ring. MC will answer it.
The call dialog is as follows:

Fluffy: Hello? This is-
Snowy: MC!! Help, HELP!
MC: What is it, what's wrong?
Snowy: The dog clan is trying to capture me, I see traps everywh- AAHHH
???: Now that'll teach a cat!
MC: Snowy? Snowy? Hello, Snowy?
The mysterious person hangs up the phone.

The dialog closes, and MC rushes back to the house.
MC sees 2 dogs from the dog clan holding Snowy.

Snowy: Nooo!
Dog 1 crushes Snowy's Meower.
Dog 1: You're coming with me. Hey you, put him in with the rest of ‘em
Dog 2: Yes, sir
Fluffy: What do you think you’re doing?!
Dog 1: Well well well, look who's here, tryin' to save his little brother Heh heh heh heh!
Fluffy: Augh!!

Fluffy proceeds to fight with Dog 1, triggering an RPG-like fight sequence. (Something like the fight sequence in Undertale.)
If Fluffy loses, a cutscene with Snowy in Dog 1's and Dog 2's car, driving away, and a game over screen will happen. The player will have an option to return to the title screen, and save the game with a save code, or continue. Continuing will restart the fight.
If Fluffy wins, Dog 2 will drag Dog 1 into their vehicle, and attempt to drive away. Fluffy will get attempt to get the cats out of the vehicle with the dogs, but fails and only manages to grab Snowy, which Dog 1 and Dog 2 leaves with the rest of the cats.

Fluffy, grabbing Snowy: Ahh! Nooo, don't leave with the rest of them!
Dog 1: I'll see you cats later when I capture Snowy!
Snowy: Whew, that was a fight! Thanks for saving me, Fluffy.
Fluffy: No problem!

Fluffy receives a call on the Meower:

“Hello, this is Marie speaking, from the Cat Agency. Our cats are reporting that several cats have gone missing. Fluffy, you need to get to that dog clan. Soon enough, we may all end up trapped. We have received some information from our spy cats. On your Meower press the Mail icon, and you'll receive a document on what our cats have found.”

It then prompts the player to check their mail. The document attached reads:

“Spy Cats team report #1. 12/23/20

CONFIDENTIAL DOCUMENTS. DO NOT DISCLOSE TO OTHERS OUTSIDE OF THE CATS AGENCY. Suspicious posterboard found in Dog clan lair. Posterboard seems like a plan to capture the cat agency. The rest of the cat agency has been notified of this. Searching for more information. Will make next report on Christmas.”
Enclosed in the message is a photo of the “suspicious posterboard”, which will be in pixel art form (NOT an real photo).
The photo will be used in the future, and the player can check the message to see the posterboard again if they need to.

After finishing this level, the player will proceed to the next level by pressing on the map icon. The next stage will be called “Entering Dog Territory.” This level will be a lot more difficult than “Scavenging Evidence” but not too hard. There will be a series of easy RPG fights.
Dangers include:
Dog traps. Continuously decreases -5 health until the player presses “C” to wriggle out of the trap. However, this time, it will be much harder to wriggle out.
Cat traps. They work the same as the cat traps in “Scavenging Evidence”.
The RPG fights will be very easy and the characters to fight are:
Small dogs
Hedgehogs (no offence to @zedthehedgehog)
Big rats
The goal for this level is:
To collect small pieces of “evidence”, but this time, collecting all the evidence is required.
Perks for this level:
The map is gone until you finish the level.
In the middle of the game, you will receive a call.
Fluffy: Hello! Hello? Who is this?
Bruce: Hello, this is Bruce from the cat agency speaking. Our spy cat team has requested that Snowy stay in our headquarters for a few days, since they reported that some dogs have been secretly spying on you and Snowy, and it would be unsafe for her to follow you on this mission. However, I’m sure you can still hold up. Meanwhile, please stay alert. Goodbye.
*hangs up with a beep sfx*
After this call, there will be an animation of Snowy running back to the cat agency headquarters. Snowy should have been following the player before that animation.
There will also be some puzzles and codes lying around, and the player might need to use some of the information in the posterboard to access some pathways. Some pathways are locked until the player proceeds to the next level, finds new evidence and comes back to “Entering Dog Territory” to unlock special cutscenes, boss fights, and possible stray cats.
If there is a coin system in the future, the player will collect coins as they go. Each coin equals 1 dollar in game currency. However, I do not want to have too much coins in the gameplay- that would only make it very easy, and as the coins are going in the right path, the player would easily know where to go. No, I want the coins to be situated everywhere randomly, and not just leading the pathway for the player.
Another perk I plan to have for this level is that there will also be humans walking on the street. To make the coding more easier, I plan to only make the moves randomly, and not scripted. The humans will pick Fluffy up and take him to their house if the player touches them. If that happens, a cutscene will play, showing Fluffy aboard a car with a man/woman driving. The gender of the driver depends on the gender of the person who picked Fluffy up in-game. The humans will appear a few seconds after the running animation for Snowy plays. Of course, there will not be many humans walking around, only one in 10 seconds.
Backdrop for this level: a dirty street.
Ground texture: dirty stone tiles.
Playing time: 4-5 minutes.
The next level is going to be called: Dog Encounter.
As the title suggests, Fluffy is going to encounter a dog; probably one that is quite strong.
Fluffy sets off in the platformer; looks easy enough. They have gotten enough material to return to the cat agency’s second headquarters.
The below text is displayed to the player:
“You have left dog territory. Goal: get to the second headquarters of the Cat Agency. Snowy is away, resting in the main headquarters. You will find all the evidence collected in your inventory.”
It then prompts the player to check their inventory, from which the can get the details of the objects they picked up in the last few levels.
After closing the inventory, the game will allow the player to move around the platformer.
Ideas for inventory:
You can dispose of objects you don’t need, and a smaller version of it will hover slightly above the ground. However, you are unable to dispose of the Meower, or the map.
You can get info for every object. There should be an info button; a short, informative passage is shown.
You can also craft items and weapons if you went to the 2nd Meower headquarters. There, you will receive a crafting table.

You use the word “Meower” a bunch of times in that! Does it link to that social media platform you are doing?

TwoGamer1000 wrote:

TheDreamyProfessor wrote:

Oh-Botheration wrote:

Hippity hoppity, snippity snoppity

Shop snop snip

You use the word “Meower” a bunch of times in that! Does it link to that social media platform you are doing?

Nope! It’s a kind of device to call the cat agency in-game. I guess Zed might have stolen ideas from the social media platform too…

TheDreamyProfessor wrote:

TwoGamer1000 wrote:

TheDreamyProfessor wrote:

Oh-Botheration wrote:

Hippity hoppity, snippity snoppity

Shop snop snip

You use the word “Meower” a bunch of times in that! Does it link to that social media platform you are doing?

Nope! It’s a kind of device to call the cat agency in-game. I guess Zed might have stolen ideas from the social media platform too…

Ok. I got that.

TheDreamyProfessor wrote:

TwoGamer1000 wrote:

TheDreamyProfessor wrote:

Oh-Botheration wrote:

Hippity hoppity, snippity snoppity

Shop snop snip

You use the word “Meower” a bunch of times in that! Does it link to that social media platform you are doing?

Nope! It’s a kind of device to call the cat agency in-game. I guess Zed might have stolen ideas from the social media platform too…

It's a hidden easter egg/reference ;)

I also work on Meower and was the person who gave name ideas because ScratchConnect (Original name) was taken, and Meower was the one silvxrcat chose, so technically I'm not stealing if I named it.

meower is sm platform?

TANGNEO000 wrote:

meower is sm platform?

Meower
It's not really that, but at the same time it is.

zedthehedgehog wrote:

TheDreamyProfessor wrote:

TwoGamer1000 wrote:

TheDreamyProfessor wrote:

Oh-Botheration wrote:

Hippity hoppity, snippity snoppity

Shop snop snip

You use the word “Meower” a bunch of times in that! Does it link to that social media platform you are doing?

Nope! It’s a kind of device to call the cat agency in-game. I guess Zed might have stolen ideas from the social media platform too…

It's a hidden easter egg/reference ;)

I also work on Meower and was the person who gave name ideas because ScratchConnect (Original name) was taken, and Meower was the one silvxrcat chose, so technically I'm not stealing if I named it.

Ok.

I’m bumping this

Job: Developer/Writer/Pixel Artist/Music/SFX (sound effects/music) I can do all of those but with music or SFX I will be getting those off the web because I am not a great sound artist!
Examples of your work: Window Cleaner was front paged!
Why you want to join: I'm excited to do my first collab!
Previous experience: I've made some art featured in my games and animations or @Lazerzap6688 games and animations.
Following forum: Yes
Timezone: GMT
Other: I'm good at creating games and levels. Dave and Yancy went to the stadium to cheer on the Harvard players.

UnaGames2019 wrote:

Job: Developer/Writer/Pixel Artist/Music/SFX (sound effects/music) I can do all of those but with music or SFX I will be getting those off the web because I am not a great sound artist!
Examples of your work: Window Cleaner was front paged!
Why you want to join: I'm excited to do my first collab!
Previous experience: I've made some art featured in my games and animations or @Lazerzap6688 games and animations.
Following forum: Yes
Timezone: GMT
Other: I'm good at creating games and levels.
Codeword is *bleep bleep no codeword*

Hello! Thank you for your application; I had nothing else to do. We are honoured for you to choose Cats Great Escape as your first ever collaboration!
Anyway, I think you are all fit for entering! Window Cleaner is an amazing project.
Before you get too excited, please edit your post so the code word is hidden! The code word is sitting right there and anyone can use it without reading the description.
Here is the storyline, by the way!

Second edit by TheDreamyProfessor:
Please only use for Cat’s Great Escape.
2020 MLZ Studios.

Cat backstory: Fluffy is a retired cat fighter. He also works for a top-secret cat agency. In his early years, he fought against dogs, mice and even some competitive cats. One day, he was taken by an adoption shelter. Fluffy was then adopted and now lives with another cat, Snowy. But Fluffy was still a fighter cat. Whenever his owner let him outside for long periods of time, he would scatter the woods for any cats who were taking up territory and fight them. However, one day Fluffy got too engaged in his fight, and ended up lost in the woods. Eventually, the owners found Fluffy, but the owners kept him inside until an urgent mission from the cat agency needed him to do a secret task.
(Backstory is displayed to the player in pixel text form).
It is morning and Fluffy (the protagonist) wakes up.

Display text: 9:45 AM Owners House. (idea to have an alarm clock on the top of the screen to notify players of the time. A minute in-game might be equal to 1 second or 3 seconds in real life)
(Animation) Fluffy gets up and jumps down from the couch. Snowy runs through the door (preferably a small one) and talks to Fluffy.
(Displays text in a visual novel like fashion), preferably with a small version of the character beside the text box and the characters name on top of the text box.

Snowy: Fluffy! Fluffy! I have something to tell you!
MC: Huh? Snowy? What’s wrong?
Snowy: Fluffy! The cats have sent me to notify you about an underground dog clan!
MC: Really? So? It’s just a dog clan. What's so special about this one? To be honest, it's probably one that's really weak. They probably would always end up losing after anything we do with them.
Snowy: Well, then you're wrong, since they're plotting revenge against us, due to our rising fame online!
MC: Really? Revenge for that? Okay then, but what kind of revenge?
Snowy: Hmm, the cats haven't told me anything about that, but they say you need to come quick!
MC: But Snowy, I can't leave the house!
Snowy: You'll just have to, trust me! They also reported that some cats have gone missing, and are suspicious about this dog clan!
MC: Then fine, if it's really important, and some cats need help, I must go.
Yeah! That's what the cats hoped of, they knew you were a fierce fighter!
MC: If this is for the future of cats, I'm ready to do anything, even I need to make some sacrifices.
Snowy: Definitely! Now I have business to attend. Also, I have something for you. Keep this handy in case anything goes wrong.

(Animation) Snowy hands over a communications device called the “Meower” to Fluffy.
The dialog then appears saying:

You have received the Meower! This is a communications device to contact Snowy or other cats in the Cat Agency. It also works vice-versa! Press “C” or tap the icon on the bottom left to call.

The hotbar/inventory should fill up with a small version of the Meower device.
Plans for Meower device:
If the player calls using this device without anything going wrong, there will be a pause of 3 seconds and dialogue will appear, saying that nothing is wrong and the player should continue the platformer. Dialogue should be in visual novel style. However, there will be no small version of the character speaking, and the character name will be filled with a “???”.
If the player calls using this device with something actually going wrong, a text box will appear immediately, telling you to go to some location immediately. There will be arrows on-screen pointing to the emergency and also an invisible timer. If the player doesn’t get there on time, the game will restart to the most recent checkpoint. There will also be a notification in the inbox, but no prompt to click in it except for a “ping” sfx when the emergency starts and a icon on top of the inbox like this:


MC: Thanks! See you later.

The dialog closes and goes to a platformer area. Ground textures is a wood floor, with a table, couch, window, door, and a hole in the wall. It will fit a modern design. Screenshots coming soon.

The difficulty will not be challenging and will be more of a tutorial level. Traps will be:
- Mousetraps (Snaps on player. Player is prompted and taught how to do a claw attack to shake it off (maybe something like this)


After the first time, the Player will constantly lose 1 health per second and will continue until player shakes it off.

Ideas in the works

The goal will be to find the right path. This area will be similar to Henry Stickmin, where you can choose where to go and what to do, however, this will be mostly platforming (i.e. Player goes into wall hole but gets stuck, or player goes through door but gets caught by the owners walking in with groceries). If a complication occurs, (i.e. The owner catches them) The level will restart. “Ideas” will help the player find the right path (i.e. Crayons, Cat toys, etc.). There will not be checkpoints, or items to collect (other than “ideas”). The amount of “ideas” collected will help the player get through, and is also needed to finish this level. Silhouettes of these “ideas” will be in the Heads-up display, and once these are collected, they will fill the silhouettes to signify they have been collected.

Once the tutorial ends, the player is prompted with:

Congrats! You have finished the tutorial section of this first stage. As a reward, here is a map, it will help you find your way.

This map will basically be a hub world in which the player may select what level to go to, and help to find the cats. Of course, in usual platformer fashion, when progressing levels will unlock. The map also serves as a way of finding areas in levels. Certain levels, however, will not have access to the map, to make it more challenging.

Once this is over, the player is on the map. The player will select the first stage available, which is titled “Scavenging Evidence.” Plans for this level:
Might just be a regular platformer without any RPG style fight scenes. However there will be things to collect called “evidence” which is optional. However, when collected, the agency would make more progress, and thus, the game will progress faster, with less emergency fights, and more happy cutscenes.
Difficulty: A bit harder than the tutorial level
Dangers:
There are no mousetraps, and instead of that, there are cat traps which decreases -3 health. For artists reference:
There will be another tutorial that tells you to press “C” to wriggle out of the trap. (I don’t know how these traps work so….)

After finishing Secrets in the bushes, the player will unlock Stage 2: “World of Trouble”, However, when the player enters the stage, the Meower will ring. MC will answer it.
The call dialog is as follows:

Fluffy: Hello? This is-
Snowy: MC!! Help, HELP!
MC: What is it, what's wrong?
Snowy: The dog clan is trying to capture me, I see traps everywh- AAHHH
???: Now that'll teach a cat!
MC: Snowy? Snowy? Hello, Snowy?
The mysterious person hangs up the phone.

The dialog closes, and MC rushes back to the house.
MC sees 2 dogs from the dog clan holding Snowy.

Snowy: Nooo!
Dog 1 crushes Snowy's Meower.
Dog 1: You're coming with me. Hey you, put him in with the rest of ‘em
Dog 2: Yes, sir
Fluffy: What do you think you’re doing?!
Dog 1: Well well well, look who's here, tryin' to save his little brother Heh heh heh heh!
Fluffy: Augh!!

Fluffy proceeds to fight with Dog 1, triggering an RPG-like fight sequence. (Something like the fight sequence in Undertale.)
If Fluffy loses, a cutscene with Snowy in Dog 1's and Dog 2's car, driving away, and a game over screen will happen. The player will have an option to return to the title screen, and save the game with a save code, or continue. Continuing will restart the fight.
If Fluffy wins, Dog 2 will drag Dog 1 into their vehicle, and attempt to drive away. Fluffy will get attempt to get the cats out of the vehicle with the dogs, but fails and only manages to grab Snowy, which Dog 1 and Dog 2 leaves with the rest of the cats.

Fluffy, grabbing Snowy: Ahh! Nooo, don't leave with the rest of them!
Dog 1: I'll see you cats later when I capture Snowy!
Snowy: Whew, that was a fight! Thanks for saving me, Fluffy.
Fluffy: No problem!

Fluffy receives a call on the Meower:

“Hello, this is Marie speaking, from the Cat Agency. Our cats are reporting that several cats have gone missing. Fluffy, you need to get to that dog clan. Soon enough, we may all end up trapped. We have received some information from our spy cats. On your Meower press the Mail icon, and you'll receive a document on what our cats have found.”

It then prompts the player to check their mail. The document attached reads:

“Spy Cats team report #1. 12/23/20

CONFIDENTIAL DOCUMENTS. DO NOT DISCLOSE TO OTHERS OUTSIDE OF THE CATS AGENCY. Suspicious posterboard found in Dog clan lair. Posterboard seems like a plan to capture the cat agency. The rest of the cat agency has been notified of this. Searching for more information. Will make next report on Christmas.”
Enclosed in the message is a photo of the “suspicious posterboard”, which will be in pixel art form (NOT an real photo).
The photo will be used in the future, and the player can check the message to see the posterboard again if they need to.

After finishing this level, the player will proceed to the next level by pressing on the map icon. The next stage will be called “Entering Dog Territory.” This level will be a lot more difficult than “Scavenging Evidence” but not too hard. There will be a series of easy RPG fights.
Dangers include:
Dog traps. Continuously decreases -5 health until the player presses “C” to wriggle out of the trap. However, this time, it will be much harder to wriggle out.
Cat traps. They work the same as the cat traps in “Scavenging Evidence”.
The RPG fights will be very easy and the characters to fight are:
Small dogs
Hedgehogs (no offence to @zedthehedgehog)
Big rats
The goal for this level is:
To collect small pieces of “evidence”, but this time, collecting all the evidence is required.
Perks for this level:
The map is gone until you finish the level.
In the middle of the game, you will receive a call.
Fluffy: Hello! Hello? Who is this?
Bruce: Hello, this is Bruce from the cat agency speaking. Our spy cat team has requested that Snowy stay in our headquarters for a few days, since they reported that some dogs have been secretly spying on you and Snowy, and it would be unsafe for her to follow you on this mission. However, I’m sure you can still hold up. Meanwhile, please stay alert. Goodbye.
*hangs up with a beep sfx*
After this call, there will be an animation of Snowy running back to the cat agency headquarters. Snowy should have been following the player before that animation.
There will also be some puzzles and codes lying around, and the player might need to use some of the information in the posterboard to access some pathways. Some pathways are locked until the player proceeds to the next level, finds new evidence and comes back to “Entering Dog Territory” to unlock special cutscenes, boss fights, and possible stray cats.
If there is a coin system in the future, the player will collect coins as they go. Each coin equals 1 dollar in game currency. However, I do not want to have too much coins in the gameplay- that would only make it very easy, and as the coins are going in the right path, the player would easily know where to go. No, I want the coins to be situated everywhere randomly, and not just leading the pathway for the player.
Another perk I plan to have for this level is that there will also be humans walking on the street. To make the coding more easier, I plan to only make the moves randomly, and not scripted. The humans will pick Fluffy up and take him to their house if the player touches them. If that happens, a cutscene will play, showing Fluffy aboard a car with a man/woman driving. The gender of the driver depends on the gender of the person who picked Fluffy up in-game. The humans will appear a few seconds after the running animation for Snowy plays. Of course, there will not be many humans walking around, only one in 10 seconds.
Backdrop for this level: a dirty street.
Ground texture: dirty stone tiles.
Playing time: 4-5 minutes.
The next level is going to be called: Dog Encounter.
As the title suggests, Fluffy is going to encounter a dog; probably one that is quite strong.
Fluffy sets off in the platformer; looks easy enough. They have gotten enough material to return to the cat agency’s second headquarters.
The below text is displayed to the player:
“You have left dog territory. Goal: get to the second headquarters of the Cat Agency. Snowy is away, resting in the main headquarters. You will find all the evidence collected in your inventory.”
It then prompts the player to check their inventory, from which the can get the details of the objects they picked up in the last few levels.
After closing the inventory, the game will allow the player to move around the platformer.
Ideas for inventory:
You can dispose of objects you don’t need, and a smaller version of it will hover slightly above the ground. However, you are unable to dispose of the Meower, or the map.
You can get info for every object. There should be an info button; a short, informative passage is shown.
You can also craft items and weapons if you went to the 2nd Meower headquarters. There, you will receive a crafting table.

Thank you for reading! Enjoy your job here at Cats Great Escape!

Deleted

Bump

Can I get a summary of the story, pls.

basically, most of the storyline consists of ideas and not stories, but ill give you a summary.
Act 1. Fluffy escapes house in a platformer after dialogue with Snowy about the dogs. After the dialogue, Snowy gives Fluffy the Meower, which he will later use. After the first stage, the player will be handed a map, which is used to choose levels.
Act 2. There are three more levels. Scavenging Evidence, the first one, is a quick, short platformer. There are pieces of “evidence” laying around the level. Collecting them is optional. “A World of Trouble”, the second, is a half platformer half rpg. Snowy gets captured by the dog clan along with other cats. If Fluffy wins the fight against the dogs, he saves Snowy but not the other cats. If he loses, There will be a cutscene of fluffy, snowy and other cats in the back of a large van. Then, the game will reset to the most recent checkpoint. There will be a call on the Meower saying a few cats have gone missing.
“Entering Dog Territory” is harder than “Scavenging Evidence”. It will have a series of easy rpg fights. There are also coins along the way. Snowy leaves in the middle of the game.
“Dog Encounter” is going to feature a strong dog. The goal is to get to the second Cat Agency headquarters. Once there, you will be gifted with a crafting table.
Even a summary is hard to write lol.

Bump

Bump

Anyone know why @qrcool removed herself? Should I invite her back or something? (From the studio)