Cat Secretary Playtest - beta0.1 is now released!

ey everyone,

As we move into 2025, we’ve shifted our development phase from production to polish. This means the story, levels, and systems are all in-game – though they aren’t polished or at the stage where we’re willing to show off the state of the game publicly.

Our goal for the remainder of development is to do just that – evaluate, rework, and ultimately polish this game to the point that we’re ready to showcase, and eventually put it on the Steam storefront. Our goal will be to have the Cat Secretary Demo, which contains the Prologue & Act One of the game, ready by June’s NextFest, and a plan to release the full game later in the second half of 2025.

If you have any issues or suggestions, please join our Discord and let us know!

Thanks for reading!

Kerrod & the CatSec Team

Patch notes for beta0.1

Improved New Game Experience & Act One Story Updates

The highest priority for this release was to polish the New Game Experience and Act One Story, including improved cinematics, updated dialogue, and ensuring completeness in tutorials.
Several animations, props, and cinematics missed our b0.1 deadline due to pipeline issues – but there’s been a significant improvement across the board.

• All Prologue scenes have been implemented with improved blocking, cameras, and dialogue
• No Save Data' Main Menu map (Cat in Box outside Rain) & Pre-Game Scaffolding
• New cinematic sequence of Cat entering the DOX building window
• Tutorial Cards will now auto-trigger by default when Tutorials are enabled
• New Collectable Tutorial in Museum
• Redesign for 'Simple Tutorial' Push notifications (e.g. Press Q to Meow)
• Implemented a Raccoon in Trash ‘Stealth Introduction’
• Hiring Quiz UI improvements and additional questions
• Museum story and prop improvements (still some placeholder props)
• You now help Benjamin gain access to his mousehole, rather than just speak to him during the recovery of Obbo’s charging station.
• “Room Unlock” for Lobby Management Tutorial Beat
• Re-added Josiah’s Vault Password to the Floor 6 storeroom
• After dating sim, Josiah is now in the lobby looking for his destined partner

Environment & Quality of Life Improvements

As an ongoing effort, we’ll be improving the environment and QoL of the game based on internal and external feedback.

• All Floors now have higher walls for a less claustrophobic feel, more verticality opportunities
• Play Menu redesign, spearheaded by our new UI/UX Designer
• Introduced Quest Objectives into Cat Sense to help guide the player to the next objective
• Improved Level layout for Business Biome
• Obbo now has Sleep Face/VFX during Sleep State & unique Player Interactions
• Lobby environment improvements
• Fish tank will now populate with collected fish
• Ensure Doors to Josiah’s office are closed pre-Dating Sim, open post-Dating Sim.
• Implement "Free Water" Water Tank and "Box of Micro-transaction Parts" Props
• More informative prompts for props only accessible in Late Evening
• Remove/Clean up old Office Quests in Business Biome
• Decoy Ability now has a cooldown shown before disappearing
• Bot Overhead Notifiers have been reworked and improved
• Abilities now have a rudimentary cooldown to avoid spamming
• Status effects ('Chilled', 'Stunned', 'Scared') have been implemented in game, yet are awaiting assignment to certain abilities and enemy effects.
• Props through the Lobby and Business floors have been audited so they’re actually touching things and not floating in mid-air.
• The sweater prop in 'Catfish Your Boss' has a 'held' version, and a custom placement on floor if dropped by the player
• Upgrading assets in the Lobby Management will trigger an Upgrade Camera, making a clearer moment and helping the player understand where it lives in the space.

Lighting System

We’ve overhauled our lighting system this release, which we hope adds to the atmosphere and style of the overall game. This includes a new Sky Box, Light changes based on time of day, dynamic shadows, and more!

Ongoing Stability & Tech Improvements

Fixed:

• Craig triggers incorrect dialogue at end of MQ1-1 (post-OQ)
• Door Text (e.g. 'Access Lvl -2' should hide after opening door
• MouseCorp Vendor UI - Benjamin’s Thoughts persist
• Grabby Leave Location on Night 0 is still incorrect
• Dox Museum Videos: they openings of each video are being cut-off
• Interns remain and their good bye note does not spawn the day you hand in their Office Quest
• MQ0-3 starting scene throws an error you end your day with a Fax Machine task
• Museum collectible tutorial triggers on 2nd floor of museum
• Obbo unlocking the museum dialogue doesn't always trigger so museum won't unlock
• Walls not aligned on floor 6 with props along walls
• Lobby management computer Obbo dialogue not despawning, multiple instances spawning, defocusing, etc
• Allow Camera Override to stop collision when hiding in a box
• Unlocking Bathroom in Lobby Management doesn't open the room up to the Player
• Camera flip issue on start game
• If you drop charging box while caught sometimes it despawns away forever
• Morale is not increasing past Level 2
• Bots consistently freeze after player pick up
• Cats back legs freak out when picked up by grabby.
• Fade In/Out is broken with new lighting
• Numpad on fax machine doesn't work. Also need to rework instructions to make more clear
• Update WBP_DialogueUI so FaceActor logic uses Generic NPC instead of NPC Master
• MouseCorp Theme sometimes remaining after leaving vendor
• Quest Objective is not always accurate on map/Cat Sense
• Lobby Management success triggers too early on the VO
• Quest Objectives should persist in Cat Sense and Minimap even after to reach their location (persist until quest objective is complete)
• Obbo not reliably entering Sleep State
• Marketing Studio computer needs to be a BP_Computer
• Employee Computer Passwords won’t reliably auto-fill
• Investigate Cook errors when packaging
• Fix The Business Biome elevator (currently doesnt trigger when I walk inside it)
• Opening doors from the wrong side has you clip through them
• Verticality puzzle in Floor 3’s Learning Center clipping ceiling
• Textures on files prop in lobby/business biome is incorrect
• Solve Elevators clipping through walls on multiple floors
• History Of DOX Videos skip the first few seconds of play
• DOX Bots should be NPCs instead of Enemies
• Lock Player Movement during Dialogue Event ‘Camera Pan’