Features
A Japanese Steam curator posted about an upcoming indie game this week. The post has 1.9 million views, 35,000 likes and 9,600 reposts.
The opening line, translated, was: “You can ride on the back of a giant kitty.”
The second line was: “Screw all the complicated lore and stuff, I don’t care anymore.”
That is the entire lesson, and every developer should read it twice.
What the Steam page leads with
Ylem’s Cat opens its store description like this: an action-adventure driven by the bond between a girl and her cat, in which Molly journeys across a dying planet to find her missing mother, exploring ruins and uncovering the truth buried within the giants.
It then asks a series of questions. What are the silent giants? What is the newborn giant? Why are the Sentinels hunting your cat?
None of that is bad writing. It is atmospheric, it is coherent, and it sets up a real mystery. It is also not why 1.9 million people looked at this game.
What the internet actually latched onto
- You ride the cat
- You point a laser pointer to direct it
- You fight alongside it
- The developers are cat owners, and the fur and body language show it
The curator noted something else worth quoting: overseas cat enthusiasts were already on standby, saying that if anything happens to the cat, they will find whoever is responsible.
That is not a marketing campaign. That is an audience adopting a game before release because one detail hit them directly.
The buried-hook problem
Indie Game Joe, whose posts routinely generate thousands of wishlists, named this exact failure in a recent interview: developers bury the hook. They put the most interesting thing at the end because to them it feels like a spoiler, when to a stranger it is the only reason to keep reading.
His other rule applies just as directly: describe the game, not the genre. “Action-adventure about the bond between a girl and her cat” could be dozens of games. “You ride a giant cat and steer it with a laser pointer” is exactly one.
Why the cat detail specifically worked
It is instantly visual
You do not need a paragraph. A single frame of a person on a large cat communicates the whole idea, which is what makes it survive a scroll.
The laser pointer is a joke everyone already knows
You do not have to explain why pointing a laser at a cat is funny. The audience arrives with that knowledge, so the mechanic lands with zero setup cost.
The craft is visible
The curator specifically praised the fur texture and body language, and attributed it to the team owning cats. Cat owners can tell instantly whether an animated cat moves correctly, and getting it right buys enormous goodwill from an audience that is otherwise very hard to impress.
It creates protective feeling, not just interest
People threatening consequences if the cat is harmed are not idle commenters. They are invested before release, and that is a far stronger position than curiosity.
The takeaway for developers
Your lore is probably good. Keep it. Nobody is asking you to delete the dying planet or the silent giants — those are what make the game worth finishing.
But the thing that gets someone to stop is almost never the thing you are most proud of. It is usually the small, concrete, visual detail you consider obvious.
The practical test: can a stranger repeat your pitch to a friend the next day? Nobody is repeating “an action-adventure about the truth buried within the giants.” Everybody can repeat “you ride a giant cat and steer it with a laser pointer.”
Read our full Ylem’s Cat breakdown, or see how Leaf it Alone went viral ten months after release and how How to Fish hit 340,000 concurrent players on exactly the same principle.
Frequently asked questions
What is Ylem’s Cat?
An action-adventure game where you play Molly, searching a dying planet for her missing mother alongside Mio, a giant shape-changing cat you can ride, fight alongside and direct with a laser pointer. It is coming to Steam with no date announced.
Can you really ride the cat in Ylem’s Cat?
Yes. Riding on the cat back is the detail that drove the game viral, alongside using a laser pointer to guide it.
Who is developing Ylem’s Cat?
Chinese studio Diamond Cat, who are cat owners themselves. Players have specifically praised the accuracy of the fur and body language.
Why did Ylem’s Cat go viral?
A Japanese Steam curator posted about it leading with the single line that you can ride a giant cat, explicitly setting the lore aside. The post reached 1.9 million views, 35,000 likes and 9,600 reposts.
