EPThttps://imgur.com/a/py43MlL - the view from my old office in NYC
In late 2019, at a small house party in Newport Beach, I had a conversation that completely changed the course of my life and career. I was halfway joking when I told the group about my idea: videogames for cats. But not like the half-baked tablet games that millions of cat lovers have already tried - a good game that encourages cats to interact with their humans in a new and completely novel way.
To my surprise, this small group of successful video game professionals thought my idea was worth developing. Delighted and inspired, I rushed home and told my friend and brilliant marketer, Samira Behrouzan, that I thought we had something worth working on. To my surprise again, Samira was also stoked. We got to work right away and a few short weeks later, we co-founded our new “videogame studio” and began work on Kitty Arcade.
https://imgur.com/a1atq1m - Sitting around Newport Beach in 2019, imagining new ways to play and interact with our pets
Sam managed to quickly pull together a small team of developers (who are now also close friends and business partners) to build us an alpha. A couple months after that, we made our way to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to have our first real investor meeting.
https://imgur.com/a/sjCix9k - A little jet-lagged and scruffy on our way to convince our first investors to take a bet on our small team
Almost three years later, here we are.
Kitty Arcade has been an absolute labor of love. I am supremely confident that no team in the world has spent as much time or energy on understanding why and how cats play, and then translating that to a cooperative video game that humans can take part in too. Our most exciting innovation is the creation of the world’s first “Kitty Controller”. A “smart wand toy” that lets your cat play video games like never before.
We have tried every idea there is. And the product we’re unveiling today is something I know cats and their humans will enjoy.
Today we are in a pre-release state. Our toys are only “prototypes”, and our game is best described as “in beta”, but over the course of the next several weeks, we will be hosting our first public playtests at a handful of small venues across America and collecting the last bits of consumer feedback we need before making the final push to our full launch in early 2023.
There’s still a lot of work to do. But the game is fun, our connected toy is awesome, and the pawsibilities for where we can go from here are truly endless. I am tremendously proud of our team and the work that has gone into getting us here.
Welcome to our small, but growing community. In the weeks ahead we will have many more exciting updates. For now, please engage with us on socials and in our Discord. We would love to hear from all of you, and we are so open to sharing and discussing ideas.
Thank you for reading, and stay tuned.
