Meet Catly: the bizarre “AI slop” cat game that snuck into The Game Awards

This year’s Game Awards brought us some highly anticipated trailers like The Witcher 4 and Elden Ring Nightreign yet one promo in particular caused an unexpected stir – cat-based open-world adventure, Catly. With its strange AI-esque visuals and distinct shift in quality and tone compared to the other AAA releases, gamers were naturally a little confused as to how it snuck into the coveted Game Awards announcements.

While there’s no strict formula for making the best video games, Catly stood out like a sore thumb leading some fans to speculate it could be an elaborate pro-NFT/Web3 project. It shouldn’t come as a surprise, as the game’s official Steam page reeks of AI, but for now, it’s mere speculation. With unofficial evidence wracking up it seems Catly could be much more than just an innocent moggy adventure.

Catly – Official Reveal Trailer | The Game Awards 2024 – YouTube

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The short trailer received heated backlash online after many gamers called it “AI slop”. With a soulless AI-esque sheen and a hollow, frustratingly ambiguous plotline, the trailer did little to clarify what Catly actually is – other than a cat-based game available on Steam, Switch and Apple Watch (for some unbeknownst reason). The game’s official Steam page isn’t any less vague, with a strange description promising that players can “collect stories and chase memories through the eyes of both human and cat” – thanks Catly, very illuminating.

The conspiracy doesn’t stop there, as Redditor r/Nat-Chem discovered the dev has “direct ties to AI/NFT/blockchain gaming”. Posting to the r/Games subreddit, Nat-Chem explains how SuperAuthenti’s Co-Founder, Kevin Yeung previously co-founded TenthPlanet – a studio that worked on blockchain games including ‘Alien Meow’, a self-proclaimed “digital cat metaverse”. Sounds familiar right? The theory runs a lot deeper, and I’d highly suggest checking our Nat–Chem’s extensive research here.

The theories trickled down to X where gamers were suitably peeved by the whole affair, especially after the game received sponsored endorsements from popular streamers Ninja and Pokimane (who has since removed her tweet). “Catly was straight AI trash. It’s probably not even a game at all. They even went as far as paying some influencers to help hype it up. No shame,” one X user commented. “I’m extremely disappointed that this was given any advertising,” another added.

For more Game Awards news, check out the new trailer for Naughty Dog’s Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet featuring iconic logos and a delightful retrofuturistic aesthetic. If you’re a game artist, take a look at the “rookie mistake” Alien: Rogue Incursion’s art director never made again (and what we can all learn from it).