Kitty Reception

About the Game:

Kitty Reception is a short horror game created during Northern Arizona University’s annual Game Jam in collaboration with Ritsumeikan University and Kansai University in Japan. It takes inspiration from titles such as Papers, Please; That’s Not My Neighbor; and Observation Duty.

The player takes the role of a front desk receptionist at a hotel where all the customers are adorable kittens. Due to the appearance of IMPOSTERS in Kitty City, the player has to be careful with who they let in. To confirm the customer is who they say they are and not an IMPOSTER, the player has to check if the customer has a valid ID and is on the list of that day’s expected customers to check-in. If the player suspects that a customer is an IMPOSTER, they can press the deny button to carry out the extermination process. 

This is a very serious and important job that should be handled with care. We don’t want any innocent kittens to be wrongfully exterminated in the process, but we also want to keep our hotel and Kitty City happy and safe from IMPOSTERS. Good luck newbie!

The theme of the Game Jam was “Kawaii vs Kowai.” The expectation of this theme was to create a game that combines the contrasting themes of “cute” and “scary.” This game follows the theme by having a cute artstyle and simple gameplay, but horrific twists and turns based on the actions the player takes. As this Game Jam took place in Japan at Ritsumeikan’s Osaka campus, we used cats as the main animal. Throughout our trip, we saw many cat-themed items like Hello Kitty merchandise and lots of cat cafes. This is why we chose cats as the animals for our game. 

About the Developers:

Jersey Masselink- Developed lobby feature; Portfolio: https://jerseym.itch.io/

Maya Harvey- Designed characters and backgrounds; Portfolio: Coming soon

Brandon Pratama Kwee- Designed item assets; Portfolio: Coming soon

Zhang Menghan - Developed CCTV feature (yet to be added); Portfolio: Coming soon