Hands On with... Schrodinger's Catgirl

    Homes contain so much more than you'd think. Memories, it's been said, clutter those four walls as much as their occupants' favourite tat. Cat hair, too. That stuff gets everywhere.

    Schrodinger's Catgirl is an upcoming visual novel that pits Leon and Lemi (members of the small investigation team L.I.T, along with resident psychic Myrtha) against the decaying Hayes mansion a few hours after a girl was mauled there.

 

    Strange lights and sounds have been reported coming from the supposedly-abandoned mansion before, but what kind of squatter leaves enormous claw marks in stone pillars and what does this have to do with the scientists that used to work here?

    Restricted to the ground floor for the demo, players will encounter more questions than answers, but Writer and Lead Developer Els White's witty dialogue never fails to keep you engaged in L.I.T's misadventures.

 

    Lemi is reckless and enthusiastic, while Leon is more cautious and susceptible to premonitions of doom. On my second playthrough, I fiddled with the kitchen sink and found Myrtha brooding in a pocket dimenion there. Not only is she great company, but she also allows players to erase specific plot beats they've encountered to alter the course of the story.

    Little could be altered in the demo, but Leon's premonitions didn't get quite as bad the second time around thanks to Myrtha's meddling, at least.
    Some other things, like the collapse of the main hall's chandelier, also varied between playthroughs, hinting at the "infinite possibilities" the developers promise your investigation can take on, depending on the evidence and conclusions you draw.

    Gameplay in Schrodinger's Catgirl will be familiar to fans of any classic point-and-click game -- peep in every nook and cranny for clues as you move between connected environments -- but it also offers something unique.

    As you inspect the mansion, you start to gather clues about the case that fill an inventory. Drag one clue to another to draw conclusions between them (if they're related). Seemingly made with the mouse in mind, it was tricky navigating the clues using the trackpad, but hopefully Spider Lily Studios will be able to tweak this before release.

 

    Another mechanic sure to be crucial in the final game is time travel. Just snap a picture in the right rooms (just the study for the demo) and be transported into a version of it from the past. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to allow for you to open doors in the past so you can slip through in the present as much as gather some evidence before it was ravaged by time.

    Homes contain so much more than you'd think. People, their possessions and, their memories, granted, but also their secrets. See what L.I.T can uncover in the Hayes mansion when Schrodinger Catgirl launches.

 

Stats

• Playtime - 20 minutes (DEMO)
• Genre - Visual novel; Adventure game
• Developer - Spider Lily Studios
• Publisher - Spider Lily Studios
• Platforms - Steam
• Release - 2023 (Tentative)
• In 5 words - Is she alive, or dead?

Set to feature music from harmonicblend and art from Shan Horan, Sasha Ines and Maxi Molina, Schrodinger's Catgirl raised £15,301 on Kickstarter in September and will release in 2023.