Catly promises a photorealistic cat game, but its tech is a mystery

In what might be the most eye-catching trailer of The Game Awards, players got their first glimpse at Catly. The surprising announcement promises an open-world game staring photorealistic felines coming in 2025 on PC, Nintendo Switch, and — most surprisingly — Apple Watch. The project is being touted as “technologically innovative,” which raises some unanswered questions about how it works.

Catly was revealed at this year’s Game Awards with a short trailer. The animated clip shows some incredibly detailed felines jumping around a psychedelic world. It ends with one meeting a human, who cycles through a few outfit options before the title is revealed. It’s an attention-grabbing clip, but one containing very little information about what the game actually is.

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According to a press release, Catly is an open-world adventure game with both solo and multiplayer options. It has an emphasis on caring for cats, but also says it will include exploration and “world-crafting.” The press release claims that each cat in the game is unique and that players will have “endless” ways to customize them through both accessories and environments.

A Steam page for the game doesn’t give much more detail, with screenshots showing off some shots of cats and some environments. Even stranger is the Apple App Store page for Catlywhich shows what appears to be a Tamagotchi-like virtual pet app running on Apple Watch.

So, what’s the innovative tech powering Catly‘s lofty promises? After noticing commonalities with AI generated art in the trailer, Digital Trends followed up with the Catly team to confirm if generative AI is being used to power the game, or if it was used in the production of its debut trailer. A PR representative said that the team wouldn’t be going into further detail until 2025, and similarly declined to share what game engine Catly is being built on yet. While that doesn’t confirm or deny anything about the project, it leaves some questions open as to why Catly is being marketed as technologically innovative, how it’s able to deliver entirely unique cats to all players, and how exactly an open-world game runs on Apple Watch.

Also mysterious is its developer. The game’s App Store page lists SuperAuthenti Co. Limited as its creator. The studio has virtually no digital footprint yet, as Catly seems to be its first game. A business listing, as well as a LinkedIn page from co-founder Kevin Yeung, confirms that the studio is based out of Hong Kong. Eight months ago, Yeung posted a photo of him showing off the game to PlayStation’s Shuhei Yoshida (PlayStation is not part of Catly‘s launch platform list currently). A computer screen shows off what appears to be actual gameplay, as a pink cat wearing a helmet stands in the middle of a sunny street. That’s all we’ll likely know about the project until next year.

Catly will release in 2025 for PC, Nintendo Switch, and Apple Watch.