Cat in the Box

About Cat in the Box

Cat in the Box is a horror adventure by the Korean solo maker Gustav, released on Steam in May 2020 and published by PsychoFlux Entertainment, which announced it as a game made with RPG Maker. Its store page says it plays like other RPG Maker horror games: you survey the rooms, investigate anything odd and find keys and clues.

The story begins with a girl setting out to film and upload footage of a mansion that belonged to a cult, empty since its members disappeared. Inside, she meets an unknown killer, and the door she came through now opens onto a different place. There seems to be no way out, and she has only a mysterious figure to help her.

You explore the mansion from above in dark pixel art broken by drawn close-ups of the girl's face. Things pursue you through its rooms, and some of the danger is in her nightmares, which you sometimes have to wake her from to survive. Tools and wits get you past each obstacle.

It suits players of Ib, Mad Father and The Witch's House who want another dark mansion to escape, with a modern framing: a girl with a camera who went looking for a ghost story.

How to play Cat in the Box

1. Move the girl through the mansion and examine anything suspicious.
2. Collect keys, tools and clues to open locked rooms.
3. Run from the entities that pursue you and find a safe way past them.
4. When a nightmare closes in, find the way to wake her before it is too late.

Tips

• Check every room twice: a clue or key is often in a place you already passed.
• Save often; danger can come quickly.
• Read what the cult left behind to understand where you are.

Questions