"the goal was to create a game that even children could enjoy without a significant investment of skill or time." "we're not going to put cheats or complexity in it, and we would like to pursue a game that can be enjoyed with only simple operations."

in an era where many mobile games are built around convincing players to spend real money and build their days around not falling behind, neko atsume is a refreshing breeze from the past where the player is encouraged to put the game down and not spend money if they're not especially eager to speed through the game. it says a lot that this is one of the only mobile games i was actually able to "complete" and didn't fill me with an overwhelming urge to immediately uninstall it within a few days after installing (sometimes within a single day, many times within the first few hours or even minutes). even if you accidentally miss seeing any cats and come back to find your food bowls empty, it's okay. you can always try again, and maybe you'll see the cats next time.