Hi! It’s CatTrigger.

It’s been a while since I’ve written a newsletter, sorry for the wait, I have so much to talk about, but haven’t had the time.

Every year I develop a short horror game and this is the most ambitious short project yet.

Here’s what I’ve been working on…

Carnivore! is a fully-animated narrative adventure game, where you play a CUTE SHEEP in a world that finds you delicious. You work at a restaurant, where the staff doubles as ingredients for entrées.

As the staff shrinks can you be one of its survivors?

Carnivore! is a Slasher Horror Comedy featuring cute cartoon animals facing a world of betrayal, selfishness, and hunger.

The game is so different from other games I’ve worked on. There is almost NO DIALOGUE in the game and a story that relies much more on environmental storytelling, animation and the occasional written prose.

Characters communicate with each other through pantomimes, symbols and scribbles. There are parts of the game where your quick-thinking and reaction time assist in your survival against multiple MURDERERS in the game.

The Sheep, our player character, is also a fully-animated… and voice-acted character, who you control throughout the game. Sam Grace (you may remember from ‘VESSELS‘) voices the Sheep!

In some ways, it’s a very CatTrigger-like Game, and in other ways, it’s nothing I’ve ever done before.

On top of that, Carnivore! is developed using an experimental type of animation-implementation in Unity.

Carnivore! is a departure from the typical way I do animation in games. For one, Carnivore! uses fully-rigged character models that were animated in ToonBoom Harmony.

TB is possibly the most prestigious 2D animation tool in the film & television industry, being that it was the program used for shows like Bob’s Burgers, Rick & Morty, and Adventure Time.

What it’s NOT well known for is videogames. While some game developers have used Toon Boom or similar animation tools for sprite animation… ToonBoom has a special beta plugin that automatically converts rigged character models to Unity Animation Clips.

This allows for optimized dynamic characters, taking up less space and eating up less resources than sprite animation… all the while maintaining fluid movement.

Traditionally, these types of animations are either done within Unity itself, or with more ‘game-oriented’ animation apps like Spine.

But TB is much more robust of an animation tool than any other, as it tries its best to be an all-in-1 tool. This includes being able to draw and produce assets within the app, a robust deformation / rigging system… and a customizable rendering system for a variety of different formats.

It’s also a tool I am comfortable with. While I do have experience in applications like Spine and also Unity’s own internal animation system… TB is a familiar program as I’ve used it so much for a lot of commercial work and some personal projects.

Challenges, Delays… etc.

However, TB isn’t without its problems. It is an enormously complex and meticulous tool. While apps like Spine have a single use-case, TB is for everything, with so many customizable options, features and pratfalls.

The truth, as I am experiencing, is that TB as a tool for games, is NOT as mature, as TB as a tool for Film & Television.

I actually had to be given a special beta of the plugin in order for it to be compatible with the newest versions of Unity by TB’s support themselves.

While the plugin works, it is buggy and inconsistent a lot of times.

Things like transparency, and certain animations are incompatible with the plugin, forcing me to try to solve these problems with my own weird workarounds.

These technical hurdles are why production had slowed for this game, and why I am delaying its release for Post-Halloween.

What Now?

There’s a variety of reasons I work on small projects every year, even if I am working on larger projects such as ‘Date Time’.

Some of it is just mental health related, I prevent burnout by doing new things, and these types of projects are new.

But also, small projects allow me to take risks that may not pay off, but because production is so much smaller than a game like ‘Date Time’, I can take those risks without as much worry.

Carnivore! is, by its nature, the most extreme example of that yet. I entered the project with a determination to do something vastly different… and it had led me down a road of problems and more problems… both technical and creative. It’s a challenge I am still dedicated to finishing, but it’s also one that I am learning hard lessons from.

For one, in future projects, ToonBoom Harmony may very well play a part in its game development… but a project completely reliant on it? Probably not.

(These cluster of nodes represents the Sheep’s rigged model. Professional Animators will notice that this is terribly simplistic for a rig.)

I’ve also found that in terms of game development, it is… by far, just easier to implement sprite animation (which is prevalent in most of my other games), to the brutal and buggy rigged character implementation that Toonboom offers.

Rigged Animation Implementation is also a stylistic choice. There is no promise that using ToonBoom will make things “look better” at all times.

‘Date Time’ would certainly not benefit from ToonBoom due to how its styled. Many other games may not either. It’s really all based on the necessity of the aesthetic, and just trying to make a small project with this program.

My primary mistake, was confusing my familiarity with the program based on my experience as a professional commercial animator… with my ability to implement it as a game developer. The bridge itself isn’t all there yet… and I am also not experienced enough to do it faster.

Also.. Carnivore! is too many new things at once.

Each year, my short games would have one or two things that I wanted to explore in them. For Melissa, it was sprite animation. For Storm the Swan, it was implementing a point ‘n’ click interaction system.

Carnivore! is attempting so many new things, a complete 180 from anything I’ve done before. So much of it is new to me, and it sometimes feels like I’m starting all over in game development.

Had I taken one or two of these things off the menu, this would’ve been a project I could’ve finished on time. But as it stands, what I am hoping for this project, has led to bottlenecks in ways that made it impossible.

I am readjusting my release date of this game, at least before Christmas… but hopefully before the end of November. 

I want this to be a game that is fun to play, and is as captivating as a CatTrigger Game can be while doing something vastly different.

This has been an incredible learning experience, and I hope to write about it once the game is out. Please stick close to my Bluesky, Mastodon or Blog posts for more information about the project and others.

What about Date Time & CatTrigger Horror Collection?

‘Date Time’ and ‘CatTrigger Horror Collection’ will resume development in full force in December. As I’ve said before, these small projects help prevent burnout from larger projects, and I’m already so excited to return to these projects and tell you more about the cool things I have in store for you on them.

Including…the inclusion of one very special man in ‘Date Time.’

Thank you again for sticking with me

I deeply appreciate the comments and messages sent to me on a weekly basis, I am still exploring myself as a game developer, and deeply appreciate the feedback I get from people in that regard. Please check out my Bluesky, Mastodon or my blog for more updates, especially since the newsletter is so periodic.

Also I made a few comics featuring my October Witch this year –
https://cattrigger.com/witchtoons-2025/

Thank you again for reading. Til’ next time!

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