An early build of what became Kitten Box Parade had a big problem. We played it and couldn't find the fun.
It wasn't even kittens yet. The board had little critters, colored homes to send them to, and a three-seat bench where a critter waited if its home wasn't open. Everything worked. It just wasn't a game yet.
Why it wasn't fun
Every critter on the board could be tapped at any time. So the best move was always the same: tap them in the order the homes open. There was nothing hidden, the bench was hardly ever needed, and there was never a real choice to make.
One rule
Critters (later kittens) wait in mixed-color lines, and only the one at the front can go.
In today's game: tap one and the line steps forward, so you see who's next. If that kitten's box isn't ready, it waits on the window seat, and there are only three pillows. Run out of pillows and it's "Out of seats!", with somebody giving you sad eyes.
That changes how you play. Before every tap you're asking: if I send this one, who comes next, and do I have a pillow for them?
Testing it on one level first
We didn't rebuild the game around the idea straight away. We built one test level: nine critters in three lines, three homes, and each home locked until the one before it was full.
On paper, careful play wins using two bench seats at most. Sloppy play still wins, but fills all three. Reckless play loses, and you can see exactly which tap lost it. The test was simple: does the player start thinking about who's next? If not, the idea goes.
It passed. After playing it I could finally feel the flow of the game. Then I put a build on a phone and showed it to other people, and they liked it too. That's when it went from prototype to a real game.
That one rule is still the core of Kitten Box Parade.
Then it got repetitive
The second problem came later. About 30 levels in, the game started to feel repetitive. The puzzles themselves were good. There just wasn't a reason to finish all 100.
So the levels got a story. Six cats are settling into Whisker Cottage and getting ready for the first Kitten Box Parade. There's a keepsake for the scrapbook every 5 levels, and the parade comes after chapter 5.
New rules arrive with the cats. Cocoa joins at level 61. Pebble joins at level 81, and Pebble is big: on the window seat he takes two pillows. Each new rule gets a guided first level.
Where it is now
Kitten Box Parade 1.0 shipped on Google Play with 150 levels in 8 chapters. No timers and no lives.
The art and music were made with AI tools (Gemini and ElevenLabs), then picked and placed by us.
If you've made a puzzle game: what was the rule change that finally made it fun?
