THANK YOU!!! (PLUS: Our Story, ALL Stretch Goals Unlocked, Hosico Highlight, & More)
almost 3 years ago – Sat, Jun 05, 2021 at 01:28:52 AM

IT’S THE FINAL CATDOWN! 

With only hours left we want to thank you all for your support! We are so humbled and thankful that you have joined us on this amazing journey! We are so excited about how incredibly well this entire Kickstarter campaign has gone.

First: Did you know today is National Hug Your Cat Day? Be sure to give your kitties some extra hugs before the day ends! 

Thank you!

We’ve unlocked ALL of our Stretch Goals! THIS PAWSOME COMMUNITY IS AMAZING! It means the world to us that YOU showed up to support CATastrophe! This thing that was a mere idea 4.5 years ago is now a board game that is FULLY FUNDED, with ALL Stretch Goals unlocked, and backed by over 2,650 people!!! You helped make this happen! Thank you!

We have greatly enjoyed getting to know many of you through messages and the comments on our page. We thought it would be fun if we shared a bit more of our story with you on the last day of our wonderful campaign and allowed you a closer look into our lives and journey...

But first we wanted to share a few other things with you:

For those of you who have just joined us, don’t forget to vote for the Spooky Power Cat of your choice! If you are new to our project be sure to read Update #9 concerning the art voting...

 The Meowgician ✨

Remember our Pre-Kickstarter Giveaway? Babetta was the winner! Her cat, Norman will be illustrated as The Meowgician! This is the rough sketch of his illustration. It will be completed by Jenny Parks and will be on a Power Cat card in every copy of CATastrophe! 

Featured Power Cat Highlight: Hosico

Hosico is a brilliant, golden Scottish cat with stunning eyes. Seeing a picture of Hosico can brighten even the gloomiest of days! After his human family’s previous cat passed away, Hosico found his way to them. When he was little, he was so cute and funny that they decided to start posting photos of him on Instagram, and the world fell in love with the golden fluffball. Hosico loves to play with new toys, and has a special place in his heart for odds and ends like shoelaces and sheets of paper.

Like most cats, Hosico is passionate about boxes, bowls, and baskets that he can climb into and get cozy in. Fun fact, ‘Hosico’ translated from Japanese means ‘star child.’

You can find more about Hosico on his IG here or his FB here.

This is our Story.

CATastrophe is the brainchild of Josh Norris and is his first game design. With the help and support of his wife, Abi, they have taken Josh’s initial idea, partnered with famous cats, and have enlisted top talent and experienced board game developers to help bring this game to life. 

Josh attended the United States Merchant Marine Academy and upon graduation, he spent the better part of his 20’s as a Merchant Mariner sailing the high seas.

From Josh:

On July 4th, 2016, I was working the night shift on a ship and was struck with the idea of using cat’s 9 lives as a type of currency in a game. And thus, CATastrophe: A Game of 9 Lives was born. I grew up on a small farm in Texas and have always loved animals of all kinds, especially cats! So, this was a fun idea to run with.

I immediately started making (very rough) prototypes at home and playing them with my friends and family.

One of the highlights of our story was having the opportunity in 2018 to go visit Lil BUB and her dude, Mike and his family, and playtest the game with them! 

We decided to feature real cats in the game’s artwork because we thought it would provide a fun and unique experience for people. I realized that many of the famous cats online are special needs and I wanted to feature them as heroes within the game. Thus, the Power Cat card was created. I strongly believe that everyone has the ability to live life to the fullest and be a hero! Many of the cats featured in the game have done just that!

We imagined people playing Power Cat cards that would help them win the game and then being able to go online and interact with the same cats that were featured on those cards.

On a whim, Abi and I attended CatCon in 2017 where we ended up meeting Jenny Parks (and half of the famous cat owners whose cats are featured in the game today). 

We connected with Jenny’s meowgical style and incredible illustrations from the first moment we saw her booth. We instantly fell in love with her style of art. It was EXACTLY what I had been envisioning for the game (except 10 times better, haha). We specifically wanted to feature real-life cats in the game as heroes. And here was Jenny who was already illustrating cats personified as heroes with incredible detail and unbelievable skill. We were thrilled when Jenny committed to creating the art for the game.

Early in the project, we felt it was important that Jenny have a general idea of how the game played while creating the illustrations. We flew out to Jenny’s home in Colorado to play an early version of the prototype with Jenny and her friends. We all had a great time visiting and play-testing the game.

We knew how incredible Jenny’s art was but had no idea just how wonderful it would be to work with her on the project. Jenny’s professionalism, skill, communication, and overall wonderfulness was (and is) beyond anything we expected or could have hoped for.

To this very day, I feel that asking Jenny to illustrate the game was one of the absolute greatest decisions I’ve made for this project. Jenny’s artwork was so incredible that I knew we had to design a game with gameplay that lived up to the amazing artwork she was creating for the project! We have done everything in our power and ability to make this game the best that it can be for you. We hope you love it and Jenny’s incredible artwork! Jenny has created over 50 unique illustrations that will be featured in the game.

We also brought on another incredible artist named Jacqui Davis while Jenny underwent cancer treatments (see update #8 for more info on this). Jacqui did an amazing job on creating the box cover, game board, and main deck art, and our game would not be as amazing as it is without her incredible skill and fun illustrations.

We had originally planned to launch this game in 2018, but quickly realized after visiting GenCon, in late 2017, just HOW BIG of an undertaking it would be to create, develop, and launch a game on Kickstarter. We committed to creating the best game possible and not cutting any corners. This added a few years to our process and included hiring a lawyer to file for a Trademark and form a company as well as attending a couple more conventions and playtesting the game countless times!

Not long after COVID-19 hit, Abi and I quickly realized that my job on the ship (which included frequent travel, months of time away from home, and with the pandemic would also include extended quarantines away from each other) was no longer the best fit for us. Because of these reasons and other factors, I shifted out of my job to be home more with Abi and pursue my dream of making and publishing CATastrophe.

Abi brings a very unique skill set of creativity and marketing to the table. She has been a massive help through every step of this project including writing emails, running our convention booths (pre-COVID), building our website, running our social media, play-testing, and the list goes on and on, haha! Not to mention spending countless hours (probably hundreds at this point) listening to me talk about this game. There is no way this project would be a reality without her help and support!

The journey of creating and developing CATastrophe ended up giving birth to our publishing company, The Original Sasquatch. We are dedicated to promoting community and uniting people through play. We are passionate about making games that create an experience full of laughter, fun competition, and stunning artwork that leave people wanting to play again and again.

Thank you for reading our story. We can’t wait for you to play, CATastrophe! It has been a joy to make. We hope it brings you some much-needed comedic relief and joy after the catastrophe we have all experienced in the last year and a half.

-Josh

Thank you!!!

We want to take this moment at the very end of the campaign to put the spotlight on YOU, our incredible community! There are no words to express just how thankful we are for your support, engagement, and overall awesomeness! We feel so honored that you have joined us! We can't say THANK YOU enough for making this project a huge success!

My greatest desire for this project was to build community and create a game that you, your family, and friends would love and enjoy playing! We literally can’t wait to get this game into your hands. We hope it creates fun, joy, and excitement for you for many years to come!

We also want to thank all of the famous cats and their wonderful humans for all of their support and encouragement. Each of them went above and beyond to help make this project a HUGE success!

Abi and I are incredibly grateful to our amazing team who helped make this game come to life! We can’t express how terrific they ALL have been to work with and we truly feel that the project's success is due to all of the hard work that each of them has put into this project. Building the right team has been our key to success! Thank you: Jenny Parks, Jacqui Davis, Jason Taylor, Brieger Creative (John Brieger, Chris Solis, & John Velgus), Chris Birkhimer, Mike Belsole, Sara Perry, and Brigette Indelicato.

With Love,

-Josh & Abi

P.S. ALL STRETCH GOALS UNLOCKED

In case you're curious about all the Stretch Goals we unlocked, here they are!

✨🎉 SURPRISE 🎉✨ You've Unlocked a Surprise Stretch Goal at 110K! 😻 (PLUS: Lil BUB Highlight)
almost 3 years ago – Fri, Jun 04, 2021 at 12:18:33 AM

WOW!!! This community of backers is absolutely incredible! Thank you for showing up to support CATastrophe and bringing this pawsome game to life! We were beyond thrilled when this campaign crossed over 100K! But when we hit 2,000 backers and then 110K we knew we wanted to do something extra special and fun for our cat-tastic community! 

Surprise Art Voting!

We had originally planned for the Catahorn to be a potential Stretch Goal of its own. However, after seeing everyone get so excited about the Spooky Cat sketches we’ve decided to do something a little different. 

So many of you voiced wanting to add ALL of the Spooky Cat sketches into the game. While we can’t add them all in because of our timeline, we CAN squeeze one more in. Abi & I decided that when we hit 110K we would surprise you all with the opportunity to vote ONE MORE of these Spooky Cats (or the Catahorn) into the game! 🙀😻 We also thought it would be fun to bring back the Spooky Cat art voting so that everyone who voted for Catthulu last time would have the opportunity to vote for a different cat this time. And since we already had the Catahorn sketch completed, even though it's not a "Spooky Cat," we’ve thrown it into the running as well just to spice things up! However, we did take out Zombie Cat (...sorry Team Zombie Cat, but with only 10% of the votes in the last round, you never stood a chance... 😿) 

The winning rough sketch will be taken to color, completed by Jenny Parks, and added to every copy of CATastrophe!

Happy Voting!

We’ll be posting this to our Facebook and Instagram as well, but just like last time, ONLY the votes on our Kickstarter page will count! The power is in YOUR paws! (...no pressure 😉) Will you choose to go SPOOKY or …. with horns?

•  CLICK HERE to cast your vote in the general comments section of our Kickstarter page 

We can’t wait to see who you all choose!

Voting will end when the Kickstarter campaign ends on Friday, June 4th!

 Featured Power Cat Highlight: Lil BUB

 Our guess is that most of you know who Lil BUB is, but for those of you who don't, here is just a tiny glimpse of her incredible story...

Lil Bub remains one of the world's and internet’s most beloved and famous cats of all time. BUB was a very special and one-of-a-kind kitty! In July of 2011, she was discovered as the runt of a healthy feral litter in rural Indiana. She had difficulty being adopted until her dude Mike gave her a loving home.

Lil Bub was born with a multitude of genetic anomalies, which all added up to one of nature’s most unique creatures ever. She was a "perma-kitten," which means she remained kitten-sized and maintained kitten-like features her entire life. She also had an extreme case of dwarfism, which means her limbs were disproportionately small relative to the rest of her body. She had short, stubby legs and a long, ferret-like body. Her lower jaw was significantly shorter than her upper jaw, and her teeth never grew in which is why her tongue always hung around. Shortly after turning one year old, BUB was diagnosed with an exceptionally rare bone condition called osteopetrosis. BUB is the only cat in recorded history to have been born with this disease.

Additionally, BUB is a polydactyl cat, meaning she had extra toes, and in her case, one extra toe on all of her four paws, adding up to 22 toes (and 22 claws). Despite all of these challenges, BUB lived life to the fullest as a happy cat and overcame immense and near impossible feats and has inspired millions of people to do the same.

 Beyond her unique looks, BUB had a remarkable demeanor and attitude that is unlike any other cat. She was always full of wonder, always calm, and surprisingly comfortable and at peace in just about any situation. She loved to travel with her dude Mike and would gladly sit on his lap in cabs, subways, planes, and even on his shoulder as he walked around outside.

Lil Bub was and remains a beacon of love and generosity, and she garnered an enormous online following during her lifetime that continues today.

Beyond being overwhelmingly cute, exceptionally smart, and painfully witty, BUB was also known as a published author, a talk show host, the star of an award-winning documentary, created Lil BUB's Big FUND for the ASPCA (the first national fund for special needs pets) and has helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for animals in need (now run by BUB's dude and his family). Her merchandise and appearances raised countless dollars for charity, and research into her mutations will go on to benefit humanity and animals of the future.

BUB was and her legacy remains an advocate for homeless and special needs pets all over the universe. She encouraged the adoption of pets and helped those less fortunate. Since before she was a star, she made it a point to spread a message of positivity, acceptance, and inspiration.

Lil BUB remains a one-of-a-kind icon of kindness and resilience, a legend, and a meowgical space cat! Her memory is cherished by many. You can find out more about Lil Bub on her IG here, FB here, YouTube channel here, and her website here.

Thank you all for a wonderful campaign. Here's to the final 48 hours!!

We're so excited for these last 48 hours! Thank you so much for your incredible support throughout this entire campaign! We're so excited to get this game into production! Lastly, we updated Stretch Goals tonight! Be sure to check them out!

With Love,

-Josh & Abi

ONLY 4 DAYS LEFT! Over 1800 Backers! 🎉 (New Power Cat Unlocked, Jenny Parks Q&A)
almost 3 years ago – Thu, Jun 03, 2021 at 12:32:47 AM

WOW!!! 🙀😻🎉 We’ve had over 150 new backers join our community in the last 24 hours! 

Welcome! We’re so glad you’re here and we’re excited to have you on this journey with us! We are on the edge of our seats in anticipation of what the next 4 days will bring! The excitement is electric! Thank you for joining us on this amazing adventure and thank you for your support!

We are humbled and excited by the momentum picking up here in the last few days. This AMEOWZING community unlocked the "Still Burning" Power Cat stretch goal yesterday, TODAY you guys added a plastic organizing tray to every game, and you're well on your way to unlocking our next Stretch Goal, the Cats of CATastrophe booklet which will highlight each real-life cat featured in the game and its illustration! Let's keep this momentum going!

New Power Cat “Still Burning” Unlocked!

The extraordinary story behind the creation of this illustration is very unique and beyond inspiring. We are thrilled and honored to have the opportunity to share it with you today.

This is an incredibly personal piece to the artist, Jenny Parks. The illustration is called "Still Burning" and symbolizes the battle Jenny went through while undergoing chemo treatments and fighting cancer in 2020.

Jenny’s story: Still Burning 🔥

“I have a fire inside me that still burns.”

When I first got my cancer diagnosis, one thought pulled me out of my initial fear: I'm still here. This is a very personal piece I worked on in between chemo treatments, in those times when I had the energy. I knew it wouldn't be easy, but I was ready to fight.

The inspiration came to me after I was having a tough time with my diagnosis, and feeling very scared and uncertain about the future and how the treatments would go. One thought broke me through that, and it was "I'm still here"; that I was still alive and there was still life to live to keep fighting for.

I've loved tigers since I was a kid and since then have felt like they represent the Chinese part of me, so I chose the tiger and the flames to represent the fire still burning inside of me. It means a lot to me that so many people have liked the piece and have identified with it. -Jenny Parks

LIVE Q&A with Jenny Parks TONIGHT!

Reminder,  Abi & I will join Jenny Parks in a LIVE Q&A on the CATastrophe Facebook Page today (Monday, May 31st) at 5p PST / 7p CST / 8p EST. We met Jenny at her CatCon booth in 2017, she has been working on the art for CATastrophe since 2018. (And has done an incredibly remarkable job if we do say so ourselves!) Mark your calendars! This will be fun! We'll be collecting questions ahead of time (so, if you have any questions for Jenny or us, please submit them in the comments or during our LIVE Q&A).

Featured Power Cat Highlight: The Amazing Indie

Indie is a rescue kitty who was found behind a dumpster when he was just 5 weeks old. He is now living his best life with his humans, Josh & Abi Norris, the creators of CATastrophe. Indie is a domestic shorthair cat and is believed to have some Russian Blue in him. He was named after Indiana Jones. Indie loves being brushed, having his belly rubbed, watching the squirrels from the window, and eating! He has learned how to do tricks like, “stand up, high five, and shake.” 

His very favorite treat is coconut oil. Though, he can’t resist the opportunity to try and steal ice cream and popcorn when the opportunity arises! Fun fact, Indie’s illustration was the first Power Cat Jenny Parks illustrated for the game! You can find more about Indie HERE.

LET'S GOOOOO!!!!

We are so excited to see what the next 4 days hold! This has been such an incredible adventure so far and we are beyond thankful to have this amazing community supporting us along the way! Thank you for believing in our game and making this dream a reality! 

With Love,

Josh & Abi

The Final Countdown! (Expansion Characters, Q&A with Jenny Parks, Cole & Marmalade Highlight)
almost 3 years ago – Sun, May 30, 2021 at 04:55:43 PM

 It feels like an eternity ago that we were making last-minute updates on our Kickstarter page just before launching! Nothing could have prepared us for the electric energy felt after hitting the LAUNCH button, funding in 29 minutes, and then being part of an amazing community like this one. This CATastrophe Community is unlike anything we’ve been a part of! It has been a wild and exciting adventure! And now we only have 6 days left!

Stretch Goals Unlocked!

The synergy of this community is incredibly powerful! We just crossed 90K! 🎉 Tacocat has officially been UNLOCKED and will be added to the expansion as a playable character!

 But, Wait! There's More!

There may only be 6 days left, but we have some really exciting things planned for this week! Stretch Goals to be unlocked, new ones yet to be revealed, and fun updates on the horizon!

We are well on our way to unlocking a new Power Cat: Still Burning. We’ll share more about that in our next update. 😉

Our next three goals unlock a new Power Cat, a plastic organizing tray in every game, and (this one hasn’t been posted yet) a Cats of CATastrophe Booklet highlighting each real-life cat featured in the game and its illustration!

Let’s Take a Look at Expansion Characters!

Did you know, The Paws Out, Claws Out expansion comes with FIVE additional characters (six including Tacocat)!? We want to take a moment and highlight these pawesome new cats (and dog 🙀)!

Help Create the Tacocat Character Text

As you can see in the cards above, each character has a description, a quote, and a few fun facts. Now that Tacocat has made it into the game, we need your help to create the character card flavor text! We would love to hear your thoughts! Do you have any fun ideas for Tacocat’s description, quote, or fun facts? Please submit your ideas in our comments section HERE.

Submission Guidelines -

• Description: 2-3 sentences (around 20-25 words)
• Quote: 12 words or less
• Feel free to submit one or more ideas!

Q&A with Jenny Parks

 Abi & I will join Jenny Parks in a LIVE Q&A on the CATastrophe Facebook Page on Monday, May 31st at 5p PST / 7p CST / 8p EST. We met Jenny at her CatCon booth in 2017 and immediately fell in love with her artwork. She has been working on the art for CATastrophe since 2018. (And has done an incredibly remarkable job if we do say so ourselves!) Mark your calendars! This will be fun! We'll be collecting questions ahead of time (so if you have any questions for Jenny or us, please submit them in the comments).

Featured Power Cat Highlight: Cole & Marmalade

 After Cole was spotted alone on an intersection as a young kitten, his human parents Jess and Chris rescued him off the streets and gave him a home. Because they raised him from such a young age, he bonded very closely with them. Cole is snuggly and oh so clever, often besting his parents when they play hide and seek.

When Marmalade was suddenly without a home as a kitten, he joined the family as well, and Cole and Marmalade have been best buds ever since! Marmalade's favorite hobbies are... chasing bugs, talking to ghosts, and trying to steal food from his humans!

Cole & Marmalade can be found on social media along with Cat Man Chris and Jess and they are always up to amazingly fun shenanigans, entertainment, and inspiring messages. Together, they help people to stay pawsitive and bring joy and happiness to many. You can find more about Cole and Marmalade on their IG HERE & FB HERE.

From the Bottom of our Hearts, THANK YOU!

These past few weeks have flown by and we have been amazed by how many people have come out to support this game and contributed their thoughts through voting and comments.

At the end of the day, we just want to bring CATastrophe to as many tabletops as we can. If you have friends who you think might like a cat-themed game with really amazing art, now is a great time to share this project with them! The more we share, the more backers we bring in, the more content we can produce!

As always, THANK YOU, for joining us on this journey. We are grateful to have been given an opportunity to make a game for you, and are so incredibly thankful for your support!

To Infinity & Beyond!

-Josh & Abi
 

Attack Art Voting Winner & New Stretch Goals!
almost 3 years ago – Thu, May 27, 2021 at 12:20:12 AM

Wow! 1,600 Backers!? Thank you! 

We passed up 1,600 backers this week and are only a few hundred dollars away from hitting our next Stretch Goal at 89K to unlock Tacocat (a new expansion character)! 🎉🙌  We are so thankful to have you on this journey with us! YOUR SUPPORT is the reason why we will be able to make this game a reality and we could not be more humbled and excited!

Attack Art Voting Results are in!

And there is a CLEAR winner! VACUUMS ARE AFTER YOU! This rough sketch will now be completed by Jacqui Davis.  

Here is the voting breakdown...

•  1st: Vacuums Are After You with 165 votes. 
• 2nd: Abducted By Aliens with 104 votes
• 3rd: Attacked by a Chupacabra with 48 votes
• 4th: Yeti Mouse Attack with 10 votes

Funny enough, Vacuums received more votes than all three other voting options combined! 

We were blown away by how many of you voted. THANK YOU! It was so fun to see everyone’s votes and comments about these rough sketch options. Some of your comments would make fantastic flavor text options.  One of our favorites was from Mederick who said “Even aliens can’t resist cuddling with kittens!” 😹 We thought that was terrific and if the Abducted by Aliens art had won, we would have listed this as one of the flavor text options!

Vacuums Are After You - Flavor Text! 

Now that we have a winner, we need to come up with some fun flavor text for the "Vacuums are After You" attack card. Do you have any ideas? We’d love to hear them! Please comment with your flavor text ideas HERE. If we have multiple great ideas then we will list them in a future update and allow you all to decide which one is selected.  

For those of you who may not know,  flavor text is at the bottom of the card and adds a little more purrsonality or fun context to the card. It needs to be no more than 10-12 words in order to fit on the card properly. Here is an example from one of the other attack cards...

Looking Ahead...

Our upcoming Stretch Goals include a new Power Cat (Still Burning) and a plastic insert for the box. Exciting stuff! We love this amazing illustration by Jenny Parks!

Featured Power Cat Highlight: Maya

When Maya was little, she was found abandoned and alone in a crate outside of a restaurant. She was brought to a shelter where she stayed for over three months. Maya has a chromosomal abnormality (similar to Monty & Molly), and because of that, no one wanted to adopt her. She was set to be euthanized before The Odd Cat Sanctuary saved her life. Maya was placed with a foster, and it was during this time that her soon-to-be human parents Lauren and Harrison saw her photo. Maya’s new family fell in love with her immediately and adopted her. Maya lives a happy life with Lauren, Harrison, and her kitty sibling Dragon where they teach everyone to embrace each other’s differences through their wonderful organization AllWorthy. You can find more about Maya HERE and more about AllWorthy HERE.

Fun fact, Maya is Monty's girlfriend. And you can follow their relationship in occasional mentions on Monty's and Maya's social media accounts. 

CATastrophe Community

It's hard to put into words what it feels like to join with over 1,600 other people (and more joining everyday!) to bring this game to life. It's a surreal feeling knowing that CATastrophe will be in each of your hands soon! We can't say thank you enough for believing in our project and contributing your thoughts along the way. We love hearing what you have to say and interacting with you all in the comments and on our LIVE videos. Thank you! You are amazing! 

We hope you all have a fantastic rest of your week! 

-Josh & Abi