CATS may soon be clawing their way to computer games.
CyberPounce, a computer game designed for cats, may be the first software catering to animals, an Associated Press report said.
Los Angeles-based game designer Matt Wolf created this software, which features running mice, a buzzing fly, flapping birds, and a bubble-blowing fish which the cat players can prey on using a keyboard and mouse.
To sustain the cat’s attention, the programmers added lots of squeaky, chirping sounds and used random movement-generating software to make the onscreen critters move randomly, mimicking the real animals in movement.
According to Wolf, who runs his own start-up software company Double Twenty Productions, some problems encountered were the unpredictability of cats’ behavior and the short attention span of the cat subjects.
Software tests on more than a hundred cats made gamers play steadily for 10 minutes as compared with other cats’ normal playing time of a minute or less. Stephen Roy O. Chua-Rojas
