No cat puns, let's be frank: the life-sim where you play as a cat is back. There's gardening, foraging, decorating, courting feline companions, and actually quite a lot of cat fighting.Cattails: Cattails: Wildwood Story is scheduled for release in late 2023, but a demo is available on Steam now.

I played the first Cattails game a few years ago, released in 2017 under the name Cattails alone, and was amazed that there was actually a big territory control and combat aspect in addition to all the usual cozy activities of a similar life-sim. That's back in the sequel, where you send your cat colony to a new home and put down roots there, but you'll be fighting other cat factions all over the map.

Cattails' new demo: Wildwood Story lets you play the first season of the game. You begin by designing your own custom cat with an extraordinary level of detail. You choose the official name and designation of your cat clan (clan, kingdom, syndicate, etc.) and your title (captain, king, director, director, etc.), which is probably the level of administrative specificity you should expect from a cat.

I was told to build a temple for the cat spirits instead of suddenly running around to meet a bunch of cat characters. I should be thankful that the lion does not mind being the god of my stray domestic shorthair.

I spent my first season in the woods hunting squirrels and other critters and began claiming other grid squares on the map by fighting the other AI cat clans hanging out there. There is also a survival element of keeping the hunger meter full, as well as special cat combat skills like knockback roaring.

What I enjoyed about the original "Cattails" was that I didn't mind a little tomfoolery. This is a pixel-art cat game with detailed cat portraits and cat romance, with an entire territory control and management element tacked on. This is definitely still true of the fuss-lo-dah-like cat meows, adorably drawn feline companions, and extreme character creation details that I played in the "Wildwood Story" demo.

Cat Tales Wildwood Story is participating in a large demo event at Steam Next Fest this month, but it is releasing its own demo ahead of the event, starting today.