It's barely the 30th at the moment, but Happy Alphaiversary guys! Since no one has posted yet, I'll go ahead.
I've probably not been as addicted to any video game like I have been with Cattails since my first days playing Warrior Cats Untold Tales. With both games being developed by the same person, I guess it makes sense. I've probably played more of Cattails than I did with WC:UT, though I have no way to prove that right or wrong. It just feels like I've played a lot more.
I was getting ready to start a summer class in college just a few days after the alpha was launched. Because I knew that the class would take up a lot of my time, I played Cattails as much as possible for the first few days. Even after my class started, I was playing the game anytime I was not studying for an exam or doing homework. It's probably fair to say that I had 60 hours in the bank for the alpha alone.
Unfortunately, a few days before the Beta launched, the laptop I was playing on died. It was a really old computer that originally operated on Windows 7 Home, so I was unable to recover any of my game data. I got a new computer a day later, mostly since that's pretty much a necessity for college. It actually worked out well because that meant I was able to play the Beta version for the first time on my birthday (October 1st)! I'd say it was a great way to spend my birthday.
I had even more fun with the beta. I think I played from summer to spring in one sitting the first day, and by the second night I'd already gotten married and was working toward kittens. I don't know how many hours I would have had at the time, but I was definitely on the climb to 100. I also remember that the beta version was the version I played when I was first starting to host join.me livestreams. I'd post the link in the shoutbox on the WC:UT forum, and a friend of mine from there and I worked together on a story that we called Truffle's Adventures. We certainly had good times with that,and I still have Truffle's save file.
Fast forward to close to Christmas. By then, the full game (minus the Custom Colony update) was out. I had waited until then to start creating tutorial videos for Cattails. It's been a lot of fun to make all 13 of the videos that are currently out. I've been guilty of coming up with the ideas for certain ones and wanting them done in time for certain days that were a few days or less away.
More specifically, I decided that I wanted to get the Romance Guide out for Valentine's day. I thought of that idea in the evening of February 13th, the very day before the holiday. I was determined to make it, even though it meant befriending, dating, marrying, and getting kittens with someone in one night, plus recording and editing everything. I tried to think of shortcuts, but eventually I decided that I was going to start from scratch and do everything the normal way. I sat up all night,doing nothing but playing the game. I didn't even take breaks to get food or anything. I played Cattails for 12+ hours straight. It took me that long just to get everything recorded. It was 10am, and I had been playing since around 10pm. It was all worth it, though, because I got the video uploaded before Valentine's day was over with.
There was another set of videos that I wanted to get uploaded before a certain date. These were for the Forest Guardian quest. I wanted to get them all out in time for the Custom Colony update, which released on March 16th. I thought of that idea on March 13th. The situation was slightly better this time, since I had 3 days instead of 1 night. Still, I was in a hurry. I posted the quest tutorial in 6 parts, since there are 6 pillars. That means I had to do the quest and record/edit 6 videos in 3 days. It really wasn't so bad other than that, but there was one part that I spent all night editing. It got to the point where I went to school before going to bed because I stayed up so late working on it. It didn't matter too much, since I only had to sit through one class that was at 8am. Anyway, back on subject, I successfully got all the videos out in time for March 16th.
I know I dragged that out a lot, but doing that stuff with the videos is something I'll probably always remember. It was fun to see if I could do all that in a limited amount of time.
While the stuff with the videos is probably some the most memorable times with Cattails, there are still other great memories. I still remember watching all four of the dev streams, and I remember where I was and what was going on when they were live. I would say what happened in all of them, and I do remember, but my memory is fuzzy on when certain things happened in which. So, I'll just say what I remember about where I was.
I don't think I got to see much of the first one (in August) while it was live because it was my dad's birthday, but I definitely watched it later. I for sure watched the other three while they were live. I sorta got lucky getting to watch the September one live. The main reason it turned out that way was because I ended up being sick. If I wasn't sick, I would have been at my state's fair the whole time. I said I was lucky not because I wasn't feeling well enough to go with my family, but because I got to watch the stream like I really wanted to. The third one was at the tail end of October, and it was the day before my 6th anniversary on the other forum. Then, finally, the fourth one was in March, just a few days before the Custom Colony update came out. I was on spring break, spending the week in Orange Beach, Alabama.
So, from spending all my spare time in the summer, to writing stories, making YouTube videos, and watching livestreams, I'd say all of those things are my best memories with Cattails.
I did not mean for this post to be so long, but oh well. XD
