Quilts and Cats of Calico Demo Impressions

Demo code used with many thanks to Monster Couch.

During Steam Next Fest this year, gamers from all over the world will get to experience the demo for Quilts and Cats of Calico. This intricate puzzle game is quite the challenge and only for gamers who are good at keeping track of a million different things simultaneously.

How to Play Quilts and Cats of Calico

Quilts and Cats of Calico is not an easy game to learn. Despite the tiles repeating themselves each time I played, I had to go through the whole game several times to really get down what I was supposed to be doing. First, players have to choose three goal tiles. Each of these has symbols on it denoting what tiles need to surround it to get all the possible points.

For the demo, players had the choice between four different goal tiles. These are a little hard to understand, but I’ll give it a try. Here’s the example: AA-BB-C-D. This needs two tiles of the same color and/or pattern, then two tiles of the same color and/or pattern, then one tile of its own color and/or pattern, then one tile of its own color and/or pattern.

Here’s how you can get all the points for these goal tiles:

• Place down one purple tile with stripes.
• Place down one purple tile with stars.
• Place down one yellow tile with stripes.
• Place down one yellow tile with swirls.
• Place down one green tile with stars.
• Place down one blue tile with polka dots.

This way, you have two purple tiles (AA), two yellow tiles (BB), one green (C), and one blue (D). Then you would also have the same with patterns: two striped tiles (AA), two stars tiles (BB), one swirl (C), and one polka dotted (D). If you get only one of the two, you get a five-point button, but if you get both color and patterns, you get the seven-point button.

Players can also get additional points by lining up three of the same color in a row, or matching the patterns of the cats to the left of the screen. For example, having four striped tiles laid out in a row will get players the seven points from the striped cat on the top left of the screen. Players have to match both the pattern on the fabric of the quilt tile and the layout on the cat’s card.

Pretty complex, right? Players not only have to keep track of all the colors and patterns surrounding their goal tiles but also have to keep track of the patterns for the cats on the left side of the screen, AND whatever your opponent is up to.

Quilts and Cats of Calico is Super Clever

There is so much to this game, and yet it is so cute and simply laid out. Everything is very visual, and the animations are so clean and polished. I was absolutely enamoured with all the different kitties, the cute patterns on the quilts, the colors, the animations of the cats, and everything in between. It was hard to get a hold of Quilts and Cats of Calico‘s complex gameplay at first, but it was well worth the effort I had to put in to learn it all.

I played through the demo a whole bunch of times, played through the tutorial twice, and tried my hand against all of the different combinations of goal tiles and cat patterns. Quilts and Cats of Calico is well-made, beautifully rendered, colour-blind friendly, and super duper fun to play. I would recommend this demo to anyone who likes puzzle games with a lot going on and a lot to keep track of.

Not Purr-fect, But Close

Anyone who knows me knows I love cats. I love everything about them, and this comfy little game was appealing to me based on the fact that it was a cozy kitty game. But Quilts and Cats of Calico quickly made me realize that this wasn’t your everyday, average puzzler. Despite how much I loved it, I had a couple of small issues with the demo:

• After playing a piece in the very last slot on your quilt, and you cannot play any more tiles at all, the game forces you to pick a tile from the pile anyway? I’m really not sure why. It’s an incredibly annoying few extra seconds to get to the end of the game without any payoff.
• The demo plays the same tiles out of the randomized bag every time. I understand why; if the demo had all the features of the full game, why would anyone buy the full game? But I was also sad because I wanted to play a billion hours of it, and the repetition of the tile order made it less replayable.
• The demo only has four goal tiles to choose from and only three kitty patterns to try. I was hoping for a little more variety in the demo, but again, this is probably to make the full game more enticing.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I’m super excited for the full release of Quilts and Cats of Calico! I have wishlist it on Steam and will probably be joining the Discord as well. I can’t wait to play with everyone I know!

You can find the Quilts and Cats of Calico Steam page here.