This is currently a thing! Neko atsume ("cat collecting") is a cute, little-known mobile app game made in Japan that somehow got picked up by social media and has now gained popularity in the West.
In this game, you put out food, toys, cardboard boxes and beds of various colors and shapes to try to attract cats. It's similar in concept to the Tamagotchi of the 1990s. You feed them, watch them lounge at your place (you start out just by having a backyard, and then you can expand to include the living room and 2nd floor) and try to keep them happy so that they'll keep coming back. When cats visit, they leave you "fishies" that serve as the game's currency. You use fishies to buy toys, food, upgrade their boxes into awesome looking cardboard houses and stuff like that.
Also cats have personalities. There's one particularly funny one -- a fat cat called Manzoku-san (lit. "Mr. Satisfied"). Manzoku-san LOVES wet food, and if you put it out, you can expect wet food to be gone very quickly, and you'll have to keep buying wet food (using fishies). Dry food, fortunately, is free, so you can keep refilling the bowl and serves as a basic food item. The more discerning cats won't show up unless you have premium wet food out. :lol3:
Cats that like you enough will leave you gifts.
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The app is fully in Japanese, but it's quite intuitive as each menu item has a cute drawing and as you tap them you can kind of figure out what they do. Available at Google Play and iTunes.
In this game, you put out food, toys, cardboard boxes and beds of various colors and shapes to try to attract cats. It's similar in concept to the Tamagotchi of the 1990s. You feed them, watch them lounge at your place (you start out just by having a backyard, and then you can expand to include the living room and 2nd floor) and try to keep them happy so that they'll keep coming back. When cats visit, they leave you "fishies" that serve as the game's currency. You use fishies to buy toys, food, upgrade their boxes into awesome looking cardboard houses and stuff like that.
Also cats have personalities. There's one particularly funny one -- a fat cat called Manzoku-san (lit. "Mr. Satisfied"). Manzoku-san LOVES wet food, and if you put it out, you can expect wet food to be gone very quickly, and you'll have to keep buying wet food (using fishies). Dry food, fortunately, is free, so you can keep refilling the bowl and serves as a basic food item. The more discerning cats won't show up unless you have premium wet food out. :lol3:
Cats that like you enough will leave you gifts.
View media item 279148
The app is fully in Japanese, but it's quite intuitive as each menu item has a cute drawing and as you tap them you can kind of figure out what they do. Available at Google Play and iTunes.