Miruna-Ioana Stanescu

“Whiskers of the Heart” is a story-driven couch coop 2D platformer developed in Unity by the team 2cpwc, as part of TheXPlace x Unity Game Jam. It explores the sad story of Simba and Bastet, 2 cats that met by fate and started a journey to the Ancient City of Cats. While traveling, they encounter a dark secret regarding one of their local deities, The Goddess of Death.

During the Game Jam, I was the Team Leader of a wonderful group of people:
– me as Producer, Game Designer, Story Writer, Voice Actress and Programmer
– Danny Bui and Florian Baheux as programmers
– Alexandru Buzgau as QA
– Laine Fleszar as audio designer
– Melody Yeo as Music Composer
– Eric Takahashi as Character Concept Artist

Game Pitch:

Game evolution:

Play our game: https://laywelin.itch.io/whiskers-of-the-heart?password=bastet
GitHub repo: https://github.com/flo-baheux/Whiskers-of-the-Heart
Game Document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/11TRbkYa8Q0jQbnqf7SFcpU585pdaTceiH65Gseczan4/edit?usp=sharing

Game story, as written by me:
The story starts with Simba, deciding to travel to the Sacred Shrine located in the ancient cat city from a distant land. That city is the place where he was born and he remembers his childhood there. Long ago, his mother decided to send him away, in the jungle forest, apparently for no reason. Now, something draws him back to the city, and he decides to travel there.
On the road he finds Bastet, a small kitten that got lost in the forest. She remembers running away from poachers, but doesn’t know where her family is or if they are still alive. Simba decides to take her with him, in hope that her family is somewhere on the way to the ancient city.
That’s how two strangers go on the road together. Over time, it becomes evident that Bastet’s family is nowhere to be found. To calm Bastet, Simba tells her stories of his childhood and how the city was back then. While sharing his stories, Simba remembers the truth: Bastet was also the name of his mother. She was a priestess at the Sacred Shrine. After a heated argument with the other sisters of the Shrine, she finds out that she is supposed to become the Goddess of Death (just how her mother was), and guide dying cats on their way to the Afterlife for 20 years. She decides that Simba, being her son, is in danger and sends him as far as possible, so he won’t have to take her burden of becoming the God of Death. Simba doesn’t share the truth with Bastet.
AFTER THE TIME SKIP
A long time has passed, and now Bastet is an adult and Simba is old. After many years, they reach the ancient city. Simba doesn’t really understand why it took so long for them to find the city, since the path was way shorter when he was a kitten. Arriving, they see that the city is abandoned. Only stone guards and magic orbs now guard the shrine. Near the shrine, a stone tablet has a list of names:
“Bastet the 1st, Bastet the 2nd and Bastet the 3rd”
That’s when Simba realizes: his mother was all wrong. It’s not him who would become a God of Death. It’s actually his adopted kitten, Bastet. Sadness rushes through him, as he now loves Bastet as his own daughter. Guilt overcomes him, as he sadly brought his daughter to death. Simba begs the shrine to sacrifice him instead. The shrine murmurs in pain, but accepts: his mother knows the pain of losing a child, and doesn’t want old Simba to go through the same anguish.
On his dying breath, Simba explains everything to Bastet and once more, while talking to her, he realizes: it was his mother the whole time! She put traps in their way, to prevent them from reaching the city. She revived them every time they died, to spare them. And lastly, she scared the citizens of the ancient city and manifested guards to protect the shrine, in order to break the cycle of Death servants. It was her all along, manifesting terrible things, just to protect Simba, her child, of an encumbering fate.
Bastet is devastated, she is once again lost, without a family. She mourns her late father, Simba. She cuddles him one more time, and fells asleep. But fate doesn’t sleep: as she wakes up, she discovers her new purpose, right in front of her eyes: a stray kitten, somehow lost in the ancient city of cats.