CATherapy

A cozy, cooperative, meta-progression game about healing mental health through the comfort of cats.

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Gameplay Details

Players: 2-4
Playtime: 30-60m
Age: 8+
Theme: Cooperative

Launch Information

Platform: Kickstarter
Status: Launching Soon

Creators

Designers Dailen Brown, Tanner Brown

Artists Katrina Conrad

Publisher Brown Brothers Boardgames

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Game Overview

Summary

Build your cat therapy office, rescue cats, match them with clients, and balance resources in this cooperative board game about mental health and cats

What makes it unique

Cooperative mental-health theme – Players work together to help clients manage anxiety, anger, depression, social struggles, and other mental health symptoms through cat therapy. Cat–Client matching system – Each cat has traits and personalities that affect how well they help different clients. Office-building gameplay – Expand your CATherapy center by constructing specialized rooms (therapy rooms, shelters, storage, waiting rooms). Resource balancing with emotional tension – Manage kibble and litter while growing your office and keeping operations sustainable. Weekly progression structure – Play unfolds across days and weeks with escalating demands from supervisors. Random events with risk mitigation – Unexpected events introduce dice-based challenges that players can mitigate by spending resources. Meta-progression campaign – The game allows you to pack up your current progress and continue the next “week” later. Adorable tactile components – Cat cards, MEOWples, Kibble and Litter trays, tokens, and room tiles create a cozy and thematic table presence.

Why it's fun

CATherapy blends cozy strategy with meaningful teamwork. Players collaborate to build a thriving therapy center while solving a shared puzzle: matching the right cats with the right clients while keeping resources from running out. The fun comes from several layers happening at once. You expand your office, rescue new cats, and watch clients’ struggles transform into happiness when a good match happens. At the same time, random events and weekly costs keep the pressure on, creating exciting moments where the team has to decide whether to play it safe or take risks. The emotional payoff is also strong. Helping clients improve, seeing your therapy office grow, and filling it with cats creates a satisfying sense of progress and community impact.

How it plays

Players cooperate to run a growing cat therapy office over the course of a week.

Players take a turn each in-game day (M-F).

On each turn, a player first chooses to rescue a cat from the streets, build a new room in the office, or gain kibble/litter to support their cats. Next the player refers clients to therapy rooms filled with cats whose personalities and traits help address their needs.

If a client is matched with cats they enjoy, their struggles improve and they leave happy. If the match is poor, the office receives negative reviews that make the end of the week harder.

Meanwhile, players must manage shared resources like kibble and litter, which are needed to care for cats, handle events, and pay weekly operating costs at the end of the week.

Random events can disrupt the office, forcing the team to spend resources or risk negative consequences.

If the weekend comes and you can't pay your costs, you lose the game. But, if you are successful, you can play another week or you can pack the game components into the campaign storage area and continue the next week later.

As weeks pass, the office expands, more clients arrive each day, and supervisor cards demand more progress. The challenge is growing fast enough to meet expectations while maintaining enough resources to keep the therapy center running.