Catnip Arcade: Cat Mini Games
Four small cat games for iPhone and iPad, and a tabby who wears every badge you win. Free, no ads, no account.
Links go to the official store or developer page. Last verified Nov 8, 2026.
Where to play
Every platform this game is on. Links are checked against official sources; we never host or mirror games.
- View on the App StoreApp StoreReleasedFree-to-Play
Install from Apple's App Store on an iPhone or iPad.
Mobile · Apple App Store (seller: Ken Laws)
About Catnip Arcade: Cat Mini Games
Catnip Arcade is a collection of four small cat games for iPhone and iPad. In Herding Kittens you guide hungry kittens down a corridor to the food bowl with a laser dot or a pinch of catnip and throw a blanket over distractions, against a goal time, with a daily room that is the same for everyone. In Kitty Jump, which is in 3D, Space Cat climbs a tower of boxes: drag down to charge, let go and ride the arc to the golden goal box; the store page says it descends from Woggle, the developer's earlier box-climbing game. In Balloon Pop a colour is called and you tap the matching balloon, with each colour also wearing its own shape; Emergency Stress Relief! is the same balloons with no rules and no losing. Every badge you win, 32 in all, goes on the sash of a tabby you can pet, and she shows off her medals to a fanfare made from your badges in the order you earned them; the purrs are the developer's own cats. There are Game Center leaderboards, iCloud sync and a week strip that never breaks a streak. The developer, Ken Laws, who has been programming for 40 years and making iPhone games since 2011, says Claude Code wrote nearly all of the code (Swift, Metal shaders and RealityKit 3D) while the developer directed, made the design calls, playtested and approved each change. Free with optional CatCoin packs; every game plays fully without them. No ads, no account, and the store lists Data Not Collected.
How it was built
Partially verifiedIn a post on r/ClaudeCode (19 Oct 2026, UTC) the developer writes that “Claude wrote nearly all of the code (Swift, Metal shaders, the RealityKit 3D) and is co-author on 1,208 of the repo's 1,224 commits since late June, on Opus and Fable models. I directed, made the design calls, playtested and approved each change.” The setup: a project CLAUDE.md and a DECISIONS.md recording every settled call, including rejected ideas; every chat in its own git worktree with its own simulator; XcodeBuildMCP to drive the simulator and Apple's Xcode MCP tools for string catalogs; skills written for translation checks, App Store releases and verifying motion; a “project manager” skill that queues decisions on a web page the developer answers from a phone; and a Mac Studio running unattended test jobs over SSH. The developer notes that Claude cannot watch video or hear audio, so visual work is not called fixed until the developer has looked, and that a test wrapper now checks the test count (about 1,600) and a screenshot harness fails any cut-off text.
- DeveloperOfficial site: “Made by one person with AI tools; nothing AI runs in the game.” — Ken Laws
A native iPhone and iPad app built solo in Swift on a custom Metal engine, with RealityKit for the 3D Kitty Jump; development ran from late June 2026 to the App Store release on 14 Oct 2026, with Claude Code co-authoring 1,208 of 1,224 commits per the developer. Translations were checked with custom skills; the store and site list nine languages. The purring sounds are recordings of the developer's cats. Per the official site, no AI runs in the game.
- Engine / framework
- Custom (Metal and RealityKit)
- Languages
- Swift
- Team size
- 1 (solo)Developer ReportedKen Laws
- Initial build time
- Late June 2026 to release on 14 Oct 2026Developer ReportedReddit (u/KenOfEarth)
- Development time
- Not disclosed
- Development cost
- Not disclosed
- AI-written code
- Not disclosed
“Here Claude wrote nearly all of the code (Swift, Metal shaders, the RealityKit 3D)”Verification notes: AI use, the commit counts and the workflow from the developer's post on r/ClaudeCode by u/KenOfEarth (19 Oct 2026, 19:25 UTC), read from the Arctic Shift Reddit archive on 8 Nov 2026; the post links the App Store page and had no replies beyond the subreddit bot. The commit figures (1,208 of 1,224) are the developer's and were not checked; no code share is recorded because the developer says “nearly all” of the code. Store facts from Apple's lookup data (US store, 8 Nov 2026): seller Ken Laws, developer name Design Engine L.A., released 14 Oct 2026 (07:00 UTC), version 1.0.1 of 26 Oct 2026, free, category Casual, rated 4+ (infrequent/mild contests), iOS 26 or later, about 101 MB, languages EN, FR, DE, JA, KO, PT, ZH (twice), ES; 5 out of 5 from 4 ratings (observed; there is no App Store rating metric, so it is not recorded as one). The official site, catniparcade.com (the store's seller URL), names Ken Laws, says the game was made by one person with AI tools and nothing AI runs in the game, and is published in nine languages. The developer's location is not stated. Woggle, the earlier game, is named on the store page and is not part of this record. The app was not checked for AI service calls. The game was not played.
Development history
Released free on the App Store for iPhone and iPad.
The developer writes on r/ClaudeCode that Claude Code wrote nearly all of the code and co-authored 1,208 of 1,224 commits.
DeveloperReddit (u/KenOfEarth)Version 1.0.1 is released.
Game performance
Each figure measures something different — concurrent players, owners, downloads and sales are never interchangeable and are never added together. Labels show where each number comes from.
App Store (iOS)
Free on iPhone and iPad (iOS 26 or later), with optional CatCoin packs for consumable treats and toys; every game is fully playable without them. No ads, no account; the store lists Data Not Collected.
Not publicly available: Gross revenue.
Reviews & rankings
Not yet reviewed by our editors.
Not currently ranked.
Sources
| Source | Type | Published | Accessed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 40 years of programming, and Claude Code wrote nearly all of my new iPhone game. What I learned directing it (r/ClaudeCode) Reddit (u/KenOfEarth) | Social post | Oct 19, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Catnip Arcade: Cat Mini Games (App Store) Apple App Store (seller: Ken Laws) | Store page | Oct 14, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Catnip Arcade Ken Laws | Official site | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
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