There are few things in life that can make even the most complicated day feel a little better than the sight of a cat doing absolutely nothing. Now imagine taking that simple pleasure and stretching it across history, fantasy, strange worlds and an enormous magical tower, then hiding more than 1,400 cats in every nook and cranny. That is the wonderfully daft premise of A Tower Full of Cats, a cosy hidden-object adventure from DevCats that understands exactly what its audience wants. It wants you to relax, look closely, discover something adorable and probably say “How on earth did I miss that?” several hundred times.
The concept is almost disarmingly simple. You climb the mysterious Tower of Time, moving through beautifully illustrated floors representing different eras and worlds, searching for cats hidden throughout each scene. There is no looming countdown, no complicated inventory system and no punishment for taking your time. Instead, A Tower Full of Cats creates an environment where curiosity is the reward, making it surprisingly difficult to put down once you have found those first few mischievous felines.
Welcome to the Tower of Time
The idea of travelling upwards through history is a particularly clever way to structure a hidden object game. Rather than presenting you with a disconnected collection of illustrations, the tower gives the whole experience a sense of progression. Every floor offers a new setting, a new visual style and, naturally, a new collection of cats that have somehow decided this particular moment in history would be a fantastic place to hide.
That variety helps keep the search fresh. One moment you might be exploring an ancient setting, while the next takes you somewhere medieval or into a far more fantastical interpretation of the future. The game does not need to explain every detail of its world because the environments themselves do most of the storytelling. There is always something happening in the background, whether it is a tiny visual joke tucked away in a corner or a historical reference that makes you pause for a second before returning to the much more important business of finding cats.
And yes, the cats are everywhere. More than 1,400 of them are waiting to be discovered, which sounds slightly ridiculous until you start playing and realise just how much visual space that gives the developers to work with. Some are obvious, some are cleverly camouflaged and others require you to interact with the environment before they reveal themselves.
The Joy of Looking Closely
Hidden-object games live or die by the quality of their environments, and A Tower Full of Cats gets this right. Its hand-drawn scenes are packed with little details that make simply looking around enjoyable. You are not just scanning a flat picture for something that vaguely resembles a cat. You are exploring a miniature world filled with objects, characters and visual distractions that encourage you to slow down and take everything in.
The best discoveries are the ones that make you feel slightly foolish. You can spend ages looking at a particular section of the screen before suddenly realising that the cat you have been searching for has been sitting right there all along. Perhaps it is tucked beneath some furniture, hiding inside a chest or blending into a tapestry. Those moments are simple, but they deliver exactly the little burst of satisfaction that makes this genre so addictive.
The interactive elements add another welcome layer. Clicking on objects, opening things or altering parts of the environment can reveal cats that would otherwise remain hidden. This prevents the game from becoming nothing more than an extended exercise in pixel hunting and gives you a reason to experiment with the scenery.
No Pressure, Just Cats
One of the most appealing things about A Tower Full of Cats is its commitment to relaxation. There are no timers breathing down your neck and no harsh failure conditions waiting to punish you for missing something. If a particular cat refuses to reveal itself, you can simply keep looking, zoom in, and take another pass through the scene.
That makes it an excellent choice for short sessions as well as longer stretches of play. You could spend ten minutes finding a few cats before putting it down, or settle in for an evening and attempt to clear an entire section of the tower. The game never makes you feel guilty for stopping, which is increasingly rare in a medium that often wants to keep you playing for as long as possible.
The hint system also fits beautifully into this philosophy. Being able to get help without feeling punished means the game remains accessible to players of different ages and abilities. More importantly, using a hint does not feel like failure. Sometimes you have simply looked at the same corner of a picture so many times that your brain has stopped processing what is actually there, and a little nudge is all you need.
A Tower Full of Personality
The artwork deserves particular praise for the warmth that runs through the entire presentation. The hand-drawn aesthetic gives every floor a storybook quality, while the pastel touches and expressive characters prevent the environments from feeling cold or overly static. Even when you are not actively searching for cats, there is plenty to look at.
The historical settings are especially enjoyable because the developers clearly understand that humour can come from juxtaposition. Dropping cats into different periods and worlds creates countless opportunities for visual jokes, silly poses and unexpected little details. You start to wonder whether you are actually searching for cats or simply looking for increasingly elaborate ways the developers have managed to insert cats into places where they really have no business being.
Then there are the tiny touches that make the discoveries feel rewarding. A gentle meow or purr when you finally click the right spot might sound like a small thing, but it gives each successful find a satisfying sense of completion. Combined with the peaceful music, it contributes to an atmosphere that feels closer to browsing through a beautifully illustrated storybook than to playing a traditional puzzle game.
A Soundtrack Made for Unwinding
The audio shares the visuals’ philosophy. Rather than bombarding you with dramatic music or intrusive effects, A Tower Full of Cats uses a gentle soundtrack to sustain its calm atmosphere. The music shifts as you move through different sections of the tower, giving each area its own character while keeping the overall experience soothing.
That restraint works particularly well because hidden-object games require concentration. A soundtrack that demanded too much attention would quickly become irritating, whereas the softer approach lets you focus on the artwork. The little sounds that accompany discoveries are similarly understated, providing just enough feedback to make finding another cat feel rewarding without breaking the mood.
It is the kind of game that could easily become part of a relaxing evening routine. Put your feet up, pick a floor and start searching. There is something wonderfully uncomplicated about that.
For Completionists and Casual Cats
With more than 1,400 cats to discover, A Tower Full of Cats naturally has plenty to offer anyone with a completionist streak. Finding the obvious cats is only the beginning. The special felines, hidden objects and environmental secrets encourage you to revisit scenes and look for things you might have overlooked the first time.
This is where the game strikes a nice balance between casual accessibility and long-term appeal. You do not have to find absolutely everything to enjoy it, but there is enough hidden away for those who want to achieve complete mastery. Every additional discovery feels like another little piece of the tower being uncovered.
There is also something inherently satisfying about watching your collection grow. The individual cats may not have complex abilities or elaborate stories attached to them, but their sheer variety gives the search a collecting mentality. You start wanting to find just one more before stopping, and then another, and suddenly you have been climbing the tower for considerably longer than you intended.
A Cosy Adventure That Knows Its Audience
If there is one potential weakness, it is that A Tower Full of Cats is unapologetically focused on its central concept. Players who dislike hidden-object games or need constant mechanical variety are unlikely to become converts here. The core activity remains searching for cats, and while the environments and interactive elements provide variety, the game never tries to become something it is not.
Personally, I think that confidence is admirable. There is no need for every game to include combat, elaborate progression systems or a sprawling narrative. Sometimes a game can simply be about looking carefully at a beautiful picture and finding a cat hiding behind something ridiculous. A Tower Full of Cats understands that small pleasures can be enough.
Verdict
A Tower Full of Cats is exactly the kind of game its title promises, and that is a compliment. It is warm, funny, relaxing and packed with enough adorable distractions to make the climb through the Tower of Time consistently enjoyable. The combination of hand-drawn artwork, historical settings, interactive hiding places and more than 1,400 cats gives the experience plenty of personality, while the absence of timers and pressure makes it wonderfully approachable.
The tower structure is a particularly effective touch, giving the search a genuine sense of progression. Each new floor feels like another chapter in a strange illustrated journey, and the changing environments prevent the experience from becoming visually stale. There is always another setting to explore and another group of cats waiting to make you question whether you actually have functioning eyesight.
It may not offer the depth some players expect from a traditional puzzle game, but that is not really what A Tower Full of Cats is trying to achieve. This is a game about slowing down, paying attention and enjoying the tiny moments of discovery. It is about finding something you did not notice before and getting that small, satisfying feeling of triumph.
Most importantly, it is difficult to play A Tower Full of Cats without smiling. In a medium often obsessed with saving worlds, defeating villains and becoming increasingly powerful, there is something wonderfully refreshing about a much simpler mission.
Find the cats. Climb the tower. Enjoy yourself.
