Developer Philipp Stollenmayer has created numerous games that sit on my personal all-time favorites list. From Sometimes You Die, to See/Saw, to Song of Bloom, and yes, even Pancake – The Game. So when we learned last month that we’d be getting a new Philipp Stollenmayer game called Kitty Q, and that it was going to be entirely free, well I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. That moment came when Kitty Q released this week and, just as I suspected, this is another winner from Philipp Stollenmayer.
Kitty Q is a cute escape room style game based on the Schrödinger’s cat thought experiment from Nobel Prize-winning physicist Erwin Schrödinger. Basically, if a cat is enclosed in a box with a deadly device that relies on randomness to trigger and kill the kitty, then there comes a point where the cat can both be alive and dead simultaneously under certain interpretations of quantum mechanics. Schrödinger’s point was that once you open the box and look inside, the cat is either alive or dead, but not both, and so at some point quantum superposition is overwritten by the reality you observe. Or something? I’m not smart.
Anyway, all this means for Kitty Q is that you’ll be solving a number of puzzles from within that very box where Schrödinger’s cat is living. A very spacious multi-room box, I should add. These puzzles are not only fun to try and figure out, but they will also teach you a number of real-life principles of quantum physics. Yes, you will learn actual science stuff while playing Kitty Q. You’ll also find tons of hidden accessories to customize your kitty with, and then you can take a selfie with kitty using your device’s camera. So don’t worry, it’s not all learning!
Like I mentioned though, despite its edu-tainment factor, Kitty Q is an enjoyable puzzler on its own, and because it’s technically a learning tool that’s why it’s completely free with no ads or IAP in sight. This is due to funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, and a collaboration between Stollenmayer and the ct.qmat Cluster of Excellence who are a “team of outstanding scientists who explore new challenges and unsolved puzzles" in a particular field. In ct.qmat’s case that means quantum physics. So stop reading me just talking about it and go play with this half-dead kitty for yourself, it’s free people!
