This new trend is BREAKING Steam

[@2leftthumbs]

Did you find all 10 hidden thumb logos?! (No, the logo in my steam account pic doesn't count!!) William and Sly franchise 🦊 store.steampowered.com/search/?franchise=William%20and%20Sly Matt Roszak's Hidden Cats & Dogs 🐱 store.steampowered.com/app/2624670/Hidden_Cats__Dogs/

[@Monokumathebear]

epic!!

[@evandrofilipe1526]

I only found like two, they must be really well hidden

[@AtmaDragoon]

I...did _not_ find all of them, I'm afraid; got too absorbed in processing the subject material. :B Almost got a 50%, though -- 4/10 logos found.

[@drock1331]

I found 3

[@recentmap7268]

If you can't beat them, join them. Time to create 100 hidden fox game. Using William and Sly image as base 🦊🦊🦊

[@rat_the_animal]

Devcats' proceeds go to supporting cat adoption and rescue so if you're paying for a hidden cat games I heavily recommend buying the paid releases by that studio in particular.

[@ancientGnome]

I can recommend Devcat’s games as well. They are some of the better ones, while still remaining cheap. Somewhat frustrating for me, though, since I tend to stall out whenever 1-2 cats remain on a screen. The "FIND ALL:" series mentioned in the video is also decent and changes things up with every release. I’d recommend 2 and 3 over 1 and 4, personally. Some of the other games are straight up rubbish. No effort, copy-paste distilled boredom. One Dollar for a game is actually not cheap if you only get 5-10 minutes of content out of it. It’s a good thing you can ask Steam to refund the worst offenders.

[@fearsomefawkes6724]

I was going to recommend An Arcade Full of Cats. So much fun and not just shovelware.

[@kzgames3023]

Came here to say this.

[@Varangian_af_Scaniae]

Proof for that??? "trust me bro" or what?

[@Speed001]

Not saying that's a bad thing. But where are these cats coming from? We already have areas overpopulated by cats and dogs. Are these animals spayed/neutered to help prevent that? What's their business model, who is handling the funds?

[@lyndsaybrown8471]

Why does anyone need a hidden cat game? Just go outside. They're there. They're hiding.

[@Azaelris]

true

[@widdlepocketmarcy]

XD

[@cosmicspacething3474]

I like how ominous this sounds

[@pizzaguy_]

T H E Y ' R E H I D I N G. T H E Y ' R E W A T C H I N G.

[@ericonion3561]

They scratch me tho

[@MattRoszak]

When I started working on my game I didn't realise how many there were - I'm gonna change the name to Matt's Hidden Cats soon. I was only familiar with Hidden Through Time and Hidden Folks! I gotta say though, it is pretty satisfying to play these micro games and get all the achievements in 5 minutes.

[@2leftthumbs]

Heya Matt! I like the rebrand! It rolls off the tongue well :3 I remember Hidden Through Time. That game was great! I can definitely see the inspiration now that you say it. But I think you've kept it very much your own :) Looking at it now, I wonder if Hidden Folks inspired the black & white Anatoliy's 100 hidden cats? And absolutely! It's like a slot machine that keeps paying out every 5 seconds. Hard to resist!

[@MattRoszak]

@@2leftthumbs Hidden Through Time got quite a lot of comments accusing the game of being a ripoff of Hidden Folks, which I found quite funny because they're all obviously ripoffs of Where's Wally, and aren't so similar anyway. If only people knew about the ripoff-ing that was still to come!

[@Terrivian_Vess]

@@MattRoszak I heard about your game through the recent EBF4 10th anniversary update, and look forward to it! I've really liked the other spin off games you guys have, and know you'll make it a unique experience.

[@fiddlestickjones]

I didn't think you would be here, been playing your games for years on flash, you have definitely made some great games, you haven't seen a dime from me though, because I'm broke, but I wish you luck on whatever project you do next

[@CosPlaywright]

The man, the myth, the legend. The Newgrounds Era's favorite Polish weeb.

[@nano_0z22]

I heavily appreciate the good words about Matt Roszak's games, especially as a long time fan of his. Either way, this does seem kind of like an epidemic and definitely should be made known, especially by bigger channels.

[@hugh2861]

Hello, fellow NoLegs avatar. And yeah lol, first thing I thought when i saw this trend happening was "oh no, Matt is making one of these", so glad his was pointed out in this vid as an example of a good one.

[@Glaemo]

I audibly went 'WTF?!' when I saw CatBox at 7:08. This is almost a direct copy of "Cats Organized Neatly" by DU&I

[@MattRoszak]

I noticed that too!

[@usernametaken017]

​@@MattRoszakarent you the battle fantasy dev

[@MattRoszak]

@@usernametaken017 I'm also the Hidden Cats dev!

[@SomniumLG]

Yeah unfortunately no graphical elements have been copied 1:1 so we couldn't DMCA it :(

[@FruitOfTheFold]

yeah i noticed it! i have cats organized neatly on steam and its so obvious this game is coping it

[@Petardo_Dilos]

I want to point out that the devcats apparently spend a portion of their revenue on charity and "raising awareness on adoption and rescue" which is actually pretty cool

[@unkarsthug4429]

Unfortunately, "Raising awareness" is not the same as helping. For example, The breast cancer foundation has long used the fact that their mission statement is "Raising awareness" rather than "Ending breast cancer" to put most of their expenses into advertising rather than actual research, because advertisements count as informing people, and thus "raising awareness". I'm not saying the devs are doing that, but when you hear that, it is at least often a sign of a charity that only exists to get donations, then spend them to advertise for more. (There's only so much awareness people need, before you're just trying to get everyone else to solve the problem you claim to be working on.)

[@_Cloun]

@@unkarsthug4429the thing with ADOPTION specifically is that awareness is GREAT and actually helps cats get adopted!

[@megapussi]

i mean sure, i can trust a random company to donate "a portion" on "raising awareness," or I can actually do the research and donate directly to a charity I know will actually use my money (which they get more than "a portion" of) effectively

[@TehTeh911]

The characters in their games are their real life rescue cats and the games are full of pictures of them, pop ups with cat care information and educational info about cats in general. I really liked the Zodiac sliding puzzle game and am enjoying the cat sudoku game as well, though I feel it could do with some quality of life features. Also like the games are less than $5 each, even if the money was just going to buy treats for their kitties I'd be stoked.

[@marksmithcollins]

Not cool, man. Not cool.

[@modularoni]

I really wish steam would bring back something like green light where the community can give actual good high quality games a stamp of approval. Its basically impossible to find anything new that doesn't look like low quality shovel ware.

[@martynas6ha4griefer]

It would be nice to have some sort of 'moderation' or quality control, however I could also see it being easily bypassed or abused in one way or another. Not to mention that by nature it would just make harder for developers to release titles, which is good if you want to prioritize quality, but not so great if someone is looking to get feedback from players on an early access title. Anf of course, steam/valve with the current system get paid 100$ just for the publish of it. Not giving much incentive to change that. I'd personally love if there was some compromise and a way to moderate without the issues that it'd present, but I've no idea what that'd be right now.

[@dynogamergurl]

The bot reviews could still ruin it like they have other reviews

[@fonesrphunny7242]

And who is going to vote? The same average gamers who regular fall for bad early access games, despite all the red flags? Great, so basically nothing changes and the "best" scam games still get greenlit. It's even going to be worse, because people will see the greenlight badge as sort of a "sign of quality", even though quality has little to do with it. Not to mention bots and people who take money for positive feedback. You just can't have meaningful votes on technical things like this.

[@JMcMillen]

Greenlight didn't work because there were organized attempts to approve garbage games, and many times they were successful.

[@NatetheNintendofan]

you deserve 10,000 steam points for this comment

[@adam100x7]

Wow, I played william and sly as a kid on some flash game sites all the time, it was one of my favorites and the game that made me realise games can be meditative, and art.

[@trumangraham2602]

Your marketing for William and Sly won't work on me! *I already bought it!* wait.

[@2leftthumbs]

You are a True Man, Truman Graham. Yours truly, -Graeme

[@jkjkrandom]

​@@2leftthumbsI used to play the original 2 games when i was a kid. I knew I recognized th name from somewhere but the footage of the class collection reminded me. I'm going to pick those up and reply them.

[@zarrg5611]

Great video - its refreshing to see a video pointing out an issue of this kind with a distinctly non-bitter tone, though it does feel like there may be some bad actors involved in the more mass produced instances.

[@yoshimasterleader]

It kinda makes him sound more bitter. Like how someone who's clearly upset puts on a fake smile.

[@zarrg5611]

​@@yoshimasterleaderBetter than the mean spirited dreck that many like to dump nowadays, besides It's immaterial now, the genre fell of hard soon after this video - just check steam new releases

[@followthefundev]

Can you elaborate on the bad actors?

[@zarrg5611]

​@@followthefundevJust the idea that this can be used as cheap content generation, guess it's not illegal, though it could be related to illegal activities I guess,

[@followthefundev]

@@zarrg5611 Ah ok, I was expecting some horrible rabbit hole lol

[@uitimatebrandon]

1:32 above the barrel on the left 3:05 next to "SteamDB" 3:37 (pause,it's a little sneaking and used the keys a little) on the cover image for "101 Cats Hidden im Dubai" 8:28 (pause,it's a small bit fast) next to "Interest over time" 13:54 (pause) on Hidden winter cats' cover image. is all i could find.

[@honaleri]

10:19 Its floating in the image as you scroll down. 2:08 In the volcano.

[@Radio.SiIence]

7:02 in the box with “FIND ALL 3: Travel”

[@JimFaindel]

It's fascinating to see all these flash game devs from my childhood still going at it, facing new challenges we never could have seen coming all those years ago. William and Sly, Sonny, Epic Battle Fantasy, Book of Mages, Epic War, Gemcraft, Platform Racing 2: these free games I sank hours and years into were my gateway into the medium, and I just hope whatever this new trend ends up becoming, it will lead a new generation to join the hobby.

[@ororomunroe8170]

going through my reccomended queue was so annoying. I'm trying to curate a library of games I would like to play, and after filtering out tags that aren't relevant, I'm left with half my recommendations being these cat games. A lot of these games are tagged as every game type on steam, making filtering them out extremely difficult, and its screwing up the algorithm just enough that its hiding new releases of games that I would buy to the point where I have to find a game myself (through KZbin, Kickstarter, or an ad) rendering the queue and even wishlist useless for me.

[@illdeletethismusic]

my steam has 87832 titles marked as ignored, an ever growing list

[@yosupitsvic7612]

I'm actually part of the problem here because I keep buying them :[ I genuinely find them fun and relaxing, they're just a pleasant experience to wind down with after a stressful day, actually it awakened a new interest in hidden objects/scavenger hunt types of games for me. I play a lot of the "Find the ___" type games on Roblox as well. It's simple, engaging enough to where I don't fully turn my brain off, but don't have to go full "gamer" mode to play it, and let's me enjoy a fun little experience for a short period of time before I'm onto my next task. I honestly wish full on Where's Waldo scenes would be made, full of little fun details to look at, gags, and chock-full of objectives to find. I like the singular focus on "cat" or "bee" well enough but I would love something more extravagant. I'm not sure what you call those immense Where's Waldo-ian scenes, but I would gladly pay for some games like that. I understand it's definitely not for everyone, and some may even find them annoying flooding the pages of steam. With any trend it will eventually die off. But maybe they don't have to, if more full experiences were made by devs who also share an interest in this sort of thing. I noticed a dev called Matt Roszak, they made the Epic Battle Fantasy series, creating a game just like that and I'm very excited for it. I already have it wish listed. I will also admit I am on the spectrum, so that might have something to do with it? Idk haha. Anyway, good video! Just wanted to leave my own piece here.

[@2leftthumbs]

As you should! If those are the games you like, please, continue to support that! My main issue here is: The free releases choking out indie games. And that's a Steam-side issue, NOT the developers or the users! Take a look at Hidden Through Time, and (one I just learned of) Hidden Folks! Those might scratch that more full-on hidden object itch :) Funny that you mention Matt's new game! I gave it a shoutout later in the video haha

[@yosupitsvic7612]

@@2leftthumbs So you did! And, I've actually already beaten Hidden Through Time and all it's DLC, and... actually played through as many online levels as needed to get all the achievements. And I have the sequel. I might be addicted. o_o But yeah, some more legit good hidden object games are "A Building Full of Cats" and its sequel "A Castle full of Cats" which funny enough has this like, Castlevania sorta thing going for it, Crime O' Clock, and to add in something a little different "Find Everything" on Roblox which is this insanely cool platformer collectathon that is seriously underlooked and deserves a lot more attention I think But even as a fan of these games, I will agree that it overwhelms the store. ITs as if every other week im seeing a new one pop up under the "new releases" tab and while that's cool for me and means more fun, I can easily imagine how frustrating it can be for those who want to see other indie games and for the devs who put their games on steam only for them to buried under "I commissioned some bees" 47th entry in the series. It is an interesting dilemma for sure.

[@nayzal]

​@@2leftthumbs +1 for Hidden Folks. Such a charming game, the world feels so alive!

[@elrodiel2412]

I'm also guilty. There is a Where's Waldo with some twists. It is called Labyrinth City: Pierre the Maze Detective. I loved HoG games from the BigFish era before smartphones. The black&white scenes I belive came from Hidden Folk dev Adriaan de Jongh and illustrator Sylvain Tegroeg. Never heard from them for years till this January when the dev said they might come back to this genre and encouraging ppl to discuss them on their discord. All those free games have to compete with each other and not take the highlight of maybe other "classic" HoG games. Ppl when they see free scene that, yes, they scratch the itch, they will never pay for an actual full on HoG with jokes, adventures, aha moments etc.

[@cats4president]

in case you would enjoy a similar but off-screen tabletop experience, i strongly recommend the boardgame "micromacro: crime city".

[@sillyfangirl9146]

My favorite of these cat games are the "An ... Full of Cats" from the DevCats, they promote to adopt shelter cats and also rescue cats and every game purchase helps rescued cats.

[@grimreaperking]

I've been playing the anatoliy games for almost a year now, and when I saw the copycats i legit thought they were his, and once i loaded in I got lowkey angry at the straight plagiarism of a man's passion projects. It's absolutely disgusting ngl

[@HINACP]

1- 2:05 (On the volcano) 2- 3:09 (SteamDB logo) 3- 8:30 (next to "interest over time") 4- 10:19 (in one of the screenshots of "Cats hidden in jungle Jams") 5- 11:27 (On the dinosaur's head in the bottom left) 6- 13:53 ("Hidden winter cats" banner)

[@trosiss]

One of the first wildly popular and successful hidden object games was Hidden Folks. It's got the same black and white artstyle as these newer games but with a lot more charm and care put into it and of course being paid. It's a game I genuinely recommend if you're into these hidden object type games.

[@imalltheragex2000]

0:32 I find these games annoying since whenever I am trying to find monster Raising games (like palworld or Nexomon or monster rancher) I have to type in the genre 'Creature Collecting' . Which theses cat game have the tag of

[@Cuprite1024]

Just one more reason we need a proper Monster Tamer/Taming tag.

[@robertskitch]

Steam also lets you exclude tags from any of your searches. Would excluding hidden object games help?

[@imalltheragex2000]

@@robertskitch idk

[@WhirlyBeepBoops]

I think people such as Gym Leader Ed are pushing for something like that

[@Placeholder501]

Fascinating. I didn't know Steam had a KZbin style algorithm. This reminds of a video in the anime community about Japanese light novels starting on a site that also has a sort of algorithm. This lead to light novels becoming very similar and developing increasingly ridiculously long titles. This explained where all the ridiculously long titles for anime adaptations of light novels came from.

[@wep_vs]

This is just flash games but on steam and paid

[@Manavine]

tbh, expected really. Only reason they're paid is probably because steam charges to publish games

[@Metqa]

I miss my old flash games. I found a flash emulator online to play a few but the rest are gone forever. I actually like the hidden cats games. It makes me want to take the page nd color it in with coloring pencils IRL. I wonder if there is DLC for that?

[@wolfandspice]

​@Metqa If it wasn't Flashpoint then use that, it's the biggest Flash preservation project with over 160,000 games.

[@RosemaryWilliams49fruits]

I clicked on this video because I didn't know there were so many hidden object games but also a few years ago I saw a streamer playing "Find All" which you also showcased here and I absolutely adored how the picture got colored in as you found objects, and also that you wouldn't be offered other objects to find until you found all of the category of objects it was asking for. For example if there are 5 candles to find, you won't be shown any new objects to find until you find all 5 candles. It offers three kinds of things to find at once so if you can't find all of one category you can probably find all of one of those other two, and once you do get a new kind of object to find in that one's place. It's extra fun because you're on a timer, and so finding all the objects fast enough can get you a steam achievement (bronze, silver, or gold), and there are hundreds of objects per level. All that combined with the levels asking the player to find a different combination of items each time (it's a random order) means it can be quite a challenge to get all the time achievements as you can't just memorize first cats then dogs, then instruments as the order items will be shown is random. All the Find All games also have a nice sound track, and the backgrounds change perspective based on camera movement/some objects move based on the game state. Some of the games also include mini games that aren't hidden object games within them. The other hidden object games you showed on here seem to be quite lacking in challenge and polish comparatively with the Find All games, and so the other ones you mentioned don't personally interest me, though I can understand liking a simple search game, I usually prefer a little bit more to my games.

[@crashzone6600]

I played an arcade full of cats, and I found it enjoyable. I thought it was just a was to sell dlc for it, but it definitely has more thought put into it that "find the 100 objects" games that are being mass produced.

[@mangotronics_games]

It's wild and sometimes a bit frustrating that the simplest "low effort" games sell so many more than a lot of other indies that don't even get a fraction of the attention they deserve.

[@diamondhamster4320]

I like this cheery and upbeat hyper-positive tone for an acutal serious problem that has been plaguing Steam for the past 5-8 years...

[@Lakeside80]

Was surprised when you mentioned a William and Sly successor! I played that game constantly as a kid, to a point where I could speed run it. What a gift to know its come back!

[@Chaos_God_of_Fate]

If there was ever a mascot for the internet it'd be a Cat- Cat Videos are like a trend that never dies, it just never gets old seeing Cats get up to their strange antics. I got one in my lap right now

[@ZynRat]

honestly been addicted to the hidden animal games. A fun time waster when im on Discord with friends

[@Sizzyl]

As your average consumer I had no idea this stuff even existed, much less at this scale, really cool deep dive into this niche existence.

[@Nak_12]

not brotato being called a vampire survivors clone 🥲

[@gmg9010]

I don’t really see many cat games on my steam front page.

[@MistyLose]

Well they are hidden

[@Gust3883]

@@MistyLose It's definitely a lot more than 100 tho.

[@macnbac3476]

First time I'm hearing about any of them

[@jnharton]

You probably don't play cat games...

[@psiryan]

Same. I think the algorithm is dependent on the users play history and suggestions based on game tags related to that history.

[@forr35t]

100% agree with separating free and paid games on trending/ upcoming. It's really a no-brainer and benefits the consumer, producer, and Steam itself.

[@glenfoxh]

Loved the William and Sly flash game. Only played the first. But played it from start to finish about five times. And to 100% each time. Been waiting for the 3D version. The moment I seen this video tell me the game is now on Steam, I got it instantly. Not sure what it was made with, but if Unreal was used, it might be possible to play it in VR with UEVR. Likely best to play it on the 2D screen anyway. Either way, it looks like it be a blast to play, and over 9,000 times better than The Fist Tree (some other 3D platform game, I didn't like much, with a fox you also get to play as).

[@Radi_vvanker]

I remember Joel Vinesauce falling victim to one of the “bootlegs”

[@igorka5exe]

there are so many 18+ games, having simple "find 100 cats" games flud the trending instead of miss goblin girl is much better even in this video there are so many hent games popping all over the place

[@2leftthumbs]

I think it's basically 1 toggle to not be shown those. I just have it off, so I can get a clearer picture of what is releasing day to day

[@Mysterious-Stranger]

I mostly play free games, but we're talking about big live service free games, not little 1-hr experience cat games. I didn't even know these cat/find-object things existed until this video!

[@biterra_gaming249]

Y'know, these are all valid points for most games (mainly because I can't argue against them), but I'd like to talk about DevCats for a moment. Devcats are a team devoted to helping raise awareness of homeless cats or cats in shelters with unloving owners. They make almost all of their games (the 2 most notable "searching" games for this being A Building Full of Cats and an Arcade Full of Cats) with a moral behind it, even if loosely tied in behind the (sometimes lack of) story. With the majority of their games that have a DLC, all of the proceeds go towards helping/saving cats. They may occasionally be the same, but they also do all of this to promote charity or directly for charity. I understand if you might disagree with this point of view, but personally, DevCats are making what may be considered shovelware (or not, I don't know) to raise awareness for a problem they feel needs addressing.

[@ABCWarrior]

(Also their games are way more high quality than any other hidden cat game)

[@CamerTheDragon]

My favourite game on steam is a free game but it's a Battle Royale game, I've played it for over 2000 hours at this point. Also yeah I noticed this too recently, the robo and dino cats lined up with the steam event since they could be made quickly enough for it which probably helped boost their popularity too

[@CassyCodes]

I think the appeal of hidden cat games is that you can just zone out while binging a slow-paced drama or listening to a podcast. Being able to play a game with only the mouse means I can eat a snack or drink while winding down.

[@MagicBanana11]

It's like putting out coloring books to pay the bills while you write your graphic novel.

[@critarc]

I feel embarrassed that I didn't realise it was THAT William & Sly until 11 minutes in lol

[@dragonfire5568]

Wait, William and Sly, as in those old flash games? How did I not know about this, I loved those games!

[@Maxjk0]

I think steam should also have their "new and trending" page generally only be allowed to include one game per developer. I know theres been other issues similar to this in the past where devs have had the misfortune of posting their game when a massive studio decided to port a ton of their backlog to PC

[@supremelordender5705]

Man, I was only able to find, like, 4 logos. The "Hidden ____" trend has definitely been noticed by me as of late, glad to see someone else talk about it Also, William and Sly is great, I *can* confirm

[@Nobody-hr4gt]

capitalism does not breed innovation it encourages people to do whats safe and then find a way to make you need to buy whats safe more often

[@p6v665]

planned obsolescence, shrinkflation, and systems where people become reliant on your products (such as with cars and gas)

[@mohmj6815]

ideologue lmao

[@VoiceOvaGuy]

Yooooo what?!? CatBox is Resident Evil inventory management simulator with cats?!? That's...awesome 😹 Also thumbs at 1:48 and 10:19 :D

[@TheShakeship]

1:32 -> Left side above barrel 1:50 -> Volcano 3:05 -> On steam DB logo 3:37 -> 100 Hidden cats in Dubai image 4:30 -> Fifth slide in carousel 7:02 -> Find all 3 travel image 8:30 -> Right of interest over time 10:19 -> right image of cats hidden in jingle jam 11:27 -> Bottom right atop T Rex's head 13:52 -> Hidden winter cats image

[@TehTeh911]

I only discovered this through Devcats, idk which game i got first but i liked their sudoku and sliding puzzle game and that they're themed around educating on cat rescue and care. I didnt notice until the next couple weeks a million of them showing up and i did indeed get irritated. I was like steam i dont need 20 low quality versions i was just supporting a dev i liked.

[@jademonass2954]

i paid and played like 4 hidden games a few years ago (by the first dev you mentioned!) i found them cute, and left it at that but yea, recently ive been getting reccomended that style of game left and right, a bit too many are popping up

[@somerandombruh7240]

the entire video i was thinking about matt's game, so i was kinda shocked when you actually gave that man the shoutout he deserves

[@CybenX_yt]

very interesting video! nice work man, i noticed this trend a few weeks ago but i didn't realize how deep the rabbit hole went

[@Raggart]

It's as if some developers wanted to create games out of love and others out of greed. Who would have guessed!

[@saltimental]

At the end of the day, play what you want, enjoy what you want. And if you love cats and cat games, please support Devcats. They promote adopting and rescuing cats. Their revenue goes to that same cause. Aside from that, their games are beautiful and a fun pastime. I adore Devcats. ❤

[@chucklebutt4470]

Here's an example of that great marketing he mentioned in the video! lol just teasing

[@2leftthumbs]

I've been hearing great things about them! I played a handful of these titles for footage and research, and I wish I had picked up one of their games. I didn't even know about the more charitable side of their label. That's great to hear!

[@maxenswlfr1877]

Devcat games are really good, the mansion one is my favorite so far

[@pikarizardcharikachu2573]

11:54 Matt Roszak mentioned!! Woohoo!! xD

[@jaydeng.9506]

I remember hearing about one of these games on some site for steam cards. and if i had to guess i think a lot of the sales are probably from people buying the game for steam levels. since they are so cheap.

[@bestaround3323]

Some people need the extra friend slots

[@catphoenix5648]

Well, I rarely ever leave comments on youtube videos, and well, somehow, youtube decided to serve yours up to me. Yes, there has been a glut of hidden animal games lately, making it harder and harder for indies like yourself that put in more effort in creating their games. Best of luck with your game release, I'm going to take a look at it now since I've never heard of them before.

[@Jon_dog]

I was brought on to a hidden cat style fan game for Selen Tatsuki (a vtuber) at the end of last year. It's definitely a simple game to make, but helped a bunch with developing my Godot + project skills

[@torcado194]

Very funny seeing this rundown right after having the same exact experience looking at the releases surrounding Windowkill. I didn't really look into it much, i mostly had the same reaction (copy-pasted assets is lame but if people are enjoying the games then more power to them). Hope the release of William and Sly continues to prosper!

[@zepyzeck]

I have over 4000 free games on my account. And I have played around 1000 of them. I've found some hidden gems among those, but I also have to go through a lot of trash to find those. However, I'd say some of the Hidden Cat games are pretty entretaining and wouldn't go in the trash category.

[@2leftthumbs]

There are some decent ones! But the longer the trend has gone on, the more overstuffed the store is becoming with low effort versions

[@zepyzeck]

@@2leftthumbs yeah definitly. i played most of the free hidden cat games, and the newer ones have less and less quality

[@thelionoob]

7:10 that "cat box" game is awfully similar to Cats Organized Neatly

[@acarria]

Yup, this was exactly why my own game release was a near total bust....It was drowned out by a ton of free games releasing on the same exact date. I've noticed a very common outcome with other games like mine too, all flooded out of the new/trending because of the free games mass launched on same day. It's great they found a market people love, but it does cause problems for others for sure. Buuuut they aren't breaking any rules so can't really complain about them.

[@SethAbercromby]

I appreciate you shouting out Matts game. With the unfortunate overlap I was worried the game would catch some undeserved flak, now I hope it'll introduce more people to his art

[@SageGilbert191]

I wanna make a find the 100 cats game with a massive map but there are no cats at all

[@topcatfan]

Or only 99

[@CosmindArt]

I didnt find all 10 but I got half at least! 1:59 volcano 3:13 steam db logo 8:30 next time 10:27 scrolls away 13:54 highlighted game --- I doubt the steam account user PFP counts or not lol

[@Brattleborg]

Thank you so much for bringing my attention to the third William and Sly game! I had no idea there was another one in development!

[@gemmithedragon]

will just say, i played willaim and sly 2 in my childhood and i recently rediscovered it, not only the flash games BUT the third one to! its so nice to see the franchise still kicking :)

[@Pokishima]

I remember I played the DevCat Hidden in an Arcade game , and some days laters I saw that my Brother got achievements in a bunch of different games of the the kind , and I just thought “Wow, that is a lot of them out of nowhere “ , so it is interesting to know a bit of their origins (=´∀｀).

[@tylermansmann2843]

Great video! Regarding the $25 shovelware games, there is a hidden market of game developers who make their money not by selling games directly, but by signing up to game key sites and selling "mystery box" packs of games. They usually "guarantee" games of a certain $ value, and all that actually means is that you're going to get 2-3 pieces of shovelware which cost $25 on steam but are worth $0

[@atruepanda1782]

Honestly, props to the indie devs who found something that can fund their passion projects, that’s the (realistic) dream. A nice, easy, harmless moneymaker that gets you the money you need to do something better.

[@Username5H0]

Man, I've been loving those games on Steam recently... probably 'cuz I grew up playing hidden object games by Artifex Mundi on Big Fish Games, with basically everyone in my family owning a cat or two.

[@Pikachew675]

This trend maybe from the game a Castel full of cats which is a better one of these with colors and puzzles

[@Nightmaze]

"A Castle Full Of Cats" is not the first game of that sort from Devcats, the first one is "A Building Full Of Cats". You can also play the very recent "An Arcade Full Of cats" which is free.

[@Magmacholic]

3:21 bro... 💀

[@2leftthumbs]

I have all filters off on my business account so I can track release trends. I didn't really want to put my personal account out there. That... may have been a mistake. I'll blur that out!

[@Magmacholic]

@@2leftthumbs yee that's entirely fair lol, just found it funny when I saw that pop up outta nowhere.

[@Pewafamath]

@@2leftthumbsNo don't apologize. Seeing the content being listed next to each like that made me think there was something to bypass a filter. Everything checked ok.

[@mayowhishes]

I started watching this thinking you were going to show a top ten of unknown awesome cat focused games

[@emanmodnar2]

I played a few of the hidden cat games, then got discouraged with them being one-shots. I started wondering if they were doing data collection somehow.

[@followthefundev]

Unlikely, people just like hidden object games! But it's very easy to check using free software like glasswire, which easily show what apps are accessing the internet (i.e. it should be none for these types of games).

[@redpeng1124]

0:10 LIMBUS COMPANYYYYYYY

[@Ichewcutestuff5097]

haha nice (i am mentally ill)

[@playday663]

The 4925 current players had a purpose

[@tyhill111]

I have added “hidden objects” to my steam filters since these games don’t appeal to me at all and are so rampant. I’m really glad steam allows you to do that

[@nocapsbb]

yep i've noticed this over the past few months.. very interesting watch, thanks!

[@tutacat]

Developers make money from trading cards and items.

[@tornadotaylor8956]

I have 5 different hidden cat games in my library bc i brought a cheap bundle and 3 of them were included, the other 2 were free anywat

[@jadedfire4351]

Fun fact in 2014 scott cawthorn also made a fairly similar concept game called "kitty in the crowd" where you scroll around an image looking for kittens! But instead of a minimalistic 2d artstyle, it was basically just a bunch of pngs on top of eachother hahah

[@STIMULAT10N]

8:10 It could also be that they got into the coupon thing that Steam gives you when you complete a collectible card pack. These coupons usually reduce the price of a game by a lot and it makes sense for them to set the original price prohibitively high to compensate for that.

[@xAciasx]

Off topic to the video, but i remember playing a William and Sly browers games many years ago. Great to see that you got a full game now, hope for the best.

[@BrainDose]

Thank you very much! This is a very good video. I stopped doing "hidden..." because I was tired of the genre. I changed my attitude to game development and went into 3D.

[@nick11crafter]

Woah...I played William and Sly on Bubblebox or something back when I was a kid... To think Id randomly come across your channel, learn you are still making things AND that the maker of Epic Battle Fantasy is still around too? I guess it makes sense that Flash games were the original Indie platform and the creators would still be going strong

[@Worldfire_Interactive]

Hidden Folks was the first one of these I played. It was a little more “Where’s Wally” in its approach and warranted being a full game with a lot to find, a bunch of levels and layers of interactivity. That people are addicted to these hidden picture games on steam is a bit surprising as I personally turn to pc for more complex games and prefer time wasters like this on mobile devices where I can get comfy and chill. Perhaps steam would benefit from a Free tab to differentiate its top upcoming and new titles a bit, because as a consumer you have to go to the effort of opening new store pages and filtering these titles out if you want to see a variety of full games. I’d have thought steam would prefer it’s 30% cut over the $100 new game fee, but who knows.

[@fonesrphunny7242]

Never during my 3 playthroughs of Mushroom Cats did I consider it would be this influential.

[@m4t7eo]

I think Hidden Folks was one of the main inspiration of these games. It was released in 2017, and it seems like a very polished, animated, high effort take on the black and white where's waldo game.

[@yellowice0]

The popular and upcoming tab on the store page should only show the current most top rated games with the highest likeability for people who play the demo of the game (up to lets say three days to a week depending on how good that demo was) so it would promote demos being on steam and giving more to the userbase to determine if a game will be worth the time or money to buy later depending on the demo reviews, this would kill two birds with one stone as the game would get a store highlight while also killing the dozens of steam review curators who review the game before hand and underhandedly sell of the review keys that were given to them.

[@Jus10Ed]

1:32 comes in center left above beer keg (real quick) 1:50 top center at the tip of the volcano 3:05 top left over the SteamDB logo 4:30 bottom center on the right picture 7:02 center right in the popup window 8:29 above left of center by the "interest over time" 10:18 above left of center in the center picture 11:27 right center on t-rex's head (another quick one) 13:53 upper left in top game's picture That's nine; I'm missing one somewhere. It appears a few more times in the steam profile pic, but I'm sure those don't count. Someone please tell me the one I missed.

[@SHIRAORI_NOUSAGI]

12:02 EBF are still some of the most satisfying flash games i have ever played, ever a decade+ later.

[@TemmiePlays]

Deleted two comments bc you triggered something. When you say the date, literally clicked. the _pandemic_ ! at that point EVERYONE was stuck home. I remember streamers looking for games to play, finding thr 100 hidden cats - and then branching off that to more hidden cats. like 7 streams i watched all played that one game and shared it yo friends. this Kickstarted Anatolis obsessions since the hidden cats hit so hard

[@2leftthumbs]

That makes so much sense!!

[@geopowered]

Interesting topic, but what's crazy to me is that I stumbled upon this video in the algorithm, and immediately thought William and Sly sounded familiar. I definitely played the original games on Kongregate like 15 years ago. Interested to see what your new project is like.

[@notthepinkkirby4332]

Completely unrelated to the video itself but this video finally reintroduced me to William and Sly! I used to play the original flash game all the time but could never remember what it was called. I'd kind of resigned to never finding it again because all I could really remember was "fox 2d platformer" but here we are!

[@agentmae5490]

We love William and Sly

[@milestailprower]

Steam should limit how many games you can publish on an account within a given time period. Maybe 1 or 2 games per month? If Steam wants to promote quality games (which would lead to more game sales), they should enforce limits to discourage dumping on the store. Want to make a cheap shovelware game? Fine, but you can't flood the storefront. Valve can pull the statistics themselves. Devs spamming a lot of cheap, low-effort "games" will easily be seen as outliers, and a fair publishing limit can be enforced. With AI, I can imagine this problem becoming much worse.

[@Varangian_af_Scaniae]

I saw one of those cat games on New & Trending. Installed it didn't know what to expect more than I thought there would be 10-ish free maps and then an option to by more maps. Not that the game only had one map and all 100 achievements were one for each cat found. But even after installing and finishing that game I have not gotten anymore recommendations for those cat games.

[@yoogrldude]

I got into the 'hidden x' games thanks to a couple choose-your-own fanatical bundles that had packs of devcats or nukearts games that i picked up alongside my primary picks for the bundles, and really enjoyed them, so yeah i regularly pick up the free ones 😅 But I agree, separating the paid and free games makes the most sense, especially because, ngl, I don't want to pay for these games that take under 5 min to 100% (even if i did buy the dlc, that's what, 1-3 more levels? so still well under an hour). The only times I really pay for hidden object games are chunkier (over an hour) stuff or multi-game packs at a discount, because other ones are kinda the equivalent of a free game like I Love Hue on ios or something: a great way to keep your hands and eyes occupied while listening to something else.

[@DenisRyan]

Never even glance at the Steam free games, haven't ever played a "Hidden X" game. I had three hidden logos, focusing on static shots, or, assuming you would be sneaky, screen shots or screen recordings of static pages with zooms and pans. I briefly thought I had a fourth and fifth before realizing your Steam avatar is the logo...D'OH!! Then I did spot a logo on an actual scrolling screen recording! By the end, workout replaying anything, and mostly more interested in the actual content of the video, I got 5.