Cats Hidden in Paris: an early access build that hasn't budged since 2023

Finding the 100 Parisian cats takes one screen and a looping soundtrack; the rest of the series is sold apart, and anyone who arrived in 2025 found the same game that shipped at launch.

One Parisian screen, 100 cats, and a label that won't move

The GOG listing still carries the early access badge for a game that came out on December 20, 2023 and never got a second scene. That single screen is the whole thing: a hand-drawn Paris with 100 cats tucked into the artwork. You step in, move the cursor, and every cat you find is added to the list — no input beyond that click.

The soundtrack runs on a short loop, there is a hint system for anyone who gets stuck, and the scene hides secrets beyond the cats, an extra nudge for players who like to comb every corner of the drawing. The studio Travellin Cats both made and distributes the game, and it made no secret of the model: anyone who wants more scenes of the same kind buys the rest of the series separately, one screen at a time. Players who have tried similar games spotted the resemblance to bigger hidden-cat franchises and found this one slimmer next to them.

Anyone just out to kill a few minutes came away happy

That was the verdict of someone who wrote on December 22, 2023, a few days after launch. The hunt took about 20 minutes, good time for anyone who only wanted a distraction. In the end, 96 of the 100 cats made it onto the list, and it was duly noted that the smallest ones know how to hide. Another player, on December 29, 2023, recommended it too. For her, the whole scene fit into a 20-to-30-minute window, with the secrets beyond the cats as a nice extra. Her one gripe was aimed at the rest of the series: each new scene ships as a separate title or paid content, and next to bigger franchises of the same kind of game, she found the package on the thin side.

Put your headphones on and let the soundtrack repeat: it is easy to lose track of the clock, almost like the person who was merely bored on July 27, 2024 and got hooked enough to also finish the race against the clock and the hidden birds. Not every experience there is a matter of timing. On June 27, 2024, someone handed the keyboard to their own cat after clearing the stage, and swore the animal approved between purrs. On the other side of the world, on September 16, 2024, a player on the Galaxy client praised the sound each achievement triggers, describing how pleasant it was to hear the chimes pile up while clicking away.

The most glowing write-up, posted on November 8, 2024, came within a whisker of full marks. Only a little was missing: it is not obvious that you can drag the screen sideways, a move you need to find everyone, and the game, once finished, does not return to the menu on its own — you have to close it by hand.

The early access label explains why no one ever closes the board

Picture clearing the last screen and the game refusing to let go of the window. That is what happened to someone who wrote on March 6, 2024: I have to shut it down through Windows Task Manager because the game itself would not go back to the menu. The same person noticed that you can drag the image but not scroll with the mouse wheel, and that the studio's other games from the same batch repeat the vice, with the exception of Maple Hollow, which merely froze and dropped to the desktop. The upshot: they uninstalled the whole collection.

Later, on October 1, 2025, a second critic showed up saying the same thing in other words: one image, one stage. He did not recommend it, and suggested it is more worthwhile to look for printable drawings than to install the game. The two complaints, written years apart, point to the same place: the early access tag is no registration slip-up, it is the likeliest explanation for a scene that never grew.

For a break, not a whole afternoon

It is the kind of game that fits into a break: you open it, solve the scene, and close it — or try to. It suits anyone with a few free minutes who wants something nice to look at with no strings attached, to play with headphones on while the soundtrack rolls, or to give as a gift to someone who likes the genre, as one buyer did, picking it up for another person as soon as it came out.

It does not suit anyone after something with staying power: the whole series lives in loose scenes sold separately, and whoever finishes this one will hit the same old wall — another paid screen, or nothing. It also does not suit anyone with no patience for a stubborn program, because the game does not exit on its own when it ends, and closing it by hand is the detail the store leaves out. It is a game to open in the morning and forget by the afternoon — anyone who wants more than one scene will have to leave the store and go hunting for the rest.