Happybirthday is the game accompanying CatGhost 1 Birthday. It is the full, playable version of the game that Gideon experiences during the episode before waking up.
Gameplay[]
In Happybirthday the player controls a small pixelated sprite of Gideon with the left and right arrow keys on the keyboard.
The game is set in the Dark Forest, which in this game is seven "rooms" across, with the player starting in the middle.
The content of each room is randomly generated and they even have a chance to be empty. Each room will only ever contain one item (if any). The final rooms to the left and right however will always contain a bust to prevent the player from progressing further. Approaching a bust will cause static to fill the screen until Gideon reaches it, at which point the game will exit.
Happybirthday does not have a real objective. The player can interact with the environment by pressing the Space or Enter keys. Doing this near certain objects or NPCs, such as the skeletons, will prompt a response.
Objects and NPCs[]
This is a list of objects and NPCs that the player can interact with. For each, the the first line of dialogue is much more likely to be said than the second two.
Elon's skeleton[]
| Dialogue | Picture | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Text color: Red |
 |
Elon's first line is a reference to her execution by being burned at the stake. The second line refers to the jar in which her ashes are being kept, which was briefly glimpsed in CatGhost 2 Knock, and again referenced in Banana. |
Naarah's skeleton[]
| Dialogue | Picture | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Text color: Light blue |
 |
Naarah's first line is also about her execution, for which she was tied to a chair and dropped in a lake or river, which caused her to drown. Who the second and third lines refer to is unknown. |
Bethany's skeleton[]
| Dialogue | Picture | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Text color: Blue |
 |
Bethany's second line references her 'flying away,' as mentioned in CatGhost 4 Circle. |
Mirror[]
| Dialogue | Picture | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Text color: White |
 |
These lines are all spoken by Gideon. The meaning of the second line is unknown, the third line probably refers to how every appearance of mirrors in the series is in some way tied to flashbacks to scenes from the past. |
Shovel[]
| Dialogue | Picture | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Text color: Green |
 |
The shovel represents the digging girl from the game Dark Cavern. |
Bone pile[]
| Dialogue | Picture | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Text color: Dark grey |
 |
Who exactly is speaking through the bones is not known, although it is speculated to be the Skinwalker, especially because of the last line, which mentions the three objects most commonly associated with the skinwalker in the series. |
Busts[]
| Dialogue | Picture | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Text color: White |
 |
The busts act as barriers to keep the player inside the seven "rooms" and are the only objects that speak without player interaction. When approached, the busts fill the screen with static (of a random color) and quit the game as soon as they are touched. |
Chair[]
| Dialogue | Picture | Notes |
|---|---|---|
 |
The chair is the only non-interactable object, a wooden chair hanging from an unknown place just off-screen. It resembles the chair that was used in Naarah's execution. |
Key[]
Main article: Key
Another object that can appear is the Megalith, Key. Pressing Enter or Space near it will open a dialog box, which allows the player to type in a question, that it will answer. These answers come from a pre-defined list, but occasionally, during a Live Session, the answers will differ. Any question with the word "murder" in it will cause a jumpscare.
With the end of Cat Ghost and the release of CatGhost 13 Acceptance on December 6, 2019, Key has been destroyed in Happybirthday. It cannot be interacted with anymore.
See also: Key/Standard Responses
Appearances in Videos[]
The first appearance of Happybirthday was in CatGhost 1, where it appeared as the game inside Party Country. Gideon appeared "inside" the game and interacted with Elon's skeleton and walked past Key, before "reuniting" with a bust and waking up back outside.
Happybirthday appeared again inside the Party Country arcade cabinet in Void 02, where Elon's skeleton talked to Malone.
The game made another appearance, this time inside a computer screen, in CatGhost 9 Welcome Home.
Trivia[]
- In the game's Properties, the game's file description, product name and copyright all read 'happybirthday.'
- The game's files contain a sound file named "snd_eft_dont_sleep.wav". When reversed, it is the sound of "Skinwalker Naarah" repeatedly saying "You are nosy".
- Prior to the update on 27 March, 2019, this sound file contained a distorted voice reciting a poem or chant, overlaid with static.
- Also in the game files is the link that the game uses to communicate with the Cat Ghost Website, with the name "Bethany" in the URL.
- The update on 27 March, 2019, also changed the jumpscare sprite that can randomly appear, and will always appear if the player asks Key any questions that contain the word "murder". Prior to the update, it showed Naarah's rotting corpse, but was changed to a picture of "Skinwalker Naarah".
- The file in the game that handles Bethany's appearance and responses is named "goddess".
- Valiant Novalight, credited in CatGhost 1 under "Special Thanks", did the webiste code to add the functionality that leads to "Live Keys".
- The sprite for Key's destroyed version sometimes takes longer to load. It is possible to interact with Key normally before the sprite has loaded, but it will become non-interactive again once the graphic loads.
Gallery[]
See also: Category:Happybirthday images
Gameplay[]
Various[]
[]
| Games | |
|---|---|
| Game Content | |
| Happybirthday | |
| Standard Key Responses | Live Key Responses | |
| Window | |
| Transcript | |
| Banana | |
| Jar Messages | |
| Dark Cavern | |
| Objects | Poems | Sprites | |
| Midnight | |
| House Messages | |
| Leak | |
| Endings | Theban Messages | |