Party Country is an edutainment-style game made by the Programmer and the origin of several Cat Ghost characters.
Description[]
Only vague descriptions of the game exist. It was supposedly a learning game for kids with 2-dimensional graphics, where three characters were supposed to learn "early development lessons, like brushing teeth, doing chores, being a good friend and telling silly jokes together"[1].
Party Country makes several appearances in Cat Ghost as a simplistic gray arcade cabinet with a yellow/red logo on the top. The cabinet is most likely meant as a symbolic representation of the game, as Party Country was not an arcade game.
History[]
First versiom[]
Work on the game began in 1997, after one of the Programmer's co-workers saw him working on a game concept and suggested he should try to get it published. As working on Party Country became more complicated, the Programmer took a risk by quitting his job and moving in with his grandmother in Virginia. The three characters in the game were based on sketches the Programmer did on a school book ten years earlier. The Programmer even had one hundred toys of one of the characters produced. Becoming obsessed with the game and its characters, the Programmer lost out on a lot of social interactions.[1]
The first version of the game was finished in early 1999 and reviews of a demo version that the Programmer gave out to friends with kids were good, so the Programmer looked into getting Party Country published, but did was not offered satisfactory deals from anyone he contacted.[1]
Eventually, he made a deal with a cousin of a friend, who owned a small computer outlet and would let him sell copies of the game. After a few months however, barely any copies had been sold.[1]
Second version[]
After the disappopinting sales result of the game, the Programmer began working on a new version of the game, featuring more fleshed out characters and storylines. Not being very familiar with this type of writing, the Programmer looked to Virginian folklore for inspiration. His grandmother, who had extensive knowledge of the subject, gave him ritual books, taught him incantations to help with good luck, and an old snow globe, which the Programmer would leave on his desk as he worked.[1]
Shortly after, strange things began to happen, such as code seemingly writing itself, and his monitors turning on by themselves. Eventually, the second version of Party Country was finished and sent out to publishers, but again there were no replys.[1]
The Programmer was extremely discouraged by this and gave up on his creative pursuits. It was not until a few years later that he got a letter in the mail from a young man who was inspired by Party Country to go into game development as well. Reflecting on this, the Programmer states that while he may have not had much success with the game, he did manage to change at least one or two lives, and is satisfied that he could give some people inspiration.[1]
Appearances[]
Party Country generally appears in two forms: The very rare "original" version, which is the learning game made by the Programmer, and secondly as an arcade cabinet.
"Original" version[]
In CatGhost 8 Judgement, boxes of the game can be found in a hidden image. The cover shows, Elon, Naarah, and Gideon, and a price tag for 99 cents.
The texture for the game's cover used in that image were later released on the Cat Ghost Patreon. Closer investigation of the cover reveals some interesting details:
- The tagline for the game is "Excape Purgetory!" (sic).
- The game appears to have been developed by a company called "Watch Soft", as seen in the logo in the top right corner.
- The cover bears a seal for the "Software Publishers Association", which was a real trade association that merged with the Information Industry Association on January 1st, 1999, and is now known as the Software and Information Industry Association.[2]
- This is anachronistic for the game's release in "early 1999", as the SPA had likely already merged and changed their name by the time of the game's release.
- A sticker for system recommendations is in the bottom right corner
- The sticker says "WINDOWS VERSION - IBM AT and 100% compatibles running at 12 MHz, 80386 recommended. Requires Windows 3.0 or 3.1 in standard or enhanced mode, 2MB RAM, hard disk, and Microsoft or 100% compatible mouse. SVGA, VGA and VGA monochrome."
This is the only time that Party Country is seen in this form.
Arcade cabinet[]
As an arcade cabinet, it was first seen in CatGhost 1 Birthday, where Elon and Naarah force Gideon to interact with it, causing him to suddenly appear inside the game (representing Happybirthday) on the machine's screen.
It is seen again in Void 02, this time showing only Elon and Malone talking in the Dark Forest, while Elon moves off the screen, and eventually out of the cabinet itself.
Party Country is mentioned in CatGhost 8, where Gideon answers the question "What is Party Country?" with "A perfect example of poor life priorities", referencing how Gideon does not understand how the game works, or perhaps thinks that video games are a waste of time.
Several Party Country cabinets are seen floating in a void in CatGhost 12 Resistance.
The arcade cabinet is one of the objects that can appear in Exit.
Gallery[]
"Original" version[]
Arcade cabinet[]
