From Feeling Lost to Creating My First Game: Meet Kitty Catcher!

For the last three days, I’ve been feeling a bit lost. I didn’t know what to focus on or what project to start. I kept questioning myself, wondering what my next step should be. It’s a frustrating feeling when you're brimming with ideas but can't seem to pick the right one.

Then, yesterday evening, as I was talking to my husband, inspiration hit me. We’re both cat lovers and have a couple of adorable cats at home, so I thought, "Why not make a game about cats?" It seemed like the perfect mix of something I love and something that would distract me from feeling stuck.

I decided to challenge myself and create a small game using only HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The result? Kitty Catcher — a fun, five-minute-long game where you control a kitty and avoid getting caught by the dog. I made it in just 2 hours, with some help from Claude and ChatGPT along the way. The game is simple: you use the arrow keys to move around, and the goal is to avoid getting caught for as long as you can.

The best part? When I showed it to my husband, who originally said, "I don't like playing this kind of game," he ended up playing it for a while and admitted, “It’s kinda addictive! Good job!” That moment made all the work worth it.

Creating this game has given me a new sense of accomplishment. Even though it’s just a small project, I’m proud of it. I was feeling stuck, and now I have something fun to share. It’s a reminder that when you feel lost, sometimes the best thing you can do is start something small and let it grow.

I’m sharing Kitty Catcher with the IndieHackers community not just as a game but as a reminder to myself (and hopefully to you!) that progress doesn’t always have to be huge — small steps can lead to big wins.

If you want to check out the game, I’d love to hear your thoughts. And if you’re feeling stuck, maybe creating something small is the first step you need to take.

Kitty Catcher: https://www.helinaik.com/kitty-catcher