This idea was part of the 2025 game jam ideas project

Reverse Katamari Damacy

Demo

This is the “okay for children” version of this game that I made on the second attempt. The “nicer” version that I could see people actually paying, instead of the monstrosity that I first made.

One liner: Top down vertical scroller, Reverse “Katamari Damacy” game where you are trying to drag your kid to a doctor's appointment.

Top down vertical scroller

You are a parent, and your young child is at one end of the map (house, mall, school, etc…). You need to get the child out the front door of the house before the timer runs out (They need to go do a doctor's appointment, aka the theme). They do not want to go and will do anything not to go.

You run after the child as they try to evade you in the house. You quickly catch up to them and once you touch them you can start dragging them towards the door. (Phase 1 tag)

At first it's easy to pull the child but the child grabs onto everything near them that they can reach. They pull the objects (lamps, chairs, tables, flowers, sofa) into themselves building a “Katamari Damacy” style mass of objects (You shouldn’t be able to see the child just the mass of objects). As the mass gets larger it's harder to pull them towards the door. The mass weighs more and it is harder to maneuver getting stuck in door ways.

You can reduce the mass by letting go of the mass, then madly clicking the object in the mass to toss objects all over the room. If you click too many times, the child makes a run for it, if you don’t click enough the mass is still too heavy and awkward to pull towards the door.

You try to avoid going too close to objects that the child could collect.

Think of a reverse “Katamari Damacy” where you want to avoid or remove objects from the mass (your child)

You win if you can get the child though the front door before the timer ends.

The winning screen is your child happy (huge smiles) with a Lollipop in front of a doctors office, with a cartoon Band-Aid on their arm, while the parent looks haggard in the background.