2D platformer
Nine Lives
Status: In developmentA precision platformer where every death unlocks a new way to move, as a black cat escaping a cursed city.
Nine Lives follows a black cat with nine lives fleeing a cursed city before dawn. Losing a life is not just a setback: each death unlocks a new movement ability, reshaping how the chapters already crossed can be played again.
Nine Lives
2D platformer
The premise
Nine lives, one cursed city
One cat, nine lives, a cursed city to escape before dawn. Every death is designed to be quick and a little comic: short retry loops keep failure close to the fun rather than in its way.
- Retries reload a failed section in under two seconds by design
- Comedic death reactions, not punishing dead air
- A precision platformer built to be difficult but fair
- A lone black cat
- Nine lives to spend
- Escape before dawn
- Death is painful, funny, useful
The ability system
Every death is a new tool
Feline Agility, running, ledge hoists, precision jumps, is the starting toolkit. From there, each life lost unlocks the next ability in sequence, Second Spring, Claw Cling, Pounce Dash, Shadow Blink, Ethereal Phase, Chrono Rewind, Echo Clone, and Moonlit Form, each one opening routes through chapters already crossed.
- Nine abilities total, unlocked one per life lost
- Earlier chapters reopen with new routes as abilities stack up
- Full keyboard and gamepad bindings for every ability
- Second Spring: double jump
- Claw Cling: wall jump and slide
- Shadow Blink: teleport
- Chrono Rewind, and more
The chapters
Five hand-built chapters
The escape runs through five hand-built chapters, from the opening rooftops to a final skyline run through the Moonlit City, crossing spikes, acid pits, crumbling tiles, conveyors, phase barriers, and bird patrols along the way.
- Five chapters: Rooftops, Industrial District, Haunted Streets, Clock Tower, Moonlit City
- A bell-tower goal drives progression through each one
- A closing skyline escape in Chapter 5
- 1. The Rooftops
- 2. The Industrial District
- 3. The Haunted Streets
- 4 and 5. The Clock Tower, Moonlit City
What’s inside
Built for the retry
- 01
Speedrun HUD
A live split timer with personal-best comparisons and an S to C rank on finish.
- 02
Local save persistence
Unlocked abilities, chapter progress, and best times saved to your device.
- 03
Procedural audio score
Fully synthesised ambient chords and effects per chapter, no external audio files.
- 04
Custom level store
Support for custom and imported level packs with their own split records.
- 05
Gamepad support
Full controller navigation, with an on-screen controller diagram.
- 06
Baked pixel-art cat
A hand-authored sprite with ten named animation clips.
Built on SSTK Studio
Nine Lives is in development, with no public build to play yet. Preview the platform it runs on at sstk.studio.