A game with beautiful art and a serious message
Whiskers Wish is a cozy game I found in the 2026 spring Steam NextFest. This beautiful game shows a serious problem that happens around the world. Over 200 cats currently live in the Américo Renné Giannetti City Park near the developers studio. Whiskers Wish wants to support the volunteers that help these abandoned cats. Once released a part of the profits will be donated directly to the volunteer organisation by the developers.
Gameplay
Whiskers Wish is a 2.5D singleplayer game with a cozy artstyle and warm feeling. You play as “Cora” and her friends. Every kitten has different abilities that help you explore the park, complete quests and fight many threats that you may encounter. You can complete many quests for the inhabitants by completing puzzles and exploring more than 15 areas.
While the puzzles are a big part of the gameplay it also has an interesting fighting mechanic that is really well implemented. Not only does it give the story more action it also gives the player a reason to explore the areas in more detail to find new items and gadgets for the kittens.
Sadly the demo is quite short but it shows really well what you can expect for the full release.
I can recommend everyone to at least try the demo. It only takes about 20 minutes.
Art
The art and screenshots are actually what caught my attention. The cozy artstyle with photos of the real life cats that were used as reference.
There are many different cats and other animals all in the same cozy artstyle. The game uses 2D sprites that are animated to look 3D. It gives a really smooth and calming feeling when walking around the park.
My personal favorite cat is “Sombra”. Sombra is one of the cats you control in the demo. I really like the design and personality of Sombra.
Summary
Whiskers Wish is a nice game to play casually and relax. The art and music complement each other. While it’s still just a demo I will definitely keep looking for updates. I can recommend testing the game. It’s available for Windows, Linux and Mac. If the demo gets removed after Steam Next Fest, they have a Itch.Io page where you can download the demo as well.
