Apps for Cats

LOLcats, look out! Friskies goes digital to make your iPad more kitty-friendly

David McKnight is demonstrating his newest iPad app with a little help from his friend Buddy.

The two take turns finding objects and scoring points on their shared iPad 2. Pretty typical until you realize Buddy is a nine-pound tabby with a blonde coat and a competitive gleam in his eye. He knows he's the star of the party, and he's determined to continue his winning streak.

Cat gaming, you say? Well, yes. Cat gaming. As in, cats playing video games.

McKnight, meanwhile, is the Director of Interactive Arts at Fosforus, the Austin ad agency that designed the first interactive iPad app for cat owners and their pets to play together. Called You vs. Cat, the game is the fifth in a series of games Fosforus has made for Friskies, which holds the distinction as "the leader in cat gaming."

Cat gaming, you say? Well, yes. Cat gaming. As in, cats playing video games.

Before the iPad had even been released, the crack creative team at Fosforus began developing their games for cats to help create new opportunities for felines and their technology-loving owners to share more quality time together.

"This was part of our plan from the very beginning with Friskies," McKnight says. "People had made computer games for cats and videos for cats, but once the iPad came out, we wanted to figure out a way to get cats involved. We watched how cats respond to different movement, when they're watching birds for example, and we wanted to capture that in the game."

After some additional, ahem, Google and Wikipedia searches, the team found which colors cats' eyes respond best to, and they built up their first prototype. (And in case you're wondering, like I did, if an iPad is durable to kitty claws, the answer is yes. "We bought a 'research iPad' specifically to test this," admits McKnight. "Screen covers don't work, but the ordinary screen is definitely scratch-proof.")

The first of the Friskies Games for Cats they designed was Cat Fishing, a simple HTML5 game where cats can track and 'catch' goldfish popping in and out of the flat water surface. "We put it down in front of our first cat subject — and this was not a gamer cat — and he attacked it," says McKnight, proudly.

The latest game, currently pitting McKnight against Buddy the Gamer Cat, debuted at this year's SXSW Interactive, and involves a turn-based formula that allows you to go head-to-head against your cat. One at a time, each player taps the floating Friskies treats that multiply and scatter across the iPad field. The more treats you or your cat touch, the more points you earn.

In the end, there can only be one species to rise triumphant. So it's finally time to show him who's really boss. For all those times he woke you up at five a.m. to be fed early. Or clawed up your favorite sweater to let you know he missed you.

All of the Games for Cats games are free to download and come with easy-to-follow instructions. "Certain games, like Cat Fishing [which McKnight calls 'the gateway game'] are easy to learn. Cats love it because it's not intimidating. Once they get comfortable with that one, then you move on with more advanced games like You vs. Cat."

And that's how you make a gamer cat. Likely to lock herself in her dark, smelly room for hours at a time, talking to other antisocial gamer cats on the other side of the world.

According to McKnight, addiction can be a problem with some gamer cats, just as in humans. "Sometimes, our gamer cat will come over and try to take the device away from us," he says without irony. "We were worried he would get obsessed with screens, but it appears it's only the iPad that he wants because he wants to play his game with us."

Makes sense that if we're going to spend so much time on our computers and iPads, our best friends should get to use them for fun as well. And, after all, it's better than them just sitting on them every time we're trying to get work done.

"These devices are part of what preoccupies people and keeps them from spending quality time with their pets," McKnight says. "These games are going to help us spend better quality time with our animals. We're really proud to bring that into people's lives. They might pick it up as a novelty, but it actually opens a whole new door to the relationship between them and their pet."

Let the catfight begin.

Movie Review

Daniel Craig shines in Queer, an unapologetic tale of love and loss

Drew Starkey and Daniel Craig in Queer

Photo courtesy of A24

Drew Starkey and Daniel Craig in Queer.

As recently as the late 2010s, if a movie was made about an LGBTQ+ character, it was more than likely about their coming out experience. Romance, if it existed, was typically chaste, and actual sex was almost completely out of the question. Things have changed dramatically in the 2020s, to the point that a major movie star has no issue starring in a film called Queer.

Based on the 1985 novella by William S. Burroughs, the film features William Lee (Daniel Craig), whom everyone calls just Lee, a writer living in 1950s-era Mexico City who spends most of his time haunting local bars with friends like fellow writer Joe Guidry (Jason Schwartzman) and hitting on younger men. His early interactions in the film seem to indicate that Lee has a bad reputation within the local gay community, as multiple people avoid him or give him odd looks.

Lee senses an opportunity when he encounters a newcomer, Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey). Despite some awkward interactions, the two of them start spending time together, although Lee has much more invested in the relationship than Eugene does. Their hit-and-miss bond continues until Lee, who’s starting to get into drugs in addition to the booze, convinces Eugene to accompany him on a trip to South America.

Directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Justin Kuritzkes (making their second straight film together after Challengers), early on the film seems to be mostly about the divide between an older person who’s grown comfortable in his ways and a younger person who’s living a relatively carefree life. The introduction of drugs into the plot changes things, though, with Lee searching out more ways to open his eyes to what the world has to offer.

Guadagnino and his team use some interesting visual storytelling techniques to introduce ideas that may not be present in the actual script. The most successful, demonstrated in multiple scenes, is the superimposition of movements by Lee over what’s actually taking place in the scene. The subtle overlay gives the audience insight into Lee’s true feelings, showing what he can’t or won’t say out loud.

Music also plays a big part in how the plot is perceived, with the use of anachronistic songs from Nirvana and Prince serving to heighten certain moments. The score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is not as in-your-face as the one they did for Challengers, but it complements the film well, especially when the plot starts to get trippy in its final half hour.

Craig, who appears sweaty and disheveled for much of the film, is about as far from the suaveness of James Bond as you can get in this role. He takes multiple risks with his performance and almost all of them pay off. Starkey’s character is subdued by comparison, but still comes off well. Schwartzman and Lesley Manville are given showy roles, with both using altered appearances that make them nearly unrecognizable to deliver memorable performances.

Queer is not as accessible as Challengers was storytelling-wise, but the fact that it tells a story about gay men living their lives as they see fit with no interference or questions shows how far the film world has come in a short period of time. It also continues Guadagnino’s streak of making audacious films in a way that few other filmmakers are willing or able to approach.

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Queer is now playing in theaters.

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