Schrodinger's Cat Burglar sneaks out on Steam

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Demo also available for feline-themed "quantum puzzle adventure" on PC

Why do they call certain thieves "cat burglars," anyway? It's surely because they mimic the feline abilities to be swift, agile and stealthy (and have very little conscience about making mischief). Usually it's just a figurative term, but we can now get to experience it very literally in Schrodinger's Cat Burglar, the newly released "quantum puzzle adventure" from indie Australian developer Abandoned Sheep.

Rather than a heist adventure, as you might expect, this game is all about what happens in the aftermath of a heist gone wrong, during which the main protagonist, Mittens, is captured and sent to a "secretive research facility." There Mittens gets caught up in a "quantum experiment" that bestows her with the unexpected power to duplicate herself, allowing her to be in two places at once. Now, with remote help from friends like Lazy Susan the hedgehog, Mittens must use both her traditional feline abilities and her new superpower in order to escape "twisted test chambers" and "evade capture by a whisker." (And also, because she's a cat, groom herself and cause a little mayhem along the way.)

Cheekily described as "Portal with cats," Schrodinger's Cat Burglar does indeed share certain similarities with Valve's classic physics puzzler, but has just as many differences. Presented from a third-animal perspective, the game drops players into a series of standalone rooms to escape by passing through locked doors and avoiding security detection. You can jump onto accessible surfaces, of course, and interact with various machines you encounter, but the real challenge will come from figuring out how to use two versions of yourself to weigh down pressure plates, operate two-cat equipment, and overcome even more increasingly complex obstacles. Separating is as easy as a button press, as is switching between them and reforming as one, giving you plenty of freedom to "access the inaccessible, evade the inevitable, and heist the unheistable." You'll also want to scrounge for any cash you come across (you are still a burglar, after all), which can be spent on any number of "strangely charming customisation options to unlock – each applicable to either quantum position."

There's no stealing Schrodinger's Cat Burglar itself, but there is a two-week launch discount on Steam, where the game is now available to download for Windows and Linux. If you'd rather sneak a peek first, a playable demo can also be downloaded, with a tutorial setting up a sequence of rooms taking place "a little way into the story."

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