The Way of the Cat
A board game about cats and their outdoor adventure
About NEKODO
NEKODO is a board game in which house cats explore their neighborhood, expand their territory, and bring back home a variety of gifts to please their humans. Outdoor is an exciting place indeed, with many wonderful areas to visit, but certainly not without danger!
Do you know what may be lurking around the corner?
Not entirely sure?
Then perhaps it’s time to play NEKODO and experience the great outdoors as a cat.
This project is inspired by my beloved neighbor cat, who visited my house throughout the summer of 2020. When she wasn’t asleep on my couch, she roamed the streets to enjoy the beautiful summer weather and plenty of human attention. In her enthusiasm, she also worried me in her nonchalant stance towards possible dangers. This sparked my interest to dive deeper into the possible risks that cats face outdoors, and create a game to playfully share these insights.
How the board game is played
The goal of the game is to end with the most points, which are gained by either bringing home all items required to complete a collection card or by marking territory. The game starts with setting up a neighborhood, randomly adding the item tokens to the house and public spaces, shuffling all cards included in the game, and setting up the shrine (black market) board.
Next, each player selects 1 of 6 available cats, takes the corresponding life tokens, and draws three item collection cards. Finally, the cat’s homes are revealed to complete the setup. The game is played in a total of 10 rounds, each consisting of 3 distinct phases, namely the ‘Exploration Phase’, ‘Street Dangers Phase’, and the ‘Replenishing Phase’. During the ‘Exploration Phase’ cats explore the neighborhood in three turns, using 10 energy each time to roam the streets, enter houses or public spaces, exchange goods, or mark territory. The primary goal of this phase is to collect items, bring items home, and mark territory to speed up navigation. In this phase cats also encounter a variety of dangers that lurk inside the houses, their gardens, as well as the various public spaces.
After each cat completed 3 turns, the ‘Street Dangers Phase’ is initiated and a ‘dangers card’ is drawn, indicating how cars, dogs, and catnappers in the neighborhood will move. If cats are crossed by one of these dangers they lose a life and have to add a ghost token to the cemetery location, which will eventually result in 10 minus points during final scoring.
After the ‘Street Dangers Phase’, the ‘Replenishing Phase’ is initiated, replenishing all raided public spaces with new items.
These 3 phases repeat until a total of 10 rounds have passed, as all cats return home and players count the value of the collection cards and the number of marked streets to determine the winner of the game.
Meet the creator
Haruno Ito
In her work, Haruno explores the translation of issues into approachable, simple, and lovable illustrations that pack a ton of personality and can be enjoyed by all members of society. She is keen on working out the smaller details that help capture and represent the core feelings of common experiences and atmospheres. This makes the fictional characters she creates, who typically engage in everyday life activities, feel very relatable and personal to many of us. But don’t be fooled, while most of her work has a gentle and humorous lining, they often come with a serious attitude towards society.
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