Chasing Whiskers Patch Notes

Early Access Launch (May 27, 2026)

Chasing Whiskers entered Steam Early Access on May 27, 2026, with build version 0.9.0. Developed by Five High Cats over 24 weeks as a student project at Breda University of Applied Sciences, this initial release laid the foundation for the full Catworld experience. The Early Access launch introduced players to the core premise — an interdimensional portal opens in your home, your beloved cat slips through, and you, playing as a determined grandma, must follow it into a magical world built entirely for and by cats.

The 0.9.0 build shipped with the complete opening sequence of Catworld, including the tutorial zone where Ponpon, the owner of the local Cat Cafe, tasks you with completing errands to earn clues about your missing feline companion. Players could explore the first major area — the Whisker Woods — interact with its resident cats, solve simple environmental puzzles, and complete fetch-style errands that gradually revealed story fragments.

Performance on the 0.9.0 build was tuned for mid-range Windows 10 PCs with 64-bit processors. The developers noted that the game ran at approximately 30-45 FPS on integrated graphics at 720p low settings, and targeted 60 FPS on discrete GPUs like the GTX 1060 or RX 580 at 1080p medium. The Early Access period was intended as both a public test and a showcase, given the student-team nature of the project.

According to community reports gathered from Steam discussions, Early Access player feedback focused on three main areas. First, players wanted more cat characters — the initial build featured roughly a dozen feline NPCs and players wanted interaction with every cat they spotted. Second, there was strong demand for a quest tracker or journal, as the errand-based progression could leave players unsure of their next objective. Third, several players reported minor collision issues when navigating tight spaces in Whisker Woods, occasionally getting stuck behind tree roots or between fence posts.

Full Release v1.0 (June 9, 2026)

The full v1.0 release shipped on June 9, 2026, representing the transition from Early Access to the complete Chasing Whiskers experience. This major update, build version 1.0.0, incorporated community feedback from the two-week Early Access window and introduced the remainder of Catworld's explorable regions.

The v1.0 update added three new biomes beyond Whisker Woods. The Sunbeam Clearing is a sun-drenched meadow where lazy cats nap on warm rocks and players must solve light-reflection puzzles to progress. The Moonlit Alley is a twilight urban-cat district with vertical platforming across rooftops and fences, populated by stealthy feline residents. The Grand Purrlace is the final area — a towering cat-constructed palace where the missing cat's whereabouts are finally revealed. Each biome introduced new errand types and unique cat characters with their own personalities and mini-stories.

A major quality-of-life addition in v1.0 was the Quest Journal, accessible from the in-game menu. This system tracks all active and completed errands, displays hint text for objectives the player has been stuck on for more than ten minutes, and catalogs discovered cat characters with short flavor text for each one. The quest journal was one of the most-requested features during Early Access, and its implementation addressed the navigation confusion that some players experienced.

The full release also resolved the collision issues reported during Early Access. The development team reworked the collision meshes in Whisker Woods — tree roots were smoothed, fence gaps were closed, and the transition zones between areas were widened to prevent players from squeezing into unintended spaces. A falling-rescue mechanic was added: if a player somehow clips through the world geometry, they are automatically teleported to the nearest safe point after three seconds, rather than falling indefinitely.

Performance saw notable improvements in v1.0. The team optimized the draw distance culling and reduced the polygon count on distant cat models, resulting in a 15-20% FPS improvement across all hardware tiers. On the recommended GTX 1060 / RX 580 class hardware, the game now consistently holds 60 FPS at 1080p medium settings, with occasional dips to 50 FPS in the densest areas of the Grand Purrlace.

Balance Changes and Gameplay Tuning

The jump from 0.9.0 to v1.0 brought several balance adjustments to errand difficulty and reward pacing. During Early Access, players noted that the first few errands were completed in under two minutes but the difficulty curve then spiked sharply around the fifth errand, requiring significantly more backtracking. The v1.0 patch smoothed this curve by redistributing errand objectives across the newly expanded world.

Errand rewards were also rebalanced. In Early Access, later errands awarded the same number of Friendship Points as early errands, making progression feel unrewarding. The v1.0 patch introduced a scaling reward system — each errand in a new biome awards 1.5x the Friendship Points of the previous biome. This gives players a clear sense of progression and incentivizes exploration into harder areas.

The cat-calling mechanic was refined for v1.0. In the Early Access build, pressing the call button would produce a generic sound that attracted any nearby cat, but the cats would lose interest after roughly five seconds. The full release extended attention spans to fifteen seconds and added individual cat responses — each of the 25+ feline NPCs now has a unique reaction animation and sound effect when called, adding personality and encouraging players to experiment with the mechanic on every cat they meet.

Collectible placement was another area of adjustment. The 0.9.0 build placed yarn balls and other collectibles along the main quest path, which meant exploratory players found nothing for venturing off trail. The v1.0 update redistributed approximately 40% of collectibles to hidden corners, behind breakable objects, and at the end of optional platforming sections. This change rewards thorough exploration and gives completionists a reason to revisit cleared areas.

Known Issues and Community Fixes

Despite the comprehensive v1.0 update, a few issues remain as of the June 2026 release. According to community reports on Steam forums, some players experience a brief audio crackle when transitioning between Whisker Woods and Sunbeam Clearing. The development team at Five High Cats has acknowledged this issue and community workarounds include lowering the audio quality setting from High to Medium, which resolves the crackle for most affected players.

Another known issue involves the cat-collection screen. When a player has discovered more than 20 cats, scrolling through the catalog can cause a temporary frame-rate hitch. This appears to be related to the thumbnail rendering pipeline, and a community-identified temporary fix is to close and reopen the catalog, which clears the hitch. Five High Cats has confirmed this is on their fix list for the first post-launch patch.

A third reported issue concerns save file corruption in rare cases. A small number of players have reported that the game fails to load their save after a crash during the Grand Purrlace cutscene. The recommended mitigation is to manually back up the save file located at %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\ChasingWhiskers\Saved\SaveGames\ after each play session. The development team has stated that the save system will receive a resilience update in patch 1.0.1.

Some players running on Windows 11 with hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling enabled have reported micro-stutters every 30-60 seconds. Disabling hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling in Windows Graphics Settings has been confirmed as an effective workaround by multiple community members. Five High Cats has identified the root cause as a threading issue in the Unity engine's rendering pipeline and is coordinating with Unity support on a permanent fix.

Future Roadmap and Upcoming Patches

Five High Cats has shared a preliminary post-launch roadmap through their official channels. The first content update, tentatively titled the Catnip Update, is expected in late July 2026. This update will introduce a new seasonal event area — the Sunbeam Clearing transforms into a Catnip Garden with limited-time errands, exclusive collectible items, and a special event-only cat character.

A dedicated photo mode is also in development, scheduled for the second post-launch patch (estimated August 2026). The photo mode will allow players to pose discovered cats, apply filters, and capture screenshots without the HUD visible. Given the game's colorful art style and expressive cat animations, the photo mode has been one of the most-requested features since the Early Access period.

The development team has also announced plans for a New Game Plus mode, where players who have completed the main story can restart with all their collectibles and cat discoveries intact, but with altered errand requirements and new dialogue from the cats who recognize the player from their first playthrough. This mode is targeted for patch 1.2.0 in September 2026.

Performance patches remain a priority. Five High Cats has committed to at least two dedicated optimization patches in the coming months, targeting the audio crackle issue, the catalog hitch, and expanded compatibility with Steam Deck. While Chasing Whiskers is currently listed as PC-only, the developers have expressed interest in Steam Deck verification as a medium-term goal.

How to Stay Updated on Patches

The most reliable source for Chasing Whiskers patch notes is the Steam News Hub for the game. When a new patch is released, the official patch notes appear on the Steam store page under the News section, detailing every change, fix, and known issue. You can also subscribe to the game's announcements on Steam to receive notifications when new patches drop.

The development team at Five High Cats maintains an official Discord server and YouTube channel where patch previews and developer diaries are shared before major updates. For quick status checks on known issues and planned fixes, the Steam Community Discussions board is the most active hub where developers occasionally respond to player reports.

For more on the game's core mechanics, check out our gameplay overview guide. If you are new to Catworld, our beginner guide covers the essential errand system and navigation tips to get you started.