Virtual reality / Meta Horizon
Support and legal
Virtual reality / Meta Horizon
Support and legal
Virtual reality / Meta Horizon
Support and legal
English (US)
© 2025 Meta
FROM MOBILE DEVELOPERS TO VR HITMAKER
What if you could play as a cat in VR?
It was super fast. It was unbelievable. We invested a year in development, and we recouped those costs in just four months.
Within hours of launch, social platforms were flooded with player videos. The game's premise resonated immediately with players embodying a mischievous cat, knocking items off shelves, scratching furniture, and terrorizing an unsuspecting granny in immersive VR. This phenomenon drove sales, set a new bar for organic growth, and transformed the team’s creative approach.
New Folder Games and HyperVR, both co-founded by mobile gaming company Estoty, brought valuable experience from mobile hit titles like Knife Hit and Johnny Trigger. Years of analyzing mobile player behavior taught them to create instantly gratifying experiences that keep players coming back.
But the team needed more than insights. They needed a repeatable process to turn promising concepts into blockbuster experiences.
The studio's approach to development might seem counterintuitive at first glance, but it became their secret weapon. With I Am Cat, New Folder Games leveraged a remarkably efficient prototyping process where teams as small as two programmers/designers and two artists developed a single concept.
The teams iterated quickly over the course of 3-4 weeks, skipping visual polish and peripheral features to answer two simple questions: did the core mechanic work and was it fun?
When you test several ideas simultaneously, you can see which one works better because you tried it on yourself in-headset.
This laser focus let them quickly determine if a concept felt good in VR, and with I Am Cat, the team's reaction was immediate and unanimous. The simple joy of knocking objects off shelves as a virtual cat passed the gut-check test with flying colors.
But creating a great prototype was just the beginning. The real challenge was finding the right audience at the right moment.
New Folder Games deliberately focused on TAYA (Teens, Adolescents and Young Adults)—a market segment that craves silly and playful immersive experiences. By launching in Early Access before summer break and timing the full release around Thanksgiving, they captured their audience when they had the most free time.
But what truly set I Am Cat apart wasn't just smart timing or pricing—it was a fundamental rethinking of what makes games shareable in the first place.
I Am Cat's viral nature wasn't accidental—it stemmed from enabling player freedom. By allowing players to create their own narratives, whether stalking the virtual granny or methodically destroying houseplants, New Folder Games transformed players into directors of mischievous stories they were eager to share online.
If people can make good content on the game, they can use their imagination and make their content viral. That is the best marketing.”
The studio also responded to Early Access player feedback by adding character customization options in the full release. This seemingly small addition had a major impact—giving content creators fresh material while boosting revenue, with add-on packs accounting for over 10% of total payments within a month of release.
But the true genius of New Folder Games’ approach was turning their player base into something more valuable than just customers.
By filling I Am Cat with interactive objects and physics-based possibilities, New Folder Games created a canvas for player expression rather than a scripted adventure. Within 24 hours of launch, social platforms filled with player-created stories that generated marketing no budget could match.
The team supported this creative ecosystem by providing content creators with press kits and thumbnail assets. Some creators found such rich storytelling potential that they built entire channels around I Am Cat, with one YouTuber producing over 300 videos in a single year.
Beyond individual creators, New Folder Games has cultivated a thriving Discord community where the developer-player relationship feels genuine. Bug reports have become conversations rather than transactions. Questions receive thoughtful responses. And when players share particularly funny moments, the developers are right there appreciating them alongside the community.
First you must think as a gamer, not as a developer or marketer. You should ask: am I having fun? Can I make content with this?”
This community-first approach paid dividends in player loyalty too. At the time of writing, I Am Cat continues to see over 70% of players returning a week after purchase—placing it in the top 20 percentile of apps for retention
For developers looking to follow New Folder Game's path, the formula is deceptively simple: create intuitive and fast-to-fun experiences, build genuine community relationships, and design games that players naturally want to share. This is proof that sometimes the most straightforward concepts, executed with precision, yield powerful results.
Actionable Insights for Developers
