About

One cat. One big button. Everyone on the internet looking after it at the same time.

The idea

Keep the Cat Alive is a small shared world. There is only ever one cat, and every visitor sees the same one, live. Whoever is on the page can feed it, scoop its litter box and cuddle it.

When you leave, the world keeps going without you. You might come back to a cat napping on its cushion next to a little pile of kibble, or to a cat that urgently needs someone. There is no timer telling you to come back: the cat does that.

Every cat gets its own name and coat when it's born, and the game counts how long it has lived. When a cat doesn't make it, a new kitten arrives and everyone tries again to beat the world record.

No account, nothing to buy

There is nothing to install and nothing to sign up for. You pick a nickname the first time you feed the cat, and that's it. There are no purchases in the game. Nicknames are public, so keep them friendly: offensive names are refused.

How it's made

The room and the cat are drawn in 3D, right in your browser, with three.js. The cat isn't a drawing or a ready-made 3D model: it's built from simple rounded shapes that code moves, turns and squashes, so it can walk, loaf, groom, pounce on a yarn ball, and look a little thinner when it's hungry.

Kibble bounces and rolls thanks to the cannon-es physics engine. Every sound (clicks, crunches, meows, purring) is synthesised live in your browser. A small server keeps the one true cat in sync for everyone.

Who's behind it

Keep the Cat Alive is an independent project. Questions, ideas, or a bug to report? Write to contact@keepthecatalive.com.