C(h)atfish
Game Jam • Unreal Engine • Interface game • 2026
Project Information
In this interface game, a hungry cat takes over one of his victims’ identity and attempts to lure his fish friends by using information scattered in his computer , but suspicious contacts won’t be fooled so easily.
| Genre | Interface Game |
| Engine | Unreal Engine |
| Platform | PC |
| Development Period | July 2026 |
| Duration | 3 weeks |
| Team Size | 5 Students |
| Project Context | University Project (4th Semester, HTW Berlin) |
| Primary Role | Gameplay Programmer & Game Designer |
Project Overview
Chatfish is a narrative-driven interface game, developed in German during a three-week Game Jam organized by De, the Game Design faculty of HTW Berlin.
The player takes on the role of a hungry cat who has just claimed a catfish named Welson as his latest victim.
The entire game unfolds through Welson’s computer interface, which the player is free to explore in search of the information needed to maintain the deception. Clues are scattered across three applications displayed on the left side of the screen:
- An email client
- A calendar
- A social media platform called SeaChat, inspired by Instagram’s visual design
On the right side of the screen, Welson’s messaging app contains conversations with three of his friends, each a potential victim. After sending an invitation at the very beginning of the game, the player must carry on conversations with these three characters. As the exchanges unfold, they begin to question the invitation and subtly test whether Welson is really the person behind the screen.
To answer their questions convincingly and ensure they accept the invitation, the player must search through emails, examine social media posts, cross-reference calendar events, and piece together the correct information. Every clue matters, rewarding careful observation and deduction.
The team placed a strong emphasis on immersion, making the experience feel like a real messaging application. Incoming messages trigger desktop notifications, while each reply is followed by a subtle animation that hints at whether the player’s answer was convincing, providing feedback without breaking the illusion.
At the end of the game, the final screen reflects the player’s success: the more friends they managed to persuade to attend the party, the more plentiful the cat’s feast becomes.
Main Goals
- Deliver a playful experience only through a computer interface
- Create an enaging and fun narrative
- Create small mysteries that woudl putthe players’ deduction skills to the test
- Designe a conversation system that would support multiple answer options and branching paths
Constraints
- Three weeks total development time, from ideation to shipping
My Contribution
- Designed and implemented the game’s dialogue framework using Unreal Engine Blueprints, State Trees, and Data Tables, creating a flexible system capable of running multiple simultaneous conversations within a single interface.
- Developed the core UI systems for the chat application, including dynamic message generation, branching dialogue, conversation history, profile switching, animated notifications, interactive chat tabs, and responsive visual feedback.
- Established the narrative implementation pipeline, transforming dialogue scripts into interactive gameplay by integrating branching choices, suspicion values, character reactions, timing, and contextual clues distributed across the game’s different applications.
- Production planning, last minute Technical Support & Bug Fixing and everything that’s to be expected during a Game Jam
Gallery
Gameplay Screenshots
The ending screen varies in number of fulled plates depending on the player’s level of success in convincing Welson’s friends
Loris Prestaux - Portfolio 