Hello!
We’re Josh & Abi!
We’re the creators of CATastrophe: A Game of 9 Lives. The journey of creating and developing CATastrophe ended up giving birth to our publishing company, The Original Sasquatch. We are dedicated to promoting community and uniting people through play. We are passionate about making games that create an experience full of laughter, fun competition, and stunning artwork that leave people wanting to play again and again.
CATastrophe is the brainchild of Josh Norris and is his first game design. With the help and support of his wife, Abi, they have taken Josh’s initial idea, partnered with famous cats, and have enlisted top talent and experienced board game developers to help bring this game to life!
Josh attended the United States Merchant Marine Academy. Upon graduation, he went straight into the industry and was the 2nd Mate on a 400 ft long ship. Spending the better part of his 20’s as a Merchant Mariner sailing the high seas, he attained his Captain’s license and was certified to captain any ship in the world!
From Merchant Mariner to Game Designer. This is his story…
On July 4th, 2016, Josh was working the night shift on a ship and was struck with the idea of using cat’s 9 lives as a type of currency in a game. And thus, CATastrophe: A Game of 9 Lives was born. He grew up on a small farm in Texas and has always loved animals of all kinds, especially cats! So, this was a fun idea to run with.
He immediately started making (very rough) prototypes at home and playing them with my friends and family.
Pictured above was our first playtest ever!
One of the highlights of our story was having the opportunity in 2018 to go visit Lil BUB and her dude, Mike and his family, and playtest the game with them!
We decided to feature real cats in the game’s artwork because we thought it would provide a fun and unique experience for people. Josh realized that many of the famous cats online are special needs and wanted to feature them as heroes within the game. Thus, the Power Cat card was created. We strongly believe that everyone has the ability to live life to the fullest and be a hero! Many of the cats featured in the game have done just that!
We imagined people playing Power Cat cards that would help them win the game and then being able to go online and interact with the same cats that were featured on those cards.
On a whim, we attended CatCon in 2017 where they ended up meeting Jey Parks (and half of the famous cat owners whose cats are featured in the game today).
We connected with Jey’s meowgical style and incredible illustrations from the first moment we saw their booth. We instantly fell in love with their style of art. It was EXACTLY what Josh had been envisioning for the game (except 10 times better, haha). We specifically wanted to feature real-life cats in the game as heroes. And here was Jey, who was already illustrating cats personified as heroes with incredible detail and unbelievable skill. We were thrilled when Jey committed to creating the art for the game.
Early in the project, we felt it was important that Jey have a general idea of how the game played while creating the illustrations. We flew out to Jey’s home in Colorado to play an early version of the prototype with them and their friends. We all had a great time visiting and play-testing the game.
We knew how incredible Jey’s art was but had no idea just how wonderful it would be to work with them on the project. Jey’s professionalism, skill, communication, and overall wonderfulness was (and is) beyond anything we expected or could have hoped for.
To this very day, we feel that asking Jey to illustrate the game was one of the absolute greatest decisions we’ve made for this project. Jey’s artwork was so incredible that Josh knew he had to design a game with gameplay that lived up to the amazing artwork they were creating for the project! We have done everything in our power and ability to make this game the best that it can be for you. We hope you love it and Jey’s incredible artwork! Jey has created over 50 unique illustrations that will be featured in the game.
We also brought on another incredible artist named Jacqui Davis while Jey underwent cancer treatments (see this Kickstarter Update for more info about this). Jacqui did an amazing job on creating the box cover, game board, and main deck art, and our game would not be as amazing as it is without her incredible skill and fun illustrations.
We had originally planned to launch this game in 2018, but quickly realized after visiting GenCon, in late 2017, just HOW BIG of an undertaking it would be to create, develop, and launch a game on Kickstarter. We committed to creating the best game possible and not cutting any corners. This added a few years to our process and included hiring a lawyer to file for a Trademark and form a company as well as attending a couple more conventions and playtesting the game countless times!
Not long after COVID-19 hit, we quickly realized that Josh’s job on the ship (which included frequent travel, months of time away from home, and with the pandemic would also include extended quarantines away from each other) was no longer the best fit for us. Because of these reasons and other factors, Josh shifted out of his job to be home more with Abi and pursue his dream of making and publishing CATastrophe.
Abi brings a very unique skill set of creativity and marketing to the table. She has been a massive help through every step of this project including writing emails, running our convention booths (pre-COVID), building our website, running our social media, play-testing, and the list goes on and on, haha! Not to mention spending countless hours (probably hundreds at this point) listening to me (Josh) talk about this game. There is no way this project would be a reality without her help and support!
Thank you for reading our story. We can’t wait for you to play, CATastrophe! It has been a joy to make. We hope it brings you some much-needed comedic relief and joy after the catastrophe we have all experienced in the last year and a half.
With Love,
Josh & Abi