Your next cozy game obsession is a charming tribute to animals and Toronto’s history

High Park Zoo in Toronto This is the oldest animal show in Canada, founded back in 1893. Open all year round, it allows over 600,000 visitors annually to come and see all kinds of animals for free. There's obviously a lot of history here, and that's what the upcoming Canadian game aims to highlight.

Enter Capie Castawaya cozy adventure game from a local indie developer. Kitten Cup Studioteam behind a cat-themed tea making simulator in 2023. Pekoe. IN Capie CastawayYou play as a capybara (Kapi) and a crow (Corvi) who are swept away by a violent storm onto a mysterious island, forcing them to team up to find their way home.

Since the game's release, Kitten Cup has openly stated that it was inspired by High Park Zoo and Toronto in general, which certainly piqued my interest. But it wasn't until I had the opportunity to visit the zoo with the development team and a small group of media and creators to get a behind-the-scenes look that I began to truly appreciate the depth of this influence.

Inspired by the capybara escape from Toronto.

“Original idea Capie Castaway I was actually inspired by an illustration I did in 2016, so it's been quite a while. People were posting all these capybaras online and I just got inspired and just drew them,” says Saffron Aurora, CEO and creative director of Kitten Cup.

It so happened that it was around the time Toronto's infamous story about two capybaras, “Bonnie and Clyde,” who escaped from High Park Zoo and sparked a month-long escapade to get them back. Naturally, this only provided more inspiration for Kitten Cup, who has since taken to High Park on numerous research trips, painting everything from capybaras, peacocks and cows to Barbary sheep, emus and yaks. As we walk around the park, the team shows us many of the animals featured in the game.

But although the story of Bonnie and Clyde was a cruel test for everyone involved, Kitten Cup wants Capie Castaway to be much more relaxing and cozy. In practice, this means a wonderfully vibrant world based on Aurora's amazing visual flair, which you may also know from her work as art director on the acclaimed, vibrant and eye-catching film. Doug-esque Big scam from Toronto-based indie developer Mighty Yell.

Thanks to this rich aesthetic, Capie Castaway features a colorful cast of animal characters led by Capy, a mute puppy whose stubby legs and big button eyes just ooze cuteness, and Corvy, who makes up for his companion's silence with copious amounts of sarcasm and even the occasional French.

At any given time, players can control either Capy or Corvy, with the former able to sniff, dig and push objects, while the latter can reach distant objects and even take their ground-based friend with them to travel short distances. By maintaining a cozy atmosphere, Corvi also helps make the game more accessible to younger or less experienced players by serving as a way to convey information, similar to Link's fairytale companion Navi in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

“The atmosphere that I hope we achieve here is like if you make a friend on the playground, you just show up and say, 'Oh, hey!' And suddenly you guys go on a little adventure,” says Aurora, noting that the team even added an additional co-op mode for this reason. Based on the demo we were shown, which was also briefly available on Steam, I can see exactly what she means.

Playfulness and fantasy abound

Overall, there's a nice sense of playfulness as we watch our dynamic duo together as they explore the island and encounter all sorts of little activities, like a pile of dirt to run around in, impromptu games, or, most importantly for the team, being able to stack different objects like fruit, wood, and even pylons on their heads to create the world's biggest, weirdest hat.

“I really think this is the funniest damn inventory system I can think of,” community manager Bee Zelda says with a laugh. In addition to allowing the player to express himself, Capy will also need to stack items on his head to transport them to solve puzzles and other quests. In the demo, this occurs when a swallow wearing a chef's hat tasks Capy and Corvy with making a special soup to impress a panel of judges.

In a particularly delightful and inspiring character design, the judge in question is someone named “Guzber”, a giant goose inspired by Cerberus whose three heads are named Looney, Tooney and Buck. Aurora says this is a result of the team wanting a comically “disgusting” take on the iconic buzzing birds, and it's a perfect representation of the game's quirkiness.

Starring Toronto

But Capie Castaway It doesn't just feature Toronto's animals; he also uses them to pay homage to the city's history. Throughout the game, you'll see references to the CN Tower and the Rogers Center, Tim Hortons-themed coffee cups, old TTC tokens, Ontario Place, the Queen Street Viaduct, Honest Ed's, and even Pineapple, the talking pineapple from the French-Canadian children's show from the '80s. Telefrench.

“It really makes it easy to say, 'Oh, what is this thing that we really like, that we're really familiar with, and that we grew up with?' – says Aurora about the decision to make these kinds of links. “Much of the game is trying to preserve parts of Toronto that have disappeared. It's very much a love letter. It's also a big part of the narrative. Like, the Honest Ed sign is no longer with us – RIP!”

For Zelda, the inclusions also give Toronto a rare opportunity—a city often known for standing in for other cities in film and television production—to actually play itself.

“One of the things I think about a lot about the city of Toronto is that the municipal pastime is apathy. It's very difficult to admire the city that it is, rather than the city that it could be or simply is,” says Zelda. “For example, when Chicago is always filmed in Toronto, when New York is always filmed in Toronto, it feels like, 'It's cooler to be someone else.' And so most of [of Capy Castaway] – at least in the way I look at the game – I very much celebrate Toronto as Toronto and not something else. […] Because it’s very rare to see Toronto become Toronto.”

As proof of everything Kitten Cup talked about, our time at the zoo ended with us finally seeing the capybaras come outside. Soon, groups of park visitors, from families with children to an English couple, came to see the large rodents walking around. It was honestly infectious to watch people from all over the world gather at one of Toronto's oldest establishments while celebrating its 100+ year history.

Still, Capie Castaway looks like a solid and thoughtful embodiment of that very feeling, making it one of the most promising games on the horizon.

Capie Castaway will start Steam (PC and Mac) in 2026.

Image credit: Kitten Cup Studio