FromSoftware's influence is truly everywhere – there's Dark Souls DNA in the world of cute cat game Little Kitty, Big City, and I'm surprised too

The developers behind the adorable adventure game Little Kitty, Big City touched on their inspirations, and I wasn't expecting Dark Souls to be on that list either.

Speaking to GamesRadar+ at Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2024, Mike Corsaro and Matt Wood from Double Dagger Studio discussed what inspired the team when creating the little kitty and its big city. Although there are a few games that feel similar - Stray immediately comes to mind - the developers say they didn't have one clear work on their minds.

"There hasn't really been a main inspiration," Wood explains. "I think it's been a collection of various games. You know, things like Breath of the Wild. It's a game that's going to inspire me in everything I work on going forward." Perhaps more surprisingly, due to the very different tones of the two games, arguably the most iconic FromSoftware title also played a part in shaping the little kitty's world. 

"Dark Souls was an inspiration for how [FromSoftware] do their level design," the developer continues. "Which I guess is also very Metroid-like, because [Little Kitty, Big City] is an open world, but there's a lot of areas that you can't quite get to in the game right off the bat and then you will gain access to as the game goes on."

It's hard to look at an animal causing havoc around town and not think about Untitled Goose Game, but the developers say the beloved House House title wasn't actually a major influence. Rather, it helped set the stage for a game like this. 

"I think there's two reasons that happens," Wood says, reflecting on the Untitled Goose Game comparisons. "One is the visual style that we chose, and the other is the chaos elements. And while [Untitled Goose Game] wasn't necessarily a direct inspiration for [Little Kitty Big City], it was. It's hard to not say that they didn't pave the road for allowing this to happen." 

"They've created an opportunity for me to be able to make a game like this where everybody kind of just goes 'I get it,' because it's an established thing," the developer continues. "So I'm very thankful that [House House] did that because it would have made our job a lot harder if [Untitled Goose Game] didn't exist," Wood adds. 

We had the chance to try the game out for ourselves for our Little Kitty, Big City preview, and we called it "cute, chaotic, and charming feline fare." It's out on PC and Switch later this year. 

Find out what else we've got to look forward to with our upcoming indie games list.