The cats
Find an intuitive way to group the game’s feline characters and allow the user to quickly surface the cat they need.
A little more order.
A lot more cat.
Feline Management Hub
One home for cats and
their activities
Cats&Soup is an iPad management game where cats run cooking facilities and prepare dishes. Built through AI-assisted development with art assets from the game, this free companion app brings playful design to organising the user's feline collection. It helps them find cats and facilities without endlessly scrolling through in-game menus.
- Project
- Companion app
- Approach
- Vibe coding
- Tools
- Codex & Gemini
- Year
- 2026
01 / The challenge
Three things to bring together
The facilities
Bring scattered cooking facilities together into one organised view, making them easier to find and manage.
The focus
Create a design structure that connects cats and their cooking facilities within one clear, easy-to-navigate interface.
02 / Iteration
From idea to interface
I started building this app after reaching a point in Cats&Soup where finding a specific cat or facility in my growing collection took longer than progressing through several of the game's milestones. I created the initial wireframes in Google AI Studio because its built-in preview let me quickly turn prompts into interactive layouts. Later I moved to Codex to develop and refine the interface and UX.
First iteration
The first version of the UI was bloated and overloaded, but I had a starting point to work with.
03 / Visual language
A consistent visual style
I aimed to preserve the charm of Cats&Soup while creating a distinct identity for the app. Pairing the game's cat portraits with pastel status badges helped communicate whether each cat's skills suited its assigned facility. I also gave unassigned cats sad expressions, making it easier for players to recognise their status at a glance.
Cat portraits
Portraits add character while expressions and colours show status.
Skills and status
Food icons denote skills and badges reveal attributes and bonuses.
Cooking skills
Alignment & star power
Heart level
Chopping CarrotsIngredient Station
The anatomy of a station card
A consistent hierarchy brings the facility, its stats, and its feline crew together.
- Station identityThe station name and type lead the card, with a crown marking its tier.
- Skills and progressFood skill, alignment, star, and heart badges form a compact row.
- The feline crewPortraits show assigned cats; locks and empty slots show availability.
04 / The experience
Inside the hub
The simplified tab structure brought cats, facilities, and a feeding calculator into one streamlined interface. Players could find cats, review station assignments, and compare attributes without scrolling through long overburdened menus. They could also estimate happiness gains and check whether they had enough food to reach the next heart level.
05 / Key Takeaways
What I learned
AI helped me build fast, but refining the app still required a lot of technical understanding. That meant I couldn’t simply ask AI to build something and walk away; I had to make small adjustments, review the results, and correct what didn’t work. The process showed me that while coding through natural language still requires specialized knowledge, it’s undeniable how far it has come.