Nine Lives

Nine Lives is a short puzzle game about a black cat in a superstitious village, made for the Official Unity Game Jam 2026 (theme: Lucky Number).

The villagers say a black cat is bad luck. You have nine lives to prove them wrong, and you spend them on purpose: every life you end becomes a ghost that replays exactly what you did. Ghosts hold pressure plates, ring bells, distract the dog and keep doors open while your next life slips through.

Each room has a lucky number: clear it within that many lives to earn a four-leaf clover. Nine rooms, from the cottage kitchen to the village square, where only the ninth life can make it through.

How to play

• Click (or hold and drag) to walk, or use WASD / arrow keys
• Shift to run, Space to jump
• R ends this life and leaves a ghost
• Backspace restarts the room, P / Esc pauses, M mutes
• Gamepad supported. The first three rooms teach you as you play (Tab skips the tutorial).

Credits

• Design and direction: jnycode
• 3D art: Synty Studios POLYGON packs (Fantasy Village, Farm, Fantasy Characters, Dogs, Particle FX, Generic); cat by polyperfect (Low Poly Animated Animals)
• Fonts: Grenze Gotisch and Fraunces (SIL Open Font License)
• Sound effects and music: generated with ElevenLabs
• Made with Unity 6

AI disclosure

This game was built with generative AI. The code, levels and tools were written by AI coding agents (Anthropic Claude and OpenAI Codex) directed and play-tested by the developer. All sound effects and the music were generated with ElevenLabs, and the cover art with OpenAI image generation. The in-game 3D art, animations and fonts are licensed human-made assets.