Skyscratchers: A Sneakily Strategic Game of Escaped Cats

This is Skyscratchers! Wrangle your runaway cats up a 3D, magnetic skyscraper. Easy to learn, sneaky-strategic to master — fast turns, devious knockdowns, and endless puzzly layouts with rearrangeable magnetic windows.

Hi! We’re Evan & Josh, the (hopefully charming) nerds behind Kickstarter games like Ransom Notes, Abducktion, Bloomchasers, and more.

More than two years ago, we got a surprise email from Dario in Colombia. He’d invented a game about climbing a 3D skyscraper — with cats. We instantly knew we had to make it with him.

Meet Skyscratchers

The family cats found an open window and made a break for it! As loyal butlers of a ritzy penthouse family, it’s your job to lure the runaway cats back home… armed only with cat toys, creativity, and a pinch of strategy.

It looks simple: play cat toy cards to lure your cats window to window, climbing up toward the Penthouse. But each turn is a clever little puzzle - do you play it safe by staying on your color windows, or risk it all by leaping past rivals and racing to the top?

We Need Your Help

We adore Skyscratchers. It’s easy to learn, surprisingly strategic, and full of tiny, mischievous magnetic cats. But we can’t bring it to life without your help.

So if you want to help these kitties get home - and get a copy of Skyscratchers yourself - please back the campaign and maybe share it with a friend?

Thanks so much,
Evan + Josh

About Skyscratchers

Why play flat on a table when you can go vertical instead? In Skyscratchers, you'll play on a 3D, magnetic skyscraper with a dynamic layout that changes every game. Here's what players love about the game:

• Teach in a minute to anyone and start playing instantly, plus, there's an add-on of "kitten cards" that make the game even simpler for kids who want to play!
• Surprisingly strategic gameplay keeps even seasoned gamers coming back, game after game.
• Super high-quality, tactile components, from the miniature cats to the magnetized, rearrangeable building.

What do I get for each reward level?

The more you pledge, the more you'll get! Check out our different campaign reward levels below (and scroll down for details on the Expansion and Kickstarter Exclusive Edition).

(You can add the "Kittens Kids Deck" to any pledge level — just select it as an "Add-On" after you select your overall reward level.)

Player Reviews

We love playing Skyscratchers, but don't just take our word for it:

How to Play

Skyscratchers can be taught in under a minute, but takes smarts and creativity to win. 

Here's how it works:

1) Create the window layout by attaching the magnet strips + the "Penthouse" top windows to the interior box — you'll play with a unique board every time!

2) Give everyone a set of 3 cats, and 3 cards. Each card is a different cat toy that helps move your cats in different patterns, or knock down rivals!

3) On your turn, place a new cat on the bottom row and use the actions on the cards in your hand to start your cat's climb up the building — you can play up to three cards per turn!

4) Knock down rival cats by landing on them or playing "attack" cards — they'll keep falling until they hit a window of their color!

5) Your cats are (usually!) safe on windows of their own color, but staying exclusively on your color is a slower path to the top... you'll have to take some calculated risks to win!

6) Get all three of your cats to the Penthouse first to win the game!

What's in the Box?

Meet your cats

Look at these adorable little kitties! Each of these frisky furballs magnetizes easily anywhere on the Skyscraper board.

Action Cards

How does the board work?

Before each game, randomize the Skyscraper window layout by arranging the magnetic strips (even flipping them 180° if you like!) and creating a fresh puzzly playscape every game.

Finally, connect the magnetized "Penthouse" scoring zone to the top of the box and you’re ready to play!

We know this rearrangeable board could get scratched up when the claws come out during gameplay, so we've designed it and the magnetic strips to be super durable and long-lasting for hundreds of games!

Expansions and Add-Ons

What could be even more fun than jumping cats up a Skyscraper? Jumping cats up an EVEN BIGGER skyscraper, all while they dodge scary dogs and a mysterious stray cat with some brand new action cards.

The Penthouse of Peril Expansion

When you pledge at the Expansion + Base level, you'll get the higher climb and increased number of obstacles included in the Penthouse of Peril!

Expanded Building Section

The Expansion Box has magnets that connect to the base game and add additional height to the Skyscraper, building an extra gauntlet your cats must scramble through!

Scary Dog Window Obstacles

These frightening "Dog Windows" get placed on the Skyscraper at the beginning of the game and create an obstacle you can’t go over or land on, further complicating your path up to the top!

Snowball the Stray Cat

Just when you thought an escaped penthouse cat's life wasn't hard enough, Snowball the stray cat appears! This cunning, nasty fellow follows around nearby cats of his own accord... go near him at your own peril!

Brand New Action Cards

This deck of new cards shuffles into the main deck and makes taking big leaps up the building even more possible… but you’ll need smarts to use them well!

Got Kids? Add on the "Kittens" Deck

Skyscratchers looks adorable, but the standard game might be tricky for younger kids. If you've got youngsters around, you can add on the "Kittens" deck - equally adorable, simplified cards that nearly any kid can have an awesome game with.

After selecting your pledge level, simply choose to "Add On" these cards in the next step!

The Skyscratchers: Kickstarter Exclusive Edition

If you're looking for something extra special, this is for you. The Kickstarter Exclusive Edition is a higher-quality, deluxe version of the game that we're ONLY going to be producing once for backers of this campaign.

You'll get all the gameplay included in the Base + Expansion, but with super high quality components.

We've worked with our manufacturer to create an awesome, holographic + UV print box that will stand out on any shelf. Plus, adorable cats with hand-painted details!

The deluxe "Penthouse" scoring zone is one of our favorite parts — it's a fully 3D, magnetic box topper, complete with an acrylic marquee "Skyscratchers" building sign.

Next, backers of this edition will get five Kickstarter Exclusive game cards, based on our previous games! Sneak preview here:

Last but not least: your game instruction booklet will have an extra "Skyscratchers Backstory" comic book lore section, hand-illustrated by our designer Charlotte and giving a full backstory detailing the lives (and daring escape) of these kitties and their anxious butlers!

Skyscratchers: Behind the Scenes

Every great game has a backstory, and this one is no different. We first met Dario in 2023 over email. He'd heard about our little games company across the world, and wanted to share some pictures of a building climbing game he'd made by hand in the tiny town he lives in in Colombia.

Some of Dario's friends + family trying the early game!

We'd never seen anything like it, and we were hooked. We brought in one of the most talented game designers we know, Tavey Lean (lead designer of our game "Bloomchasers") to help us refine the gameplay.

Many zoom calls and prototypes later, Skyscratchers started taking shape!

Meet the Team:

About Us and Our Other Kickstarters

Hey, we're Evan & Josh, the co-founders of Evan & Josh's Very Special Games Company. 

We're not some big corporation - we're both the company owners and the creative team that comes up with, writes, tests and produces (and, this time, with Dario and Tavey!) all these games from scratch.

Our little company wouldn't exist without support from members of the Kickstarter community, and that's why we continue to launch all of our new games here. Thanks so much for continuing to help us turn these ideas into reality!

We've made some other games; you seemed to like them. You can check them all out at VerySpecialGames.com, or find some of them in stores like Target, Walmart, and Barnes & Noble. 

High-quality products, higher quality Customer Service

We know backing a product on Kickstarter from a company you may have not purchased from before can feel... unusual. But, even though you won't be receiving this game for some months, we want to take some time to talk about how committed we are to making both a high quality product, and making sure it gets to you as hassle-free as possible.

High Quality Production and Materials

A game like Skyscratchers is likely more "3D" than you're used to, and it's super important that all the components feel strong, long-lasting, and well made. We're working with one of the top game manufacturers in the world to produce this game. We're very confident in their production abilities, because they also manufacture our other games, Bloomchasers, Tiny Laser Heist and Abducktion, games that include complex pieces designed to be used assembled over and over.

Here's what some Kickstarter backers have said about the quality of our games:

"...the internal packaging and storage is the most well thought out design I’ve ever seen for a storing the pieces! I wish more designers put as much effort into all the aspects of the game as these guys!" —Sammie S.

"Abducktion is even better than I imagined. First, the material itself is amazing. High-quality cardboard cards with great artwork. The formation cards have a thick feel with a beautiful foil backing. The formation cards themselves are top notch. The UFO is well designed, not only to hold the ducks, but the ability to blindly draw the ducks is effortless.  Second, the storage box is incredible." —Mike C. 

"This is my favorite Very Special Games game yet (and I love them all)!!! It's so strategic but also easy to learn and the games go quickly. The pieces are all very high quality! Absolutely love it!!" —Steph H. 

Customer Service

Product quality doesn't matter much if your game doesn't make it to your door! Our company has successfully shipped more than 1,000,000 games to individual customers in the past four years, and we're quite experienced in every step of the logistics journey, from international freight to your individual tracking numbers.

But, sometimes packages get lost or damaged. If this happens, no problem — you'll just reach out to our Customer Service Director, Kaelyn. She handles our customer service and logistics full-time, and if we need to reship or replace a part, we're ready to.

New to Kickstarter?

Shipping And Timeline

**Not Customs Friendly

VAT: In order to maintain compliance with EU & UK law, VAT fees will be charged after the project and will be collected within the Pledge Manager. The amount collected will be based on the total value of the pledge and shipping cost according to the VAT rates of each country.

Additional Fees: All international orders will be shipped DDP with tracking​ (with the exception of NO/CH), so there will be no surprise fees upon delivery. (It's part of the reason why we've been so selective with the counties we ship to. Hidden fees suck.)

PLEDGE MANAGER: We will be using what is called a Pledge Manager for this project to make your Kickstarter experience even easier. Once the campaign is complete, you’ll receive an email to fill out your address and confirm your rewards at that time. If you end up moving after you’ve filled it out, no problem! We’ll send a reminder email to finalize your details to ensure we have the most up-to-date information before we ship them your way. They will also collect VAT in accordance with EU/UK laws, if applicable, during the shipment process (see the Shipping section for further details).

If you have any questions, comments, concerns, etc., simply shoot us a message–we’re happy to help in any way we can!

For Retailers

We've partnered with Faire to bring ​S​kyscratchers to your brick-and-mortar stores! Follow the steps through the link below to place your pre-order now for a Kickstarter Retailer Exclusive price.

https://www.veryspecialgames.com/pages/wholesale