Some puzzle games throw a dozen mechanics at you before you even start. Meowdoku does the opposite. The game gives you a board, a few cats, and three easy rules. That's it. Within a couple of minutes, you understand what you're supposed to do. The real challenge comes from figuring out where every cat belongs.
Each colored area must contain one cat. Every row and every column can only have one. Cats also refuse to sit next to each other, even on the corners. Those rules never change, so every puzzle is about spotting clues and slowly narrowing down the possibilities.
I found that marking impossible spaces first made a huge difference. A quick tap places an X, letting you rule out tiles before committing to an answer. After a few moves, the board almost starts solving itself because every decision opens up another clue.
Picture a cat placed in a green section near the top of the board. Right away, you can ignore the rest of that green area, the entire row, and every square touching the cat. Suddenly, what looked confusing becomes much easier to read.
You only get three hearts. Put a cat in the wrong place, and you'll lose one, so rushing usually ends badly. The good news is that the game never expects blind guesses. If you slow down and look carefully, there's always a logical way forward.
