InOutPath

InOutPath is a puzzle game in which you guide a cat seeking redemption past birds that block its way. Animals can travel only along certain paths, so you use mechanisms to change their positions and create a safe route. The game has 7 chapters, each with its own themed landscapes and music, and over 300 levels built around more than 20 mechanisms.

Paths and mechanisms

The first chapter introduces moving paths, which shift when an animal touches them, and red birds, which cause the cat to fail if it touches them. Switches and moving paths let you alter the positions of the cat and birds to make a way through. Later levels introduce variations such as rotating, stretching and swapping multi-segment paths. The puzzle elements are visible on the map, and the focus is on reasoning with the mechanisms rather than searching for hidden items.

Each chapter introduces new mechanisms in short introductory levels before combining them in more challenging stages. The regular levels gradually add to the challenge, with the final few levels of the first chapter becoming harder. The game’s maps expand from a 2D plane into multi-level, three-dimensional spaces, adding puzzles based on jumps, collisions in the air and movement between levels of terrain.

New challenges

The third chapter adds a swing that lets the cat jump long distances, cross over birds on flat ground and reach higher terrain. In the fourth, the cat can exert force on purple birds to move them closer or farther away. This resembles pushing boxes, but requires controlling the distance between the cat and the bird, especially across multi-level maps.

From the fifth chapter onward, some mechanisms test your timing and execution as well as your reasoning. These include snowballs and timers in chapter five, wind in chapter six and duplication in chapter seven. Teleportation houses also provide a way to swap positions. The game aims to make operational challenges forgiving, keeping logical reasoning at the center.

Regular and expansion levels

Each chapter has regular levels and expansion levels. The expansion levels unlock after you complete that chapter’s regular levels and are significantly more difficult. They use combinations of mechanisms already introduced in the regular levels rather than adding new ones, challenging you to apply what you have learned in different ways.

The regular levels introduce mechanisms at intervals, with harder stages toward the end of each chapter. Most of the toughest challenges are reserved for the expansion levels, while the regular levels let players progress through much of the game’s content.

Hints

If you get stuck, a hint system provides a short gameplay recording showing key points for completing the current level.