The timing based jump mechanic is great! As is the "code words" idea. Really makes you feel like you are immersed in a cartoon cat world. However, not being able to move during the jump is a game breaker to me. Maybe it was a design choice, but fixing that would give the player more agency and make the game way more fun. Great job overall.
Viewing post in Meowtain Climber jam comments
Not moving the character mid-air was a purposeful choice as we wanted the fate of the player once they had been launched to be up to the skill of the initial jump. We took inspiration in this choice from other games in the same genre but it could be interesting to play with going forward and see if it creates a more fun or rewarding experience. This will need a lot more testing of course to get the right game feel. We're hoping to make the timing and precision of the jumping easier and more precise so hopefully that may help give the player the agency that its missing at the moment.