I see it as a short term game you could (potentially) play multiple times. In some playthroughs I had to leave without all the cats because my health got too low, while others I was able to get them all. I still have games where the first ghast just kills me outright so there is some healthy random number stuff going on :)
Viewing post in Cyclopean jam comments
Guess I was lucky then. I was low on health by the end, but I'm pretty sure I got everything.
Here's the playthrough: Cyclopean by Schmidt Workshops