I don't see what would motivate a player to go for the actual capture. It would be more worthwhile to just get as close as you can and stay that way until you either hit a cap

The cap is going to be significantly lower than what the mouse is making by eating cheese, so it is penalizing to not capture the mouse (Plus, there's a bonus for the time it takes to catch the mouse, the lower the better)

What if the cats each had specific cheeses to protect?

I hadn't thought about that. However, I can't think of a way to make this not a camp-fest kind of thing.

Thanks a lot for the great tips. Keep them coming!

I had an idea while studying yours though.
What if the cats who can currently see the mouse got points, increasing every consecutive second (up to a cap, to make it not too profitable to plainly follow the mouse), while the other ones would rack up MP, based on how far they are and to help them catch up? When the bar is full, they would get an item (like you said).
Obviously, when no cat sees the mouse, no points nor MP are awarded).
The cats would have to choose between chasing the mouse head on, or waiting and striking at the right moment.
The AI controlled cats (when there's less than 3 cat players) would obviously follow the mouse blindly (to put pressure on the player)

Meanwhile, the mouse could receive MP for every second it is hidden, and when its meter is full, an additionnal power pellet could appear for him to use.
Do you guys think that's a good idea?

Edit: (oops, I really misinterpreted what you said )

So, what if you rewarded cats for being closer to the mouse, but didn’t reward them at all when the mouse was in their sights? You could give them a little detector that tells him if he’s “Cold”, “Luke”, “Warm” or “HOT”. The closer you get to mouse; the quicker you gain MP. That way, your giving cats a boost when they struggle to close distances on the mouse, without giving them an advantage when they shouldn’t have/need it.

but didn’t reward them at all when the mouse was in their sights?

Then nobody would want to have the mouse in their sight, would they? What's complicated is that I have to find the right balance between competition and cooperation between the cats. In a majority of cases, there has to be a cat following the mouse to keep it pressured, so I can't punish a player for taking on that role.

I think we're getting closer to a suitable design, thanks for helping out! Any other ideas on how to deepen the strategy (while keeping the complexity not too high)

I have also edited my question, because I'd also like to talk another topic of interest: the tutorial

Hmm, you could give the cats a bonus for getting continuously closer to the mouse, or for blocking the mouse's path (reducing pathfinding options), or for time kept mouse away from cheese.

or for time kept mouse away from cheese.

What if there's only a few cheeses left in the maze? How do I know that the cats are actually preventing the mouse to reach the chesse, or the cheese is just far away?

To add to the blocking points idea the cats could earn cornering and surrounding bonuses encouraging team play, stalking points could be useful as well (as mentioned). This would keep the cats from just turtling around the cheese and power pellets, which should always outnumber the # of cats in the maze and jump locations (like the fruit in pac-man). The cats could each have unique abilities as well (like the different ghost AI in pac-man). One cat could have speed boosts, one could have boosts of wider vision and one could have a single wall jump ability booster. If the mouses power pellets were collectable and had to be activated by targeting a specific cat then the stalking and team play of the cats would play a greater roll as well. I'm thinking a fat princess mechanic could shake things up as well, as the mouse gathers more cheese he relies more on power pellets more since he gets fatter and slower. Perhaps he could gather cheese and return it to one of the many mouse holes around the maze (again greater # then the # of cats).

I like this project, do you have art assets already?

The cats could each have unique abilities as well (like the different ghost AI in pac-man)

Not sure about this. I will have to balance every ability to be exactly as powerful as the others (Because a speed boost is going to be better than placing wards in most cases, so you will cringe your teeth when you get the "ward-placing" cat because you're at a disadvantage. I don't want that, do I? )
I want each cat to have an equal chance of capturing pacman: giving cat-specific skill would introduce a great amount of luck into the game (for getting the right cat)

I'm not sure either which item to give the cats. Should I give a random item, or let the cat choose their next item? Should I give out items depending on the situation of the cat? (Like a dash when close, but separated by a wall, a ward when far away, etc)

This would keep the cats from just turtling around the cheese and power pellets

I should mention that each time a half of the maze is eaten, a fruit appears. When it is eaten, the cheeses of this half will reappear.
When all pellets are eaten, there will be 2 fruits and 2 power pellets to defend, so the cats are outnumbered anyway
(If I implement my idea of powerpellets appearing when the mouse is hidden, it would discourage turtling, because the cats would not want additionnal powerpellets to appear)

as the mouse gathers more cheese he relies more on power pellets more since he gets fatter and slower

I currently have a mechanic like that, but the opposite. For each 1000 points the mouse gains, the cats get faster and they have more vision, which will make it more difficult for the mouse.

I like this project, do you have art assets already?

I am currently drawing all the art by myself.
I'd like to get rid of the Pacman theme someday (although I haven't thought of a replacement theme yet) and additionnal artists would be nice
(I'm not a very talented artist, so I usually keep the art at a basic level)
If anyone is interested in participating in this project, feel free to pm me, we'll see what needs to be done.