Blade Kitten Message Board

Years after its initial release, Krome Studios' episodic side-scrolling platformer Blade Kitten could soon see a resolution to its cliffhanger ending via a DLC expansion, according to an announcement posted this week on the game's Facebook page.

Blade Kitten's developers recently reclaimed all of its assets from publisher Atari, clearing a forthcoming launch for the game's completed but unreleased Episode 2 DLC. "It's already on Steam, we just need them to transfer the app ID to us so we can add the episode 2 DLC," reads a Facebook comment from the official Blade Kitten account. "It's a little bit complicated but not a huge hurdle."

Blade Kitten's developers also plan to pursue a DLC release for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game, pending the expansion's successful launch on Steam. A release date for Blade Kitten's Episode 2 DLC has not been announced.

[Thanks, Pyrii]

[Image: Krome Studios]

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Krome Studios, which once upon a dream was one of Australia's largest video game developers, will allegedly shut down next Monday, October 18. According to Tsumea, several "credible reports" claim that all remaining staff have been let go, with some employees rehired on contract to finish work. If the reports are true, it isn't surprising, as Krome's collapse has been progressing in slow motion for quite some time.

Most recently, Krome worked on Microsoft's Game Room and released Blade Kitten. Request for comment from the studio have so far gone unanswered. We'll update when we hear something.

I remember a time when I could look at a girl with cat ears and whiskers and think nothing of it. Unfortunately, maturity and the internet have corrupted my view of catgirls, and now they seem at best cliched, and at worst creepy. It's a shame, because my 10-year-old self would have found Blade Kitten's Kit Ballard and the neon world she inhabits all kinds of cool.

This pussy outstays her welcome.

Hey there everybody, Steve Stamatiadis here again for one final blog about everyone’s favorite pink haired catgirl game, Blade Kitten. The game is just about to finally hit the PlayStation Network and you’ll be able to try it out, buy it and enjoy it. Pretty cool, huh?

We said originally that the game would be out spring this year and technically is still is since it’s just turned spring here in Australia, and it’s already been a beautiful start to the season. See, we kept our word… sort of. Why did it take so long? Well we had the awesome good fortune of Atari… yes THAT Atari, picking up Blade Kitten. Not only has that allowed us to make the game even better, but being published by Atari has a very special significance for me personally. See back when I was about 13, I got my first computer: an Atari 400 (with all of 16K of memory, that’s less than the average icon or avatar image). So as you can imagine having the Atari logo at the start of the game just makes it all that much more cooler to me. So a BIG thanks to Atari for coming on board.

It’s been an exciting and challenging time bringing Blade Kitten to life from idea to comic to final game reality. Though it’s been more than a few years in the making, it’s been a lot of fun too. Working with a great team to bring the comic world to life has been a great pleasure. They’ve been totally committed to making the best Blade Kitten game they could and as a Blade Kitten expert I can safely say, without any hesitation, that this is the best Blade Kitten game EVER made. OK so it’s the only Blade Kitten game ever made… that just makes it rare and even more valuable.

Oh snap! We should totally have charged more for it, well too late now, it’s all in the system and stuff. I guess you get to buy it at the amazingly good value that it’s set to. I mean there’s all the excellent voice action in the fully voiced dialog. When you hear the spot on voices of Kelly Fuller as Kit Ballard, Dave Mitchell as Hundert Tonne or Eliza Schneider as Justice Kreel you’ll completely believe these characters, especially when you see them in the amazing cutscenes. The cinematics alone are worth the price of admission. But you’ll get to see all this for yourselves in a week or so.

For the newcomers here’s what to expect, in a short single paragraph version. Obviously the actual game is much longer:

Blade Kitten is a full on classic side scrolling adventure in glorious HD. You play Kit Ballard a catgirl Bounty Hunter on a mysterious planetoid called Hollow Wish. Kit is tracking down a local trouble maker when she’s ambushed by a rival who is after the same bounty. So you need to track down your rival then your bounty and along the way uncover the mystery that is Hollow Wish’s darkest secret. You’ll get some help from a little alien critter sidekick called Skiffy and your uber-cool floating A.I. sword, the Darque Blade. Get ready for level after level of free flowing, scrambling exploration and intuitive combat as you find make your way through this comic based adventure.

So for $14.99 on September 21st, PlayStation owners will be the first to get your hands on Blade Kitten from the PlayStation Store and check out all the fun for yourselves. Thanks and I hope you enjoy playing the game, I know I enjoyed making it.

What's up pussycat?

Just because you're off gallivanting across the galaxy and slicing up bad guys, that doesn't mean you can't look good doing it. The latest Blade Kitten trailer proves that the demands of a spaceborne bounty hunter are no excuse for being unfashionable. Metroid fans already knew that, of course.

Working on the PlayStation 3 has been wonderful. As this was my first project on the PS3, I was apprehensive at first about the new technology and how to use it as best we could. But now, I can honestly say I am a fan of the PS3.

Early in development, Blade Kitten was both a 3D and a 2D game and you could switch between them instantly — you’d run through a section then it would transition to 2D. It didn’t take us long to fall in love with the 2D version, so we focused all our efforts on making the 2D the fun game it is today.

From the start of our project, our goal as programmers was to give the designers all the power they needed to create the game that they wanted. Ideally, a level designer controls the player’s progression and experience in each area of the game (enemy placement, special events, collectables, and so on). So rather than implement a boss character’s attack moves myself, I would give the designers scripting tools to implement the boss themselves.

This proved to be one of the best decisions we made. For example, the level where Kit is running away from a huge monster called Acland, who destroys everything in his path, was completely scripted by the designers — as were all our bosses and many of the encounters you see. This has allowed for a much more flexible design with changes being quick and easy. But most importantly, much happier designers!

Being able to move any object anywhere and have our characters move along with them was fundamental to our game, so we made it so Kit can attach to pretty much everything. If the object moves or rotates, so does she. The level designers have done a great job using this and, even from the first level, you will see some fun movement and puzzles you can play with using these moving objects.

Blade Kitten was a re-think of how we normally do artificial intelligence. As there is a single plane that everyone fights on, we needed to make all the enemies work together without getting in each other’s way. Therefore, you’ll see things like the front guy duck down so the guy behind him can take a shot, or even have one guy jump over another to try to aggressively get to you. They all work together which helps create an interesting experience without overwhelming the player. It’s important that the enemies in the game feel like they are alive and are planning their strategy together to form a real challenge to players.

It was fun to get physics working properly in a 2D environment. We have some items which are fully 3D enabled and allowed to fly off into the yonder. Enemies have “ragdoll” effects that have them falling down in different ways when hit, and “fraggable” objects that break apart realistically. Additionally we have items that are fully physics-driven but stay on the player’s plane so you can use them without worrying about them flying away from you. This goes towards making the game world deeper, more detailed and unpredictable.

I hope you all enjoy this game as much as we have enjoyed making it.

More cat-girl action than a "chan's" b-board.

You may already be aware that the Blade Kitten universe existed long before the game’s development team came together. In fact, the game’s creator and director Steve Stamatiadis (aka “Space Captain” Steve) started the Blade Kitten comics in 2001. It was the job of Steve and the team to elaborate on what existed in the comics, using them as a blueprint of sorts, and to translate them into environments that looked visually spectacular and made clever use of the movement system while supporting the storyline.

LEVELS

Blade Kitten is not only our first side-scrolling game, it’s also our first title intended specifically for download. One of the hurdles we had to overcome, due in part to the need to adapt to a new level-building pipeline, was that our levels kept getting built larger than we originally scoped.

The levels in Blade Kitten range from claustrophobic sewer-like tunnels, to brightly-lit grassy plains that extend far off into the distance. There’s an urban marketplace filled with fruit stalls and shopping civilians, and a temple inhabited by a mysterious cloaked sect. It was easy for the team to get caught up in creating more areas for the player to explore. We had to keep reminding ourselves that this is a downloadable game and that we shouldn’t get too carried away as though we’re making a full-sized (and full priced!) product.

Still, I think you’ll be surprised at just how large and detailed the levels in Blade Kitten ended up being. In fact, one level was so large that we eventually made the decision to split it in half — and both levels are still pretty big!

COMBAT

Of course, a variety of level environments would be pointless without weird and wonderful selection of enemies to populate them. We have our version of more traditional armored soldiers and giant mechs, though my favorites are the odd-looking alien creatures that are unrelenting in their attempts to bite, pummel, slice, and spit poisonous goop on the player.

Our goal was always to have a simplified combat system in line with traditional side-scroller titles like the Capcom classic Strider, but with the added bonus of having a fluid range of movement that enables the player to traverse the environment in new ways. One of the ways Blade Kitten differs from most other side-scrollers is that the player can engage in combat whilst climbing on walls and hanging from ceilings.

The player can also purchase a variety of blades (yes, floating blades) with different attributes to help tackle particularly nasty enemies. Not only does Kit use the blades for classic hack-and-slash combat, but she has special perch attacks (accompanied by a brazen taunt, of course) that enable her to throw enemies, plus numerous moves that are easy to execute and visually cool.

And the end result? One BIG downloadable game, chock full of pick-up-and-play arcade-style action set within a sprawling, vibrant world. Our goal has always been to give you a game where mastering the controls comes fairly easy, because we want you to spend hours exploring every nook and cranny in search of hidden areas and special collectables. The team has worked hard to add that little bit of extra spice to your gaming experience, for those “completists” who want the added satisfaction of having knocked off all the bad guys!

The official announcement of Blade Kitten’s PlayStation Store release date is coming up very soon, so keep a look out. In the meantime… happy gaming!

Atari acquires the rights and nails down when you can get it.

Atari acquires the rights and nails down when you can get it.