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.

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.

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!

Once upon a time…

When I was a kid, way back in the dark ages before games (better known to many as the early 1970s), I used to watch a lot of cartoons: Speed Racer, Battle of the Planets, Robotech. I always thought those cartoons just had the coolest stories, action and look; It’s really no surprise to me that I gravitated towards that style of drawing. By the end of the 80s when I was studying animation and getting into drawing comics, my fate was sealed – I had become one those non-Japanese anime artists. But I found that I also loved comics and animation from around the world. US, UK, French, you name it, I grew into an international animation and comic lover.

For those taking notes here, these are the creators that I think have most influenced my style, but not necessarily the look of Blade Kitten. First and foremost is the work of the amazing animation director Hayao Miyazaki; I’ll always have soft spots for Nausicaä, Totoro and Spirited Away. On the manga front, I’ve always loved the earlier works of Rumiko Takahashi; Ranma 1/2, Mermaid Saga and One-Pound Gospel. The other big manga influence is Masamune Shirow – anyone who’s ever drawn a mech has probably been influenced by this guy.)

There’s a few really cool European comic artists, such as Jean-Claude Mézières, who is responsible for the classic Valérian series and a lot of concept work on the Fifth Element, and Philip Bond, whose work in the 90s anthology Deadline includes the awesome “Wired World” and “Hot Triggers.” He’s a huge inspiration for the writing and tone of Blade Kitten and really doesn’t get the attention he deserves.

Many impressions make big expressions

Over the years I’ve done a bunch of different styles for games — from cartoony (TY the Tasmanian Tiger) to the more realistic (Star Wars: The Force Unleashed). As cool as those games have been, I’ve always believed there was more I could do to create something unique in games. So after a trip to E3 in 2001, I decided to sit down and work out the visuals for my dream game. That’s when Blade Kitten was born.

I pulled all my favorite unused material — and there was an awful lot of it — into a grand story about a girl who’s mixed up in a giant universe continually on the edge of war. It would feature cool robots, space ships, giant swords, blasters and odd aliens… you know, all the stuff that’s just fun to draw.

Which I guess begs the question “Why a catgirl? What the hell were you thinking?” Honestly I don’t know — I just figured it would be fun and, like I said in the previous blog, just alien enough to feel sci-fi. Then again, it might also have been that I was knee deep in designing the TY universe at the same time. With so many sets of tails and ears floating around, I think Kit ended up growing out of the design for TY’s girlfriend Shazza (a Dingo). When you think of a cat you think of things like slinky, athletic, independent and a hunter, all of which describe Kit perfectly.

When it came time to start working out the game, the first point of order was working out what it should look like. From day one, I wanted to get a visual style that looked and felt like the comics but at the same time improved on those elements I count as my weaknesses, backgrounds and environments. One of the tricks I learned with comics is that you don’t need to have detailed backgrounds in every panel. You can’t do that in games, since players always see the background. Working with the art team, we decided to work towards capturing the feel of Studio Ghibli films’ backgrounds and the works of Kazuo Oga, mixing simple texture with nuanced detail.

As for the characters, we spent about a month working out how to capture the look of the comics. Every detail, from how thick the outlines were, to how the shading worked, even down to the way we modeled the wrinkles in the clothes. For our cel shading we used a system that let the artist determine directly how a material responded to the light so we could easily get metals, plastics, skin tones, etc., that looked like they were ripped right out of the comic. I’m stoked with what we’ve achieved visually. It really is the first game I’ve worked on that’s actually managed to come close to what I envisaged in my head.

Everything we ever create is inspired by something else; the trick is to have a wide variety of source material, to take bits and bobs from every type of artist and medium from all around the world and then filter them through your experiences and sensibilities. That’s what I hope people take away from Blade Kitten — it’s a compendium of things that I’ve seen and enjoyed in anime, comics, movies and as a lover of games — run through the Steve-o-Matic. Of course, there’s also a few new elements in there that you won’t have seen elsewhere, just to make sure that when you play the game that it‘s a new experience that’s familiar-yet-fresh and exciting. I hope you enjoy the world of Blade Kitten when it hits the PlayStation Network soon.

Good thing “Space Captain” Steve flew in from Brisbane, Australia to show off Blade Kitten to us during GDC. In this interview, Steve talks about the game’s origins as a comic-book-meant-to-be-the-origin-for-a-game, the game’s vivid art style, and when you’re going to get to play it – along with some never-before-seen video.

Let us know what you think so far, and I’ll pass your feedback to Krome!

I’m sure all of you often get asked “WTF is a Blade Kitten?” I know I do all the time.

No?

Then I guess I should tell you the tale of a catgirl, her sword and a blobby alien critter thing.

A sordid past.

Sometime in the latter part of the 20th Century I was working on a bunch of ideas for comics and games. I’d start reusing elements that I thought were really cool, like alien species, characters, mecha, weapons, until eventually realizing I was creating a universe that they all shared. Then around 2001 – not long after we had started work on TY the Tasmanian Tiger — I found I had three different ideas that each had elements I liked but none had ALL the elements I wanted. One was too cartoony (a super powered anime schoolgirl), the other was too serious (Space Gladiators with guns) and the third was an aborted game project (a 60s stealth thief). What to do? Take all the best bits out and mix them all together into a series that I could have fun working on. Problem solved.

So project “Kit-10” was born. It was a story about a female bounty hunter that had 10 different robot sidekicks to help her. One of the robots was a blade, the rest were just a bunch of dumb gimmicks that quickly fell by the wayside. But the cute girl with the big sword stuck and the title “Blade Kitten” came soon after. I was after something that was descriptive and rolled off the tongue like “Gun Ballet” but minus the gun… and the dancing. For me it harkens back to the era of comics, movies and games from when I was a kid; “Star Wars”, “Spider Man”, “Speed Racer”, “Space Invaders” – you have a fair idea what you’re in for. The “sounds-dumb-the-first-time-you-hear-them” kind of names that get stuck in your head. It was almost called “Blade Kitty” instead but that just sounded way too cutesy.

Why is she a Kitty?

Kit Ballard – I really wanted to make sure the stories screamed fantasy science fiction the first time you see them. The main character had to be some sort of alien, but not the bumpy forehead kind or the too weird to relate to kind. That’s why I decided on a cat girl (or Felion, as they’re known in the comic’s universe) because they’re still relatively normal looking, but you get odd ears on their head, right where everyone notices and you also get a cool tail bonus! Her hair is bright pink so that it stands out and echoes her vivacious attitude. We don’t get enough of that in games – things are usually “too beige” and grim. Most importantly, she’s a woman because its way, way cooler to see a girl beating up giant robots than it is to see a bald space marine beating up on robots. And so Kit Ballard, the Blade Kitten was born.

As to her “pet” Skiffy – I wanted to give Kit some kind of cute mascot sidekick so that there’s always someone for her to interact with. Space is a big place and if you’ve ever done any travelling, you know it’s always more fun to have someone with you to talk about your shared experiences. Again to emphasize the science fiction aspect, the mascot had to be some kind of alien, also something that looked cute and cuddly when you glance at it, but when you get up close, it’s actually kind of icky. So Skiffy is a bunch of nice comforting shapes with odd proportions, like a giant head with far-apart eyes.

The Blade – As they say on the internets: “Big sword is big.” It also free floats and has enough AI to be about as smart and aggressive as a pit bull. It’s there to be the tough edge to Kit’s character, the bite to her bark – wait, that’s a dog metaphor. Oops! Why does it float? Why not? We’ve had over 30 years of “laser swords,” so we felt it was time to bring on the free floating smart blades!

The game that was a comic that was going to be a game.

I always knew that I wanted to make a game out of the Blade Kitten stories when I started, but as we’d just found out, it’s really hard to launch a new game series. My cunning plan was to have something to back it up. I figured that comics would be a good way to build up the universe and show off the key features to potential game publishers later on. A webcomic turned out to be the path of least resistance to getting the story in front of people. And so I started the weekly job of writing and drawing a webcomic to sell a game. You can view it here.

The comic was well received and ended up giving me a hundred-plus pages of comics, which meant hundreds of designs for world building when it came time to start the game. Ironically, I ended up telling a brand new part of the story for the game – one that adds to the mythos and fills in extra details in the comic storyline. That way you get some big surprises.

Over the years, we’ve tried to start a Blade Kitten game project at Krome a few times, but as fate would have it, we were victims of our own success when bigger projects kept popping up. First in 2002, when TY the Tasmanian Tiger did well enough to spawn a sequel, then another. The second time we stopped because we had the opportunity to work on a cool Star Wars project. With that successfully completed, we decided to return to original game creation and to develop and publish Blade Kitten ourselves. Something big and bright like the comic and also really fun and accessible – so we took the path of a classic action side-scroller with the addition of all the cool HD bells and whistles we could add. It’s been a really amazing ride working with a cool team to bring at all together and finally see years of imagination and effort finally become a real game.

It has also been an amazing amount of hard work on the part of the whole team. But that’s a whole different story, one I’ll share with you guys in my next post. In the meantime, please enjoy these screens we’ve captured just for the awesome community here on the PlayStation.Blog, and take a look at our trailer. Blade Kitten will be hitting PSN in the spring, which is just right around the corner!