Where the hell have you been?

I know... It's been a looooooooong while since the last devlog but the reason is pretty straightforward! I truly underestimated how much time and effort goes into making a real game like this. Every time I think I'm almost there, I get hit with the rude awakening that I'm not. Setting deadlines in general doesn't work out well for me so I realized it's best to just work until I have something of value to show. This works out well for simple social posts but a devlog needs more juice than a new attack or small milestone. Eventually I decided to just keep going until I was done and then release a devlog but that's no fun either. So here I am now!

What's Up?:

The actual content of the Demo has been done for a while but there's a lot more to a game than the immediate playtime. This is a full experience and that means I should be preparing for it. On top of that I'm still very much unknown. Outside of a couple of games I don't have a fanbase to fall back on. Essentially this Demo is my main shot at promoting what the game is capable of! It needs to be perfect. So lets get into what's happened so far!

What a beautiful night...

The Title Screen has finally come to life! It came out just about how I imagined it and I love it! The music makes a return from the menu theme of the original game jam version of the game!

Cat Cuddles can defy the Absolution of Death itself!

There's been more of a focus on the Multiplayer side of the game as well! You can see it well here, when you get knocked down, your buddy can pick you back up with some Kitty Cuddles! Kitt might act shy about it but she loves it!

Oof... didn't nail that landing either...

If you REALLY screw up, you'll succumb to a Game Over... No worries! You can pick right back up from where you left off! Practice makes Perfect as you know! Also giving up is for suckers so don't.

Pick your Poison!

Option Menus are a necessity for any game! Fiddling with whatever can make the game more comfortable or performant! And I wanted to make sure it looked nice too!

Those look familiar!

Full Controller Support AND Glyphs to boot! Set them yourself or let the game read the controller you're using and set it automatically. These took longer to implement than you'd think and there are much more of them than I'm willing to show...

That's a lot of words...

The way I handled dialogue previously was a problem waiting to happen. With all of the dialogue managed within the code, any potential localization would be HELL to implement. So I've switched to using csv files to hold dialogue with translations managed by the player's settings!

You can't see it in motion but it's nice and smooth...

The Newgrounds Build has had some interesting developments! As you know from the prior devlogs, the HTML5 export has been increasing volatile since Gamemaker clearly doesn't pay it much mind. There's been ALOT of tricks or workarounds to get basic functionalities and the game was still held together by string. Fortunately, a WASM option has reared it's head thanks to the GX Games export option! Some annoying issues came up but the game feels just as performant as an exported build for Windows now. Downside? No Newgrounds Medals. This is an unfortunate one but if it Medals or Playability, I know what I'm choosing. Thanks to WASM exports supporting dynamic textures, my loading screens work again! Which means future demos may be able to handle being on Newgrounds as well!

Along with this you can see that the UI has seen a fresh coat of paint with Revamped Health Bars and Combo Meter!

Catatattack Cover Poster!

I'm skipping over a lot but you get the point. The game is a shiny evolution of what it once was with a fresh new poster to boot! So...

What's Left?:

The remainder of the work is revamping very old assets, spicing up on some SFX, waiting on Music from the composers, and most importantly (and time consumingly) Cutscenes! These cutscenes are definitely the toughest thing to do right now considering I want it to look as good as possible!

A Sketchy little storyboard of DeeJay's Introduction!

Conclusion:

So much has happened and so much more will come. We'll keep grinding as much as we can For those who read this far, I can not wait to impress you with this labor of love!

Meow!

Merry almost Christmas! Can't believe it's been a year since I started these Newgrounds Dev Logs! No need to hold back on the details, a lot has happened since last time!

New Catatattack Poster!

What's Up?:

DeeJay's Boss Battle is mostly wrapped up!

It took significantly less time than Prissy, all thanks to her working as a suitable template! Of course a lot had to be fixed up and tweaked to truly get him up to snuff, but he's ready! The main distinction in boss types from Prissy to DeeJay is the brand new Adrenaline Mode to cap off the battle!

Adrenaline Mode!

Adrenaline Mode is a no holds barred finale to the battle! The boss's cooldown time between attacks is halved giving them MUCH faster turnaround between attacks! Likewise, the Player is given Infinite Stamina to duck and dodge through the challenge with ease. Don't get too caught up defending, during Adrenaline Mode there's a constant tick down on the Death Timer! If it hits Zero, the Boss gets to finish you off instantly with an ultimate attack unique to them! It's a no holds barred battle to win the Tug o' Terror and pull off a win before Death Time ticks! Sounds exciting right?!

DeeJay's Cutter Throw Attack Animations!

What's Next?:

"All the news is well and good but when can WE try this out?"

That's an understandable question! By all accounts, the playable content is ready minus some content here and there. But I don't want Catatattack to go up until it's 100% ready to! Right now it's time to take a step back and make sure a lot of necessary bits are prepared before I can truly drop a demo!

First up on the chopping block is the Main Menu! I have the ideas ready and planned out, just gotta re-up on my perspective practice to grind out these backgrounds! Next up would be a couple areas prior to the Junkyard's proper beginning. Though the complete intro to the game won't be available for a while, I want to offer some context to the chaos to properly introduce you all to the strange city that is District 19! After this I'll need a proper Game Over and Level Rank Screen! At that point everything will be all set for an initial launch here on Newgrounds!

DeeJay's Melee Attack Animations!

Along with the main menu will come an Options Section and that's where a lot of critical decisions will need to be made! If you've seen Catatattack Gameplay on the Official Twitter you may think it's a bit too hectic for your eyes. While this is mostly due to a bug in the Camera Shake code I've recently resolved, I still feel you should be able to curate your experience! I plan to include options to either turn down or completely off a lot of visual effects you may feel are too distracting! Even if I think the game looks bad without them, it's not up to me what anyone else prefers!

Rizumu's Initial Guard Animation vs My Second Pass!

Conclusion:

We've still got some work to do before we make it to a proper release! But we're closer than ever, just give it some time!

See ya later!

Catatattack's Brand New Logo!

Happy Almost Halloween! Been a bit since the last one of these and for good reason! Let's get right into the good stuff!

District Junkyard - Level Mural

Oops!:

First things first, some clarification! I TOTALLY underestimated the amount of time it’d take to complete the Junkyard. In reality, there was no way I was finishing the entire level in a month, and Prissy’s Boss Battle ended up taking 2 months alone!

I can chalk this up to many things, mostly having to make a lot of systems and assets that will be used from here on out. Future bosses should be a lot more straightforward with these assets completed, but given that the very first boss was in progress I had to start there. Frankly, until I have basically all the core systems down, I can’t guarantee or assume the amount of time any given level or boss will take.

On top of this I’m essentially working alone with some assistance from @RizumuPlus. That’s Art, Animation, Programming, and Sound Design from yours truly! As such, progress depends almost completely on me and my available time and motivation, which fluctuates depending on my life. This isn’t me complaining, but rather explaining. Things may take a bit, but progress is constant!

Prissy and Princess Knocked Out!

What's Up?:

That being said Prissy's Boss Battle is COMPLETE! It's a good amount of fun too albeit pretty tough! I made sure to test and tweak it as much as I possibly could, just to be sure it's something I'd love playing before expecting other people to! I had an awesome time playing this boss with randoms at the Indie Dev Night IRL! I'll be cleaning it up as much as I can before converting it into a Boss Template I can use later! At some point I'll be able to drop in the animations and have the battle programmed in a flash in comparison to the animation process.

Along with this there's been additional attention put on other things related to Multiplayer! Better Camera Code to keep both players on screen and Damage Value tweaking to keep the game challenging! Down the line I'll be adding a Revive System similar to how I handled it in Pico's Boss Run!

Where's that DAMN Multiplayer Camera Code?

What's Next?:

DEEJAY'S UP NEXT BABY!

Now that Prissy's Boss Battle is ready, DeeJay's Boss Battle is up next! The attacks are planned out (Among other secret cool thingies!), so after a short break I'll be jumping onto that new Battle! Thatnks to Prissy's battle working as a template, DeeJay's battle should be much mor managable in comparison. With DeeJay's inclusion, the District Junkyard Stage will be completely wrapped up! The Junkyard includes a lot of systems specific to it, like the Tutorial, a full scene in basically every area, and two bosses back to back. I'd love to say future levels will take less time... but I've made that mistake before lol.

A nice little change of plans has been made. As you've probably seen from the last couple of Devlogs, the HTML5 build is a little screwy. As such I worry that down the line, the demo will simply have too much content for the build to handle. So instead of a demo with the District Junkyard and the Mafia Hideout Floor 1, I'll aim for a fully completed District Junkyard as the demo instead! This means that the demo will drop sooner than the original plan entailed, though there will be less stuff in it! It'll still be a while until we reach that point, but consider it something to look forward to as I get everything ready for the game's future!

What Beautiful Graffiti!

Conclusion:

Everyday I get a step closer to my dream with my own hands and imagination and I can't WAIT to see what this game feels like as a finished product! Eventually I won't be able to reveal much in these Devlogs without spoiling awesome stuff so expect these to slow down someday, but until these I'll keep lining up these logs! It's fun reading them back months later too!

New Catatattack Poster!

Today's a day! Today's a new start! As always I've got Progress to show, News to Share, and Issues to gripes about! It do be like that sometimes. Without further ado!!!

New Catatattack Poster!

What's Up?:

Important things first... when will everyone be able to get their hands on the game? I finally have a sound plan for the Demo's release! There will be multiple demos that will release as content is added up to a point but the first demo will include Two Levels. The District Junkyard and Mafia Hideout: Floor One!

The District Junkyard will be the complete experience, including cutscenes and story sections.

On the flipside, Mafia Hideout: Floor One will only contain the level as a standalone.

This is mostly to get the demo out earlier, but also to leave you all with a teaser of things to look forward to! As for WHEN this demo will launch... I anticipate the Junkyard will be finish by the end of the September and Floor One will take about two months. Though there are many systems that will need to be made which can lengthen the time expectation. Basically, no promises BUT potentially a November/December demo release!

Background Art for Area 4 of the Junkyard!

Big progress has been made on the game! All Backgrounds have been completed for the Junkyard!!! Meaning all that's left is to finish up the Bosses and doing a final pass for polish! As it stands The District Junkyard works well as a Vertical Slice for the game, giving the player an accurate look at what the full game will be like!

Along with this I've revised the internal loading system for optimal performance, overhauled the Score/Rank System, and addressed some issues I found through Indie Dev Night Playtests! Basically ALOT of small but important changes that'll benefit the game in the long run!

Prissy and Princess are still on the chopping block as the first Boss Encounters in the game! Development has begun and is looking pretty cool so far! By the time the next Devlog I hope to be fully finished with both Prissy and DeeJay's upcoming Boss Encounters!

Prissy being a bratty piece of work as expected!

What's Wrong?!:

HTML5 concerns continue as I've realized that the loading systems for the game straight up... DOESN'T WORK?! Dynamic Texture Groups get converted straight to Default for web builds and is loading when the game starts up. Meaning uhhh... LAG! LAG! LAG!!! It's annoying and I'm gonna need to figure something else out! This is a biggg problem because I REALLY wanna do an Early Newgrounds Demo Release but if I can't figure something out, the NG web version will be pretty garbage...

A look at the newer UI Elements in Game!

Conclusion:

A smaller devlog for sure but the next one should be pretty eventful! Pain and progress are all in motion and big stuff is so close I can taste it! Be sure to follow the Catatattack Twitter for more consistent updates!

See you all next time!

Catatattack's Brand New Logo!!!

Hello you FOOLS. Just Kidding I love you. New Devlog is dropping MUCH faster than the last huh? And I've got CRAZY amount of progress to show off so let's cut to the chase!

Catatattack's Brand New Logo!!!

What's Up?:

If you've been keeping up with these devlogs then you'd know I've been whining ON AND ON about not knowing how to draw backgrounds. Well Months of practice later and I've made enough progress to confidently get on with the game! I studied Perspective, @MindChamber and Alien Hominid Invasion's Background Art extensively and eventually pulled off a style I like! Consider this hurdle JUMPED! WOOOOOOO!!!

Background Art for Area 2 of the Junkyard!

With such a major shortcoming overcome, I've finished about HALF OF THE JUNKYARD!

On top of ALL this, I've fixed some critical problems that were getting under my skin. Kitt (The Helper Cat that follows you around) is way more proactive during combat locks instead of standing around and waiting for an enemy to lock onto her! The Dialogue System has also been updated and optimized! It notably dropped the FPS from 2000 to 68, which is uh... bad? Basically, a LOT of "For Loops" were being run every frame instead of just once! The spirit of Yandere Dev took me over for a bit. Don't worry, I took a shower so I'm good now.

Updated Dialogue System in Action!

All this plus general optimizations means that not only is the first level going to be finished faster than I expected, but it'll be way BETTER than I expected! Of course there are also some limitations...

What's Wrong?!:

I've been testing the HTML5 Build specifically for the eventual Newgrounds upload of the game but as you'd expect there've been some issues... First off, obviously the desktop is already going to be FAR more optimized since GameMaker is made for it. When it comes to HTML5, GameMaker converts the code the best it can but there's limits of course. The FPS drops quite a bit AND certain problems slip through the cracks on the engine's end that I can't really solve. I'll try to optimize it as much as I can but I'll say that it'll probably be a bit underpowered on the NG release.

Background Art for Area 1 of the Junkyard!

Conclusion:

The game is making steady and constant progress and as I get core systems done, later work will be such a breeze! I can't wait to see my winning vision in action! Up next I'll be starting the first Mini-Boss of the game: Prissy and Princess!

I plan to make a demo publicly available once The Junkyard and Mafia Hideout: Floor 1 are complete! Perhaps a Kickstarter to ensure I can bring on talented people to help out with the game! First of course, I need to build an audience so be sure to follow the Catatattack Twitter for more consistent updates!

See you all next time! Hopefully with a near finished Junkyard!

Catatattack Poster!

HELLO AGAIN, hot as hell innit? Been a bit too, the last REAL Devlog was back in FEBRUARY?! Well worry not dear 3 people who actually read these. We're at Devlog #6 and progress has been made as it often does!

JordoJams, Talented Musician!

What's Up?:

The starting portion of the game is fully planned out! The tricky part is actually doing it, which will run a bit smoother with some help! @RizumuPlus is now on the team as an Animator and thanks to their help, Two new enemy types have joined the fray!

Stray Katz, the standard cat enemies chase you around and attack you when they get close!

Chunk Katz, the chubby cat enemies launch themselves at you as cat cannonballs!

What a Chaotic Scene!

These two enemies were animated and programmed in record time thanks to the combo play with @RizumuPlus so big shoutout to 'em! Much more progress was made as well including a tutorial and systems that will be important in the future!

Chunk Kat's Favorite Past Time!

A gameplay demo of Catatattack has been available to play in person at the NYC Indie Dev Night every 4th Thursday! An official demo release won't happen for a while, mainly to ensure a good, polished chunk of content is available to play. When the time comes, I will NOT shut up about it. Until then!

Catatattack Controls and Graphics

What's Next?:

Along with many miscellaneous fixes and changes in the game's code and design, the plans for the game's beginning have been put in action. Instead of a random tutorial and boss encounter to get people up to speed, as I initially planned, there is going to be a proper dedicated prologue level to the game to put our BEST foot forwards. Catat and Kitt invade a Junkyard run by DeeJay's Kat Krew to get info on the humans that got on their bad side.

Stray Kat and Chunk Kat's inclusion makes up a MAJOR chunk of content for these plans but everything from here on out is going to be more difficult to get into.

The First Bosses of the game has been designed and planned, Prissy and Princess as the prologue's Mini Boss Encounter and Deejay as the prologue's proper Boss Encounter! These two are your introduction to the many Boss encounters that'll pop up throughout the game.

The Bratty Kitten "Prissy" and her faithful BullDog "Princess"!



Along with these two, Hank is going to make a cameo in Cat form as a Mini Boss! Though he'll come up in person at the NYC Indie Dev Night and the full demo when the time comes.

Deejay, Leader of the Junkyard Kat Krew!

Conclusion:

It's been a year since Catatattack's Development began, a lot has happened and a lot more will happen in the future. If you ever want to see the progress in person or say hello, swing by the NYC Indie Dev Night and see what's been cooked up! If NYC is too far you could always check out the progress on the Catatattack Twitter Account! I CAN'T wait to show you all what's coming up, Until next time!

New Catatattack Logo!

Hello and Happy Cinco De Mayo!

We're at Devlog #5.5, an odd number but it'll make sense I swear!

The Start of a Cat Storm...

What's Up?:

I had to halt development for a while to animate some long for projects I've been at for a while, so not much progress has been made other than a visual upgrade and some UI stuff!

Catatattack Visual Comparison!

Now, for the important news. If you want to a chance to play Catatattack in person there's an opportunity coming up sometime soon! The game will be exhibiting at the NYC Indie Dev Night on May 23rd! So if you're nearby at the time, feel free to swing by and hang out!

Indie Dev Night Flyer!

Conclusion:

This Devlog was definitely a lot less eventful but hopefully if you can swing by, you'll get a chance to see what I've been working on in person! See ya when a real Devlog comes around sometime soon!

New Catatattack Logo!

Hello and Happy Valentines Day!

We've made it to Devlog #5 and a surprising amount of progress has been made!

The Start of a Cat Storm...

Progress So Far:

Rotten Alleyway

One of the most important areas in the game has finally come to life! I brought up plenty of times that backgrounds are my weak point, so I hunkered down and made something happen! So now we have the first hub area of the game set up!

The first hub area in the game: The Rotten Alleyway!

Finalized Animations!

I got around to the fixing up more of the Attack Animations in the game.

The only remaining attacks to do are the Aerial Light Attacks and the Grounded Heavy Attack!

Catat's New Attack Animations: Grounded Light Attacks!

Revised Dialogue Code!

I had to refactor a TON of my code for how the dialogue works in the game. The way I had it going before, it was just a simple typewriter effect that checked how much of the dialogue should be drawn. But that still meant that the entire thing was just one solid string. If I wanted to add text effects it'd be basically impossible unless I set up the code to draw every letter to the screen separately. So I did! And It works perfectly!

New Dialogue System allows for Color, Shake, And Wave Effects!

Kitt's Design!

Kitt's design has been finalized and I'm ready to start animating her! So far she's just been a second Catat following you around but not anymore! She has a ways to go before she's caught up with Catat but I'll be chipping away at it whenever I can!

Kitt's Design Side by Side with Catat!

New Music!

Catatattack has the First Song in it's OST: From the Top by @JordoPriceNG

This is gonna be the music for the initial tutorial section of the game! I can't wait to get around to it!

Visualizer for the JordoJams' Upload

What's Next?:

Everything is proceeding smoothly! Hopefully, I can get the Tutorial Section done in about a month or two. Then I'll be on good time to get some real levels done and ready for a Newgrounds Demo! I was thinking on the possibility of a Newgrounds High Score Contest for the Demo but I'll worry about that later!

Conclusion:

A lot more has happened than I expected to 2 weeks but I only see this as a good thing! If I can keep this pace I'm sure I could get even more people hyped up for the game when I have something proper to show for it! I'll be back with more!!!

New Catatattack Logo!

Hello and Happy uhhh... TUESDAY YEAH!

It's Devlog #4 for Catatattack and I've got some stuff to share!

Thumbnail for Catatattack's Mobile Game Jam Submission

Progress So Far:

Firstly, there is a new twitter account dedicated to the progress of Catatattack! Follow if you're interested in more consistent updates!

GUNNER ENEMY TYPE IS COMPLETE!

Both the Brawler and Gunner Enemy Types have been fully completed, start to finish! Which means the human enemies for the early demo are complete!

Additional Polish

The Debug Level has been polished up substantially!

There's a bit more detail in the background and a simple particle effect in the air around you.

There's a new Chromatic Aberration effect when you get hit.

A P1 Symbol Appears if you move too far from your teammate in Co Op

Errors with unplugging Gamepads have been solved.

Problems with Pausing and Particle Effects have been solved.

Problems with Dialogue infinitely looping have been solved.

Polished Debug Area with the Gunner!

What's Next?:

Next up on the chopping block is finalizing a bunch of the animations that have been placeholders and starting the first Stray Kat enemy of the game. The Stray Kats are required for the tutorial I'll need to make so this is an important next step! Similarly I'll need to work on designing and adding Kitt to replace the duplicate Catat that follows you around!

This should take a while but after all this, I'll be able to start the tutorial section of the game and move on from there to making the first level! We're almost there!

Progress is being made at a steady rate which is great! But it is clear that this game will take a while to complete. At some point I may look for help with things I can and can't do to speed up production. But that's a future me issue.

Roadblocks:

The roadblocks in production aren't necessarily related to the game itself but rather things that I have to do separate from the game. I'm a GED Teacher, which is a pretty time consuming jobs, and also an animator for SmashBits. I have another video to do for them and lesson plans to make and teach so Catatattack development will be slowed as a result. Also I plan to make another game for Pico Day 2024! Essentially, a lot will be happening that will be eating up Catatattack's development time so thing will likely be slowing down from here.

Conclusion:

As more work is done I get closer and closer to a Demo Release and hopefully finding a publisher will to invest in my ideas. It's hard to advertise what I'm making due to the game being so unfinished but if I can get enough people excited about Catatattack, I'm certain I can make it pay off with the game's release! I'll see you all in 2 weeks with another progress update!

New Catatattack Logo!

Hello and Happy New Years!

We're on Devlog #3 for Catatattack and some big stuff has happened!

Thumbnail for Catatattack's Mobile Game Jam Submission

Progress So Far:

New Attack: Pouncing

When you dive onto an enemy you pounce them, which works as a grab which you can use to launch the grabbed enemy into the other, slam them to the ground, or bounce off of them for a quick escape!

Brawler Enemy Type

The first enemy type has been completed! This enemy type is the Brawler enemy who chases you down and tries to hit you with an attack or dash attack. But more importantly with the creation of this enemy, I now have a complete base for every enemy type moving forward! This will make creating enemies for the game a whole lot more streamlined!

Updated Catatattack Combat Gameplay!

Gunner Enemy Type Plans

The second enemy type has been started! The gunner is going to be a long ranged enemy type that locks onto you for their attack and keeps a fine distance. I've only just started their animations but things are looking good!

Gunner Inactive Idle, Activate, and Active Idle Animations

Buddy Character and Combat Locking

The buddy character that would follows you around, now properly fights with you during combat sections while enemies spawn! During these sections, you're locked to a certain position of the screen and have to clear out all the enemies to proceed, standard "Beat Em' Up" mechanics!

Demo Plans:

When I do nail down the demo, I want it to include 2 levels from both the Mafia and Police Paths for the game as well as the intro and tutorial sections of the game. This means I'd need 5 cutscenes, the first boss for both Police and Mafia, Cat Enemy Types for the Vent Combat and Tutorial, and 6 Enemy Types with Male and Female variants. In other words it'll be a lot, mostly because Catatattack hasn't proven itself as a game concept yet. And the demo is my first real chance to make that happen. Cultivating an audience isn't an easy endeavor after all, and the occasional twitter post has it's limits in that regard so that demo is the real kicker here.

I plan to post it on Newgrounds first and Steam a week later, as a thank you to the site for making the game a reality with that initial Game Jam. If I could I'd hide some Newgrounds easter eggs around, but I'm not too sure how the copyright on that would work.

I'm not too big a fan of doing a Kickstarter or something like that because it seems like a lot more pressure than I can handle, but that won't be a concern for a while.

Princess Kattayy Design!

Conclusion:

With the next enemy type on the horizon, soon I'll be able to safely start the intro and Tutorial sections of the game without past development issues popping up and confusing me! As of now I'm still lacking in background art capability, I do have someone I can commission for music! JordoPrice is gonna help out on the music end! As far as the game's creation goes, I still need to make a proper demo and first I'll need to set up the initial systems of the game.

I've actually made a crazy jump in progress with that first enemy type, so I just need to keep this up. Sooner or later I'll need to say goodbye to the debug level I've been using and move onto more interesting matters! As always, more stuff has been wrapped up and I have a clear path for what needs to happen for the game to thrive.

New Catatattack Logo!