Factsheet

Developer:
Lab Cat Games
Based in Eugene, Oregon

Founding date:
January 10, 2015

Website:
labcatgames.net/press

Press / Business contact:
labcatgames@gmail.com

Social:
Steam
Twitter
Facebook
IndieDB
itch.io

Releases:
Kite
Cgi-bin

Address:
1854 Kent Lane
Eugene OR, 97404

Phone:
5415201796

Description

Kite is the flagship project of Lab Cat games, a one person development studio with a love of old school gaming. The distinctive retro-future setting, synthwave soundtrack and pixel art style are hallmarks of Kite and the kind of nostalgic experiences Lab Cat Games aims to produce.

History

Early history

Founded in 2014 by James Treneman, Lab Cat Games began with a long walk off a short pier. Quitting his management job to persue a lifelong dream of making games, James took the plunge into gamedev head first. Inspired by childhood favorites such as Zombies Ate My Neighbors, Smash TV and The Chaos Engine, he feverishly learned Gamemaker Language and started the development of Kite. Within weeks an early prototype came to be and friends were encouraged to give it a shot. It was a top down run and gun with loads of mechanics. Feedback was positive - he had found the fun! It was drek visually, but gameplay was strong and showed potential. Mechanics and features were piled on with glee until the controls became so unwieldy even the designer couldn't remember what buttons fired what weapons. The ship was listing and cargo needed to be dumped...

Kite Alpha

Slowly the Combat Sim/Dungeon Crawl/Story Driven/Stat Fest/Monster Hunter/RPG scope was whittled away until an actual game, and just one, could be seen taking shape. In a similar fashion, programmer art began to look more like production art and early programming started to look more like drek. Refactoring and scope cutting continued, and although at an excruciating pace, social media and promotional skills were even tacked on. The rough honing of the stone complete, Kite's structure was clear and James' vision was now a fully playable game.

Today

Kite will leave Early Access in March, and Steam keys are available for review purposes! GG and thanks for checking out Kite!

Projects

Videos

Kite Trailer YouTube

Images

download all screenshots & photos as .zip (4MB)
gameplay1.png
Intro 1.png
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gameplay2.png
scene1.png
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gameplay5.png
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art3.png
scene2.png
company1.png
company2.png
menu1.png
menu2.png
art0.png
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menu3.png
scene0.png
art4.png
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gameplay3.png

There are far more images available for Lab Cat Games, but these are the ones we felt would be most useful to you. If you have specific requests, please do contact us!

There are currently no logos or icons available for Lab Cat Games. Check back later for more or contact us for specific requests!

Awards & Recognition

    Selected Articles

    • "High octane objective based combat!"
      - Highsight, highsight.tv
    • "Impressive dungeon crawling bullet hell sci fi action RPG."
      - Aaron Williams, Alpha Beta Gamer
    • "You can't fault this game for it's arsenal of weaponry."
      - Highsight, highsight.tv
    • "MY GOD THIS MUSIC IS AMAZING"
      - Random Twitch Viewer, twitch.tv

    Steam Early Access
    Follow and Play Kite on Steam! store.steampowered.com.

    Alpha Build
    Download Kite Alpha from itch.io labcatgames.itch.io.

    Imgur Galleries
    Various Screen Shots and GIFs imgur.com.

    Team & Repeating Collaborator

    James Treneman
    Designer, Programmer, Artist

    Liam Hanley
    Colaborative Composer

    Contact

    Inquiries
    labcatgames@gmail.com

    Twitter
    twitter.com/kitegame

    Facebook
    facebook.com/kitethegame

    Blog
    kitegame.wordpress.com

    presskit() by Rami Ismail (Vlambeer) - also thanks to these fine folks