Mega Cat Studios is an American

video game development Video game development (or gamedev) is the process of developing a video game. The effort is undertaken by a developer, ranging from a single person to an international team dispersed across the globe. Development of traditional commercial PC a ...

and publishing company located in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

, founded in 2015 by James Deighan, Nick Mann and Zack Manko. Mega Cat develops and publishes games for modern platforms and VR (

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), educ ...

), and is known for creating new hard copy games for golden-era

video game console A video game console is an electronic device that Input/output, outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home video game console, home consoles, which are generally placed i ...

s, such as the

Sega Genesis The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Syst ...

and the

Nintendo Entertainment System The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in America ...

. The company also publishes physical releases for other retro developers, such as Old Towers by Retrosouls.

History

Mega Cat was founded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania by James Deighan, Nick Mann and Zack Manko in 2015; they, alongside Nathaniel Wilson, Andrew Marsh, and Lauri Coderbrah produced the studio's first game, Almost Hero, for the

, which generally received a positive reception. A major element of their business model of publishing new video games for "retro systems" has involved including a physical manual and case for each of their releases. Founder James Deighan says that the studio has sought to "recreate that experience of being in the back of your mom’s van coming back from Hills department store opening up the game and reading the instruction manual on the way home." In February 2017, Mega Cat published

Coffee Crisis ''Coffee Crisis'' is a game for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive and Microsoft Windows, developed and published by Pittsburgh-based company Mega Cat Studios. The console version was released on February 24, 2017, as a physical cartridge with printed m ...

for the SEGA Genesis. The game was their first to later receive a

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

port with enhanced features, such as additional modes, a procedurally generated roguelite modifier system, and improved graphics, and was later released on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch. The PC version of Coffee Crisis was published in conjunction with Zerouno Games. To avoid having to bring in investors or otherwise raise funding early on in the studio's history, Mega Cat focused on a balancing contracted work for various brands while continuing work on their own IP. The studio has done contract work for such clients as the

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

Devolver Digital Devolver Digital, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Austin, Texas, specializing in the publishing of indie games. The company was founded in June 2009 by Nigel Lowrie, Harry Miller, Graeme Struthers, Rick Stults, and Mike Wilso ...

, and

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

. The studio has run crowdfunding campaigns on

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

for

Log Jammers ''Log Jammers'' is a sports video game published and developed by Mega Cat Studios. It was released on the Nintendo Entertainment System and is scheduled to be released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One in 2020. ...

and

Phantom Gear Phantom may refer to: * Spirit (animating force), the vital principle or animating force within all living things ** Ghost, the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can appear to the living Aircraft * Boeing Phantom Ray, a stealthy unm ...

. Prior to its crowdfunding campaign, Log Jammers had been an official selection of the 2018 Indie Megabooth and won both the "Best Digital Game Play" and the "Digital Game of the Year" award at Gameacon 2017. A number of the studio's games were featured as part of the

Indie Megabooth The Indie Megabooth is a section at game expositions dedicated to the display and promotion of indie games. It launched at PAX East 2012 and appeared at other PAX events before expanding to other shows including the Eurogamer Expo, Electronic Ent ...

, including the aforementioned Log Jammers as well as Little Medusa,

, and

Fork Parker's Crunch Out In cutlery or kitchenware, a fork (from la, furca 'pitchfork') is a utensil, now usually made of metal, whose long handle terminates in a head that branches into several narrow and often slightly curved tines with which one can spear foods ei ...

. In 2020, ten of the studio's published games were included in a cartridge for the

Evercade The Evercade is a handheld game console developed and manufactured by UK company Blaze Entertainment. It focuses on retrogaming with ROM cartridges that each contain a number of emulated games. Development began in 2018, and the console was rel ...

gaming system.

Games Published

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://MegaCatStudios.com/ 2015 establishments in Pennsylvania American companies established in 2015 Companies based in Pittsburgh Indie video game developers Software companies based in Pennsylvania Video game companies established in 2015 Video game companies of the United States Video game development companies