CP Photo: Mars Johnson
James Deighan, founding father of Mega Cat Studios and characters from the sport WrestleQuest
Mega Cat Studios, a Pittsburgh unbiased online game firm, focuses on what founder James Deighan calls “the vinyl of gaming” — eight and 16-bit pixel video games that stability trendy tales with sufficient throwback grit to remind gamers of the early days of home consoles.
“Most of us on the leadership side all grew up in the ’80s, ’90s,” Deighan tells Pittsburgh City Paper. “We probably spent more hours playing video games than any generation before us. It was this interesting moment where we grew up as this industry was developing.”
Although they’re typically ignored for Schell Games — a bigger Pittsburgh-based online game firm — Mega Cat Studios has, since 2016, steadily churned out small RPGs (Role Playing Games), puzzle video games, and different retro titles for old-school programs just like the Sega Genesis. Games resembling Bite the Bullet, Lethal Wedding, and Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood — launched as a part of the recent Nicholas Cage Dracula film — all showcase the corporate’s affinity for pixelated gameplay. Mega Cat’s bite-sized recreation lengths and costs have discovered them a distinct segment, however loyal fan base within the retro gaming neighborhood, and what began as an operation primarily based out of Deighan’s lounge is now a community of distant builders and gaming diehards who collaborate from the corporate’s Polish Hill workplace, fittingly housed in a former creamery.
“It’s the perfect place for a cat-based lair,” quips Deighan.
CP Photo: Mars Johnson
James Deighan, founding father of Mega Cat Studios, works at his desk.
Their latest launch, WrestleQuest, launched throughout all main platforms on Aug. 22, goals to take the corporate in an even bigger course.
“A lot of wrestling games have been made — like 100-plus wrestling games — but none of them have ever been story driven. None have ever been an RPG,” Deighan says. “It’s fun to play as Jake ‘The Snake’ beating up Sgt. Slaughter, but no one’s ever explored, you know, Jake ‘The Snake.’”
The results of 4 years of exhausting work, WrestleQuest, with its practically 50 hours of story and a dozen playable characters, stands out as Mega Cat’s greatest recreation but, Deighan says. The recreation follows the tales of two wrestlers, named “Muchacho Man” and “Brink Logan,” on their journey to professional wrestling stardom. Along the best way, they go by completely different worlds with their very own native champions, whom our two heroes might want to finest to turn into legends within the ring.
Clever homages to real-life wrestlers resembling André the Giant, L.A. Park, and Rocky Johnson populate the sport, in addition to references to the trendy wrestling neighborhood by a podcast character.
All this happens inside a toy world the place the characters are rendered as motion figures, a inventive resolution that provides the sport creators flexibility with the wrestlers’ actions. It additionally performs right into a make-believe facet of wrestling fandom that diehard followers can relate to, says Mega Cat’s head of studio, Zack Manko.
CP Photo: Mars Johnson
Mega Cat Studios launched their new story primarily based wrestling online game known as Wrestle Quest this week. Mega Cat focuses on retro type video video games for brand new consoles.
“We realized how many of our earliest memories weren’t necessarily about what we saw on the TV itself, and more the action figures, and the idea of maybe you have a Macho Man action figure, but you don’t have much else from another wrestler, so you sub in a G.I. Joe or a Skeletor,” Manko tells City Paper. “The idea of these, like, dream matches and this kind of freeform creativity that you have growing up with not a lot of stuff, we wanted to capture in the game.”
Inspired by retro JRPGs (Japanese Role Playing Games), WrestleQuest’s turn-based fight showcases every wrestler’s traits whereas acknowledging the in-game stay viewers. Start spamming the identical assault possibility and also you’ll bore the gang, decreasing your “Hype Meter” ranges and exposing your self to enemy assaults. Need to regenerate your well being? Taunt your fellow opponent and acquire factors on the Hype Meter.
As the sport progresses, you may form your character’s ability set round archetypal wrestling types.
“You might want to make a showboat, whose taunting is way more effective than anybody else’s, but some of his other stats are struggling,” Manko says. “Whereas you might have a powerhouse who doesn’t have a lot of big moves and you can build that up throughout the game.”
Deighan believes a part of the enchantment of video games like WrestleQuest is their accessible gameplay.
CP Photo: Mars Johnson
Posters promoting video video games dangle on a wall within the breakroom of Mega Cat Studios.
“We are generally known for games that are easy to pick up and accessible. Even if you very casually play games, there’s no finger karate needed to play a Mega Cat game,” Deighan says. “They’re intentionally fun for fun’s sake.”
In a world the place most gaming corporations flock to the tech hubs of the West Coast, Mega Cat embraces their Rust Belt roots with what Deighan, a Pittsburgh native, calls their “blue-collar gaming work ethic.”
“We proudly wear these colors,” Deighan says. “When people find us, it’s like ‘Wait, you guys do this full time?’ Part of the fun of our team is that we’re able to attract talent that didn’t know they could work in video games.”
During WrestleQuest’s growth, a lot of the data that was required to flesh out the sport’s world got here from lifelong wrestling buffs on workers. Deighan believes this excessive degree of worker ardour serves to attach Mega Cat with its followers.
“It’s pretty awesome,” says Deighan. “I don’t know what number of corporations get fan mail from job candidates.“
