Mega Cat Studios is an American

video game development Video game development (sometimes shortened to gamedev) is the process of creating a video game. It is a multidisciplinary practice, involving programming, design, art, audio, user interface, and writing. Each of those may be made up of more speci ...

and publishing company located in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

. It was founded in 2015 by James Deighan, Nick Mann, and Zack Manko. Mega Cat develops and publishes games for computers, consoles,

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

, and physical copy games for

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 typically be played with a game controller. These may be home video game console, home consoles, which are generally ...

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 Sys ...

and the

Nintendo Entertainment System The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on 15 July 1983 as the and was later released as the redesigned NES in several test markets in the ...

. 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, 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 ...

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

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

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 Windows 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 (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central ...

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 Wil ...

, and

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

. The studio has run crowdfunding campaigns on

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

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''. 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, legally incorporated under the name Indie Megacorp, Corp, dedicated to the display and promotion of indie games. It launched at PAX East 2012 and continued to only appear at PAX events before ...

, including the aforementioned ''Log Jammers'' as well as ''Little Medusa'', ''Coffee Crisis'', and ''Fork Parker's Crunch Out''. 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 British company Blaze Entertainment. It focuses on retrogaming with ROM cartridges that each contain a number of emulated games. The Evercade was released on 22 May 2020, and ...

gaming system. In 2024, it was announced that Mega Cat Studios is collaborating with Playground Productions in rebooting the ''

Backyard Sports ''Backyard Sports'' (originally branded as ''Junior Sports'' and then ''Humongous Sports'') is a video game series released for consoles, computers, and mobile devices created by Humongous Entertainment. The series is best known for starring a d ...

'' franchise, which was originally created by

Humongous Entertainment Humongous, Inc. (formerly Humongous Entertainment, Inc.) was an American video game developer based in Bothell, Washington. Founded in 1992, the company developed multiple edutainment franchises, most prominently ''Putt-Putt (series), Putt-Putt' ...

. Various projects for the franchise have been announced, such as rereleases of several early ''Backyard Sports'' titles and a new untitled game, which is stated to include updated features for a new generation of gamers while keeping the feel of the original games.

Games

References

External links

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