Update 1.002 is now live!

AI Vendetta has been out for a while but that doesn’t mean we’ve stopped developing it! We’ve been looking at some of the bugs that were still left in the game as well as possible improvements to the game. Therefore, we’ve come up with several bug fixes but also some improvements to the game, focusing mainly on making the AI more challenging by adding new behaviors and refining the existing ones. Additionally, it’s the holiday season, so we’ve added a festive surprise to the game as well as bonus content for those who complete the game! So give AI Vendetta a chance if you haven't already, it's on sale on Steam until the 2nd of January! Happy holidays!

Be sure to let us know your thoughts on the game, especially if you run into any issues while playing!
You can reach us here, on Steam and through our website.

Below is a list of all the changes for update 1.002, note: this list may contain spoilers! Don’t read any further if you don’t want to see spoilers for the game!

Updates 1.002:

Features

• New extras menu that can be unlocked by completing the game.
• Collect all secrets and play the original Beta levels.
• A Festive surprise!

General

• Boss 3 difficulty tweaks to add more challenge.
• Boss 3 fixed missing particles.
• Player rocket fire rate has been slightly increased.
• Added additional explanation about wind funnels to sector 3 Level 2.
• Fixed issue where in certain situations you could not damage Boss 5 during phase 2.
• Fixed issue where the player’s magnet ability would sometimes stay enabled during boss 5 after releasing an obstacle.
• Fixed issue where the profile page would not correctly update after having completed the game.
• Fixed level select issue when the last played level was the final boss fight.
• Fixed issue in terminal where the arrow keys/controller would navigate incorrectly through buttons.

AI

• AI characters now have an investigation state where they will try to immediately look in the direction they were hit from.
• Smash Robot has been buffed to be slightly faster in its movement and attacks and has increased vision range.
• Turrets now have motion prediction to more accurately shoot at the player.

Motion prediction in action!

You can also read about this update on Steam.

Update 1.001 is now live!

Just two weeks ago AI Vendetta launched after several years of development. The run up to the release and the time after have been really exciting for us as we hope you have been (or will be) enjoying the game. We have of course also been playing the game and have been tinkering and tweaking it ever since. That is why today we want to announce the first update to the game to address some issues and improve the game further. Should you run into any issues or have feedback, be sure to let us know! Feel free to reach out to us here, on Steam or through our website with any questions or feedback!

Below is a list of all the changes for update 1.001, note: this list may contain spoilers! Don’t read any further if you don’t want to see spoilers for the game, but rest assured we are doing our very best to keep improving the game!

Updates 1.001:

• Added version number to main menu page and home page.
• Disabled controller input when Steam overlay is active.
• Option menu items can now be unfocused by pressing B when playing with controller.
• Controls-, Options-, Credits- and Level Select screens now exit/cancel when pressing ESC or the B button on controller.
• Added destruction particles and sound effects for debris and protective energy shields.
• The right trigger on controller can now be used for primary actions (shoot-, laser- & magnet ability) in addition to pressing the A button.
• The left trigger on controller can now be used for secondary actions (long distance magnet ability) in addition to pressing the X button.
• Proximity mine now has damage range indicator.
• Fixed issue where a turret in level 3 of the first sector could not rotate correctly and wasn’t able to hit Proto at all angles.
• Reduced Proto’s recovery time after using the Ground-Pound ability from 1.5 to 0.9 seconds.
• Added dialog to level 2 of sector 3 to explain that Proto’s Ground-Pound ability can also break certain objects and can stun enemies for a short period of time.
• The title screen now prompts to “Press any button to start” when a controller is connected, instead of “Press any key to start”
• “Cannot transform” sound effect volume balanced.
• Fixed “ammo depleted” sound effect not playing.
• Fixed proximity mine explosion sound not playing.

You can also read about this update on Steam.

AI Vendetta launched

Yesterday was an exciting day as we've finally launched AI Vendetta on Steam! After years of hard work and dedication AI Vendetta is now a reality. We want to thank everyone who supported us so much, without you we couldn't have made it! In the last moments before launch we managed to get a few finishing touches in the build and we will continue to do so in the coming period. Feel free to reach out to us if you run into any problems while playing and we'll help you as best as we can. Enjoy!

Launch Date Confirmed

Today we've got some more exciting news, the time has finally come for us to start wrapping up the project and hit the publish button on Steam. In just a few weeks the game will be available on Steam for everyone to play. In the meantime we will be finishing up the last few tweaks to the store page as well as putting the finishing touches on the game, making sure we can offer you the best possible experience. Our goal is for the game to be available to play on 2019/9/2.

We want to thank everyone that was involved with the game over the years and hope that you'll enjoy playing it as much as we enjoyed creating it! All of your support has meant the world to us and we couldn't have done it without your help!

Our roadmap for the coming weeks:

• August: Final bugs will be fixed and tweaks to the game will be made
• End of August: The store page will go live
• End of August: Full game will be available for Beta players
• Early September: The game will be released (We are aiming for 2019/9/2) 

You can expect another post from us very soon as when the store page is finally unveiled.

2018 Update

Hello! It has been a while but here we are with another update. Today we'll quickly update you on some of the things we've been working on. 2018 has been a busy year for us and we've not been pushing too many updates out! So for starters we are now an official company! Yes, that's right! Our name has been registered and we now even have our own website!

catbytegames.com

Furthermore we've now successfully registered with steam and integrated the steam API into our game, which means: Steam Achievements are now a part of the game! With over 25 achievements in the game there is even more reason to explore and discover the world of AI Vendetta in search of every secret! And yes, we are considering trading cards as well!
Additionally, with our steam and game registration complete we are on our way to handing out beta keys soon.

Because we now have our own website and email addresses, you can expect to receive your very first newsletter as well. For those that have not yet registered for the beta (with a free steam key for the full game) and/or newsletter, you can still subscribe using this google form.

Currently we are still tweaking and tuning the game but we are definitely getting close. Some final cutscenes, polishes in the levels/art and a LOT of testing are all that remains. We always wanted you to have the best experience playing this game and so we keep on working on it. We have recently finished the trailer as well! As you may have noticed we have not quite achieved our set deadline, you can, however, expect the release in Q1 of 2019. We hope to announce the release of the beta steam candidate soon for you to test! You will find that on our website, here on blogger and on our social outlets (Facebook & Twitter).

To end this blog, here are some of our favourite screenshots of the past months!

See you on the next one!

~The Catbyte Team

Merry Christmas & A Happy 2018

Best wishes to everyone during these festive days!
We hope you'll enjoy a lovely Christmas and wish everyone a happy and safe new year!

~The CatByte Team

Soundtrack: Completed!

Hello Everyone!

Welcome back to a new blog about AI Vendetta, this time featuring the completion of our soundtrack! It has definitely been a long while since our previous blog but meanwhile a lot of things have happened: We’ve reached the game’s beta stage, a lot of the graphics got updated, many, MANY bugs were fixed and a lot of the levels were further polished. And now we are very pleased to announce that the soundtrack has also been finished and is available on YouTube and on our website for anyone to enjoy for free. In this blog we’ll be talking a little bit about music in games, the music in AI Vendetta and what inspired us to make it.

Of course, if you want to skip right to the music, you can find it here. And for those who haven’t yet, you can still sign up for beta testing. As soon as we take care of some technicalities we will start sending out keys which you can use to unlock the game on Steam (for free!). Be sure to tell your friends!

The sound of AI Vendetta

We’ve already covered this topic before and will therefore try to keep this blog concise. If you want you can read our full coverage about sounds and music in games and how we designed the music for AI Vendetta using this link.

The importance of sound and music

From a lot of experimenting and researching in the games industry we found that a good game experience and a sense of immersion comes from a unison of multiple factors. At the heart the design of the game; how it works, responds and transforms. Secondly the graphics, this is not just about the aesthetics of the game but also about conveying information, which should be clear and efficient. Finally there is music, but even more importantly: sound. As we mentioned before, try playing a game without music and notice how much sound ties everything together, even the things you cannot see. It generates a sense of awareness, danger, excitement and space. Try watching a horror movie without sound and suddenly it’s not so scary anymore. That is the power of sound.

Inspiration and music in AI Vendetta

For AI Vendetta we had a few themes in mind which had to be persistent throughout the game; it is a puzzle game featuring robots so we have the experimental and mechanical themes on one side, but the setting is also very moody and dark. These themes come together in the soundtrack as you’ll probably hear. One of our greatest inspirations was Portal, a game that lives and breathes the experimental, puzzle and robot themes with a post-apocalyptic twist.
Please feel free to discover the soundtrack here on our website or on YouTube.

Workflow

You may remember this from before, but we have a set workflow when it comes down to designing our audio. It all starts with the setting and story elements in the game. What kind of mood do we try to set? What is the feeling that you want the player to have? How can we improve the immersion of the player in the game and its environment?

The next thing we look for is how we can integrate our thematic choices into a song. What kind of pacing do we need to add? What the player is experiencing in the game? All of that while not overpowering the existing environmental sound(effects).

This eventually, after several iterations, leads to samples which we use to test out if it actually fits in with the game and only then do we expand them into a full sized song. In time we managed to create a soundtrack consisting of 12 songs which will hopefully empower and enrich your game experience.

The soundtrack

Without further ado, we present to you the soundtrack,
created with so much love and attention by our very own Rens van der Meijs:

You can find all of the songs on YouTube or on this webpage

We hope you enjoyed this blog as we’ll try to do more of these in the nearby future until the game officially launches. For those interested, you can subscribe for the beta using this google form. Selected candidates get the game completely free on Steam, but we do hope you’ll give us some feedback in return. ;) Please be sure to tell your friends about the game if you liked it or maybe if you just liked the music as well! Especially in this run up to the launch we can really use all the support we can get! So stay tuned for more!

To all a big thanks from the development team for sticking with us and have yourselves a good day!

~The Catbyte Team

Discover us on