- Update on Ziggy - Chief Financial Officer - 3 August 2026
It is with great sadness I need to inform this community that Ziggy, Chief Financial Officer of Ionized Games, passed away over the weekend. Unfortunately he had a steady decline in health since his diagnoses in May of Osteosarcoma which is very aggressive bone cancer. It's kind of weird posting this on a video game's "news" channel but a lot of people knew this dog through here so it felt even weirder not saying anything. From community events of guessing his breed, to following his promotions in the company, and of course playing the game everyone here has experience his inspiration to some degree. I think it's also worth mentioning, myself and my family are not nearly as sad as I worried we would be. Ziggy had an incredible life and travelled all over the U.S. He got to climb literal mountains, swim in oceans, gulfs, and lakes, made hundreds of friends (mainly dogs but also a cat and…
- Spooky Halloween Event - 30 October 2022
This is totally random but, if you want to try something totally different check out our new game The Backrooms https://store.steampowered.com/app/1825160/The_Backrooms/ This wasn't exactly planned but when working on Episode II there were a number of new features we were trying to implement surrounding dozens of AI perceptions operating in a single environment And of course dynamic water A single player horror survival game that places you in a maze of rooms and hallways with terrifying creatures. Run through a dozen unique rooms to stay alive as long as possible... and maybe even escape. Keep your camcorder ready to capture some of the horrors of The Backrooms. Maybe the next unfortunate soul will find the recordings... for better or worse.
- Android Awakening - 15 September 2022
This patch focuses on bringing some of the effects and systems like footprints, trails, volumetric effects and lighting, and IK kinematics used in CAT Interstellar: Episode II https://store.steampowered.com/app/1572950/CAT_Interstellar_Episode_II Shown here: Update 6.2.0: Androids The Androids have all been upgraded to be a little more... life-like... with a series of features like IK kinematics and better animations. They've been optimized to allow for dozens of them to be interacting on screen at once. The trail system tracks a distance of 500 meters and changes how fast it fills in based on the type of weather. Oh, and you might experience some different weather on the surface. This is not a content update but there is additional dialog and some environmental enhancements... Linux There is currently an issue with the Linux build affecting Chapter 6. I have isolated the issue between…
- CAT Update 6.1.0 - 9 August 2022
This is the first major content update in a while. I've been primarily focusing on CAT Interstellar: Episode II but development has taken a little longer than I expected so I thought I would push some more content to the original in the mean time. So, UPDATE 6.1.0 (Win/Linux) THE CAT!!!! The Cat character in Chapter 5 has been totally revamped from the ground up. New meshes, new logic, and even a new fur system. Levels - Chapter 0 has an additional level select terminal so you don't have to walk the full length on each play through. Chapter 1 has a substantial increase in destructible meshes and dynamic objects. Chapter 2 has some new lighting and sky features with more to come. Chapter 3 has new lighting and additional destructible meshes. Chapter 4 has a number of optimizations to the destructible aspects and increased texture resolutions. Chapter 5 has a number of improvements to the…
- CAT Interstellar: Recast Release - 4 February 2022
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1684710/CAT_Interstellar_Recast/ Purpose So, CAT Interstellar: Recast was an effort to explore and learn all the new features in Unreal Engine 5 in the hope of using it for Episode II... https://store.steampowered.com/app/1572950/CAT_Interstellar_Episode_II I don't want to say this effort was a mistake (it wasn't) but: It took a lot longer than expected due to bugs in the early access version of the engine Ultimately doesn't offer as solid of a build even with increased system specs Higher system specs exclude a large part of the community What it does offer is some incredible leaps in visual fidelity using tech like nanite meshes and lumen global illumination. Outcome I am glad we did this little side project though because I was ~100% convinced this was the right approach to take with Episode II. What I should have known and what became obvious over…
- Lights, Camera, Screenshot Event!!! - 3 September 2021
New DOG VII model We commissioned Ionut, the original designer of DOG, to make an ultra hi-poly version that leveraged Unreal Engine 5's nanite mesh Technology. The resulting model is about 500,000 polygons and is a huge improvement in terms of fidelity and detail. Screenshot tool We were able to implement PULSAR BYTES Cine Cam as a screenshot tool so players have a lot more control over their in-game screenshots. You can see the screenshot tool in action here: Optimizations Even though this game has substantially higher minimum requires over the first - I think it's still important to keep optimizing where we can. We've reworked a number of the lighting components that should improve Chapters 1 and 5. We've made some improvements to the Chaos Physics System. This allows us increased collision resolution and almost double the number of debris while still hitting 120fps. We've also total…
- CAT Interstellar: Recast Developer Live Stream - 13 August 2021
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1684710/CAT_Interstellar_Recast/ We're going to be live streaming development of the upgraded CAT Interstellar. Working on the cave environment. We're gonna stream here for an hour then switch to RECAR
- CAT Interstellar: Recast Available NOW! - 12 August 2021
CAT Interstellar: Recast is now available on the Steam store. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1684710/CAT_Interstellar_Recast/ Broadcast link https://steamcommunity.com/broadcast/watch/76561198165474704 We'll be doing broadcasts for most of the day so feel free to drop in even if it's just to tell us what we did wrong. Seriously, If you've followed this game for any amount of time you know that I genuinely appreciate your feedback even if it's bad and respond to everything.... You could also just say "Hi". I don't want to tell you what to do. Otherwise, we'll be highlighting some of the development that went into the revamped version of the game like: Environment Upgrades: Photoscanned meshes we made ourselves: Improved cat animations: Heck, Ziggy might even make an appearance if he ever wake up. If you have any technical questions on how we did anything definitely ask those too. As…
- CAT Interstellar: Remastered Announcement - 23 July 2021
So, you might have noticed we launched a Steam store for a Remastered version of CAT Interstellar using the Unreal Engine 5. I will now attempt to explain Why we decided to remaster the original Improvements made to the game Why we made it a separate application How owners of the original can get access before release This post goes out to GraVE. Feel free to comment on any of his three separate threads but please spread them equally. Remastered? Episode 2 ? Remastered? Episode 2 ? Remastered? Episode 2 ? https://store.steampowered.com/app/1684710/CAT_Interstellar_Remastered Why Waste Your Time Remastering Trash. We want Episode II Remastering the first game was definitely not in the original plan... but then Unreal Engine 5 was launched. We knew the sequel, CAT Interstellar: Episode II, would almost certainly be developed using the new engine and the original CAT Interstellar game was…
- Prologue - 1 May 2021
Encrypted Message from Colonel Alexander - Sergeant Gary Freeman, your leave request has been denied indefinitely. I’m sure you expected as much but I hate to be the one to officially decline it. I understand you have a son back on Earth but we require your immediate attention. We do not yet know all the details that led to the collapse of our Martian SkyLift network nor the likelihood of the complete planetary destruction of Mars. Stabilizing the degradation of the plant and analyzing the potential of orbital debris impacting Earth has been rightfully allocated to the Army’s Corp of Engineers. Our responsibilities, as usual, are more direct in nature. The catalyst that started the destruction of our SkyLift network began in Sector 17 and cascaded around the equator of the planet. Military Intelligence has discovered several unusual work orders and taskings in that sector but, most nota…
- Community Live Stream - 27 April 2021
I've never done one of these live streams before but we have to gin up support somehow so... Let's do a Face Reveal!?! Ionized Games face reveal for 1 million followers and a billion dollars!!! Ziggy, Our Chief Financial Officer might even make an appearance! We'll take an inside look at Episode II And even see how close I've gotten to porting the Episode I over to UE4.26! April 26, at 7:15 CST That's 4,4370 minutes from the posting of the message. Join The Discord Server!!! Watch Here
- CAT Interstellar: Episode II - 22 April 2021
Finally I am so flippin excited to announce what everyone probably already guessed: CAT Interstellar: Episode II That's right, we're officially developing the second installment of the CAT Interstellar series and it's gonna be nuts!!! We got Martian Rovers, Marines hunting Android 42, possibly the ability to fly this thing and best of all - some closure to the story arc ːDOGV4ːːDOGV4ːːDOGV4ːːDOGV4ːːDOGV4ː Head over to the new store page now for CAT Interstellar: Episode II for more content, story, and development updates. Thank You I mainly wanted to you this post to thank everyone who helped to support this game. Development of Episode I was incredibly difficult, frustrating, and there were times I genuinely thought about giving up and abandoning the game in Steam's Early Access graveyard. It's a sad reality that most all indie games never make it to a full release. I didn't realize th…
- (Pre) Big Announcement - 17 March 2021
Price hike You read that correctly, against all conventional thinking I’m actually going to raise the price of this game to $9.99 USD. The one thing I want all the newcomers here to know is… we have no idea what we’re doing. Seriously, not a clue. BUT I’ve learned a little bit over the last 5 years releasing this game on Steam and the PlayStation Store and I can assure you I won't make an extra dime directly by raising the price. "How is that possible?!?" You might ask. It's simple, nobody buys this game. We only sell ~1 unit a week If the game isn’t on sale and I still intend to do HEAVY sales like we always have. So, if you’re thinking about buying the game before the price increase DON’T!!! wait until the next sale on April 22nd and pick it up for $0.99!!! So why increase the price? One thing I learned too late is that companies must make money to stay in business. Not us though beca…
- Turing Canyon - 28 February 2021
Turing Canyon A favorite site among Martian Advertiser selling the idea of a terraformed Mars. Turing Canyon was formed from millions of gallons of defrosted water runoff caused by the initial nuclear bombardment stage of the planet. The storm pressure above the canyon raises the barometeric pressure to 9psi allowing for larger Earth origin fauna and flora to live without pressure suits. Rovers are required to traverse the terrain.
- Intercepted Communications - 3 February 2021
- Update 5.1.0 (Pay-2-Win) - 11 August 2019
https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F9834686%2Fa7c32fc5159cf34bc9b4e5b65065db7d9860d81e.jpg Ziggy, our junior programmer, has shown incredible potential in economic theory and so we’ve promoted him to Chief Financial Officer. His first act as CFO is to dramatically increase profits by making CAT Interstellar a Pay-To-Win… er… I mean, Free-To-Play game. https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F9834686%2F62467eb439619566c57e329800580ebc64245015.jpg It is worth noting that Kitty, the Treasurer at Ionized Games, has concerns that a single player game with no microtransactions, streaming income, or advertisers could potential fail to generate any profit but... We try not to take cats too seriously so… On August 27th CAT Interstellar will be 100% free!!! On a more serious note, I wanted to thank everyone for their support of this goofy littl…
- Version 5.0.0 - Release - 6 October 2017
Barring any major bugs discovered this will be the version used for the full release. Why do a Full Release? CAT Interstellar was always intended to be about an hour long and tell a very short story about an unfortunate event on Mars. I think it meets the requirements of the original design document. Regardless, doing a Full Release has a number of benefits, one of them being my psyche, with the other two being that I can focus a lot more time on support issues like VR and Localization. What’s Next? I know a significant number of you see a lot more potential in this game but keep in mind, nothing is lost. We’ve built a number of systems, pipelines, and mechanics that will absolutely be used again (and should eventually be available to you through the project files). This isn’t the end of the CAT Interstellar universe either. Earth is still a frozen wasteland with a population of just un…
- Version 5.0.0 - Release - 6 October 2017
Barring any major bugs discovered this will be the version used for the full release. Why do a Full Release? CAT Interstellar was always intended to be about an hour long and tell a very short story about an unfortunate event on Mars. I think it meets the requirements of the original design document. Regardless, doing a Full Release has a number of benefits, one of them being my psyche, with the other two being that I can focus a lot more time on support issues like VR and Localization. What’s Next? I know a significant number of you see a lot more potential in this game but keep in mind, nothing is lost. We’ve built a number of systems, pipelines, and mechanics that will absolutely be used again (and should eventually be available to you through the project files). This isn’t the end of the CAT Interstellar universe either. Earth is still a frozen wasteland with a population of just un…
- Update 4.0.1 (Story) - 11 August 2017
TL;DR this is the full story of CAT Interstellar with the subtitle system re-vamped. This build is worth another play-through from beginning to end. Content Cave scene ending with all triggers and key events. Signals full sequence of events. Credits completed. Added additional dialog sequences to “The Base” and “Credits”. Adjustments Added a second Android type. Adjusted mechanics of the Cat character to make the movement a little smoother. Speech Bubbles (Subtitles) are now enabled by default. Bug fixes Missing rocks allowed the player to get behind the wind tunnel. Numerous subtitle fixes. Known Issues: “Signals” start screen cut off the last ‘L’. Music at the end of “The Caves” is buggy. Key rebinding is still down. Project Files The only thing holding this up is the audio files. I’m trying to commission some audio effects for release under a creative commons license. Once that’s com…
- Update 4.0.1 (Story) - 11 August 2017
TL;DR this is the full story of CAT Interstellar with the subtitle system re-vamped. This build is worth another play-through from beginning to end. Content Cave scene ending with all triggers and key events. Signals full sequence of events. Credits completed. Added additional dialog sequences to “The Base” and “Credits”. Adjustments Added a second Android type. Adjusted mechanics of the Cat character to make the movement a little smoother. Speech Bubbles (Subtitles) are now enabled by default. Bug fixes Missing rocks allowed the player to get behind the wind tunnel. Numerous subtitle fixes. Known Issues: “Signals” start screen cut off the last ‘L’. Music at the end of “The Caves” is buggy. Key rebinding is still down. Project Files The only thing holding this up is the audio files. I’m trying to commission some audio effects for release under a creative commons license. Once that’s com…
