Catbird Soft
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catbirdsoft.net
Catbird Soft
@catbirdsoft.net
Three-person indie team, currently developing STEEL CARNELIAN, a retro-anime 3D run & gun.

Join our discord: https://discord.gg/qHwEzrygmd
#screenshotsaturday
We're not just focusing on combat with this game - Jenny also will deal with traversal challenges. This room uses timed switches to test her shooting and platforming abilities.
November 29, 2025 at 11:22 PM
I recorded this little montage of different weapons towards the end of our dev cycle. It doesn't have the HUD visible because I had seen some advice about how promo clips look cleaner without the HUD, but after trying this once we all agreed that Splatter's UI was a key part of our appeal.
November 29, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Back with more old Splatter dev posts. Many of the clips in my folder are showing off weapons, like this one showcasing FUCK. We had a pretty large weapon roster on Splatter: the weapons were just finger guns, so animating new ones was very quick and let us slip in a bunch of weird designs.
November 29, 2025 at 3:03 PM
One last one for tonight. In Splatter, we really wanted to poke at the line between the player and player character, so making sure you could express yourself with your character's look was important to us. Plus, who doesn't love a little bedazzling?
November 29, 2025 at 12:31 AM
This was posted <1 month before the game's release. We wanted to show off the new screen gore VFX, so I hopped in session 13 and mulched a few enemies with the rocket launcher.
November 28, 2025 at 9:08 PM
here's a fun one. the fog in that bottomless pit is a shader i got from a tutorial in 2018ish. it's been in every game rat king / catbird has released, because it turns out being able to fade-to-black bits of a level we don't want you to see is really useful!
November 28, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Here's the oldest clip I have of Splatter proper. This is Session 1 before we had figured anything out about our environments, lighting, UI, etc. We did have the core elements locked in very early, though - IIRC our boys were bleeding rainbows within 2 weeks of the project starting.
November 28, 2025 at 4:01 PM
It's Black Friday and Itch Creator Day. Splatter is 50% off on Itch for the next 5 days (buy it here: catbirdsoft.itch.io/splatter). Over the next day or two, I'm gonna post some of our old dev clips of the game from Twitter. Here's one from February 2022.
November 28, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Hey. #screenshotsaturday. Check out our new enemy. This heavy-duty drone deploys barrages of bullets from a distance, and pressures the player with its extendable arms at closer ranges.
November 15, 2025 at 11:15 PM
#screenshotsaturday time. This week we're looking at Jenny's missile system. This weapon is low-damage, but has high stunlock potential and can be used during any of Jenny's actions. Use it for crowd control, starting combos, or during juggles to set up massive finishers.
November 1, 2025 at 9:20 PM
Itch sent us a notification that their halloween sale is on, and we haven't put Splatter on sale on Itch in a while, so hey. 50% off. check out this trailer I cut nearly three years ago.
October 28, 2025 at 12:46 PM
#screenshotsaturday

Been working on a more advanced enemy. This guy plays footsies with the player - closing the gap if they get too far, and backstepping if the player pushes into their space.
October 19, 2025 at 12:42 AM
trying out some new combos with our new super moves #screenshotsaturday
October 5, 2025 at 1:03 AM
oh shit it's the steam autumn sale. guess what: splatter is on sale.
September 29, 2025 at 6:27 PM
we've been doing some work with reactive vfx / sfx & destructible objects to make fights feel messier and more chaotic.
September 28, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Melee chain > dash cancel > launcher > finisher
#screenshotsaturday
September 20, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Here's a quick look at the next thing we're working on. If you played the Steel Carnelian pilot, you might recognize the protagonist. #screenshotsaturday
September 7, 2025 at 12:55 AM
alt text
August 28, 2025 at 12:42 AM
August 28, 2025 at 12:38 AM
Here's something we've been sitting on for a minute: the Steel Carnelian Pilot OST is coming to streaming on 8/15! This album contains all in-game tracks by @heronoodle.bsky.social and Wuxsoplunty, plus an original remix featuring contributions by both artists. Cover art by @lllinkle.bsky.social.
July 26, 2025 at 5:30 PM
doing some jenny death style tests this week.
June 21, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Hey it's #screenshotsaturday. This week, we put together a patch that resolves a few issues players had with visibility and difficulty. Cass is now visible behind obstacles, and UI alerts will show the position of offscreen enemies.
The patch also contains a lot of bugfixes and polish improvements!
June 14, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Steel Carnelian is a high-octane 3D run and gun. Take control of Cass, a down-on-her-luck mercenary, as she tackles the biggest job of her career.

-Dodge bullets
-Fire barrages of missiles
-Smash robots with kinetic finishers!

There's a demo out now!
store.steampowered.com/app/3060340
#PitchYaGame
June 6, 2025 at 12:48 PM
Thanks again to everyone who bought Splatter during our little charity drive! We were able to send the donation to TransActual UK out today.
June 5, 2025 at 6:38 PM
hey, it's saturday! Here's a preview of the new update we're gonna drop sometime today (probably this evening). we've added a dev console, letting you load to specific points in the game, adjust the difficulty, or use cheats like godmode! #screenshotsaturday
May 31, 2025 at 3:42 PM