How a shelf of SNES cartridges and a cat called Mia inspired Astro Burn

Development on Astro Burn began in early 2025 as an indie project I developed and financed myself, after years of directing film, TV and game cinematics. I wanted to make something that captured what I loved about the 16-bit arcade era: simple controls, timeless pixel art and immediate fun. "What if the pilot was a space cat?" The idea struck during a simple moment at home. I was staring at my collection of SNES cartridges with a coffee in hand when my cat, Mia, tapped my arm for food. Looking from my cat to the SNES game boxes, I thought: what if the pilot was a space cat? More cat, less spaceship Astro Burn didn't start out as the game it is now. It was first a serious spaceship shooter. But at early events, players kept telling us the same thing: they loved the cat on the poster and wanted more cat, less spaceship. Replaying Super Famicom classics like Konami's Parodius and Pop'n TwinBee convinced me to drop the traditional sci-fi tropes, embrace pure personality and turn the project into an unapologetically bonkers cute-em-up. The team behind the game What began as a solo project grew into an international collaboration: HaZ Dulull – Game Director, Producer and Developer, founder of Beyond The Pixels Taq (Q) Yoneda – Art Director, who shaped the game's 90s Konami-inspired pixel-art look Andrea Tedeschi – CTO and Lead Programmer, based in Italy Our pixel art team , including women of colour, who brought diverse creative perspectives to the sprite animation Venice Bleach – Audio Director, who composed the 90s synthwave and drum & bass soundtrack Ned Shoaei – accessibility advocate, whose early feedback inspired the game's Mono High Contrast Mode Get the Astro Burn Collector's Edition : 5 random art cards, 2 stickers (one holographic) and a DRM-free copy of the full game for Windows and macOS.