Hey everyone!We’ve got a double feature for you today: the BackerKit Pre-Order Store is officially open, and we’re dropping a full breakdown of what the team’s been working on behind the scenes!
If you have friends who missed out on the live Kickstarter campaign or if you backed a tier earlier and realized you want to grab additional physical loot, then the pre-order store is your chance to get in on the action!
Featured Pre-Order Highlights:
Bill Tiller Kickstarter Exclusive Box Art & Poster: Custom artwork drawn by adventure game legend Bill Tiller (Curse of Monkey Island, The Dig)
Disclaimer: The Bill Tiller Poster is only included as a freebie for those who availed the tier with the Limited Edition Cart or those who purchased a Limited Edition Add-on (regardless of cover choice), and cannot be purchased separately.
Fatman & Team Fat Deluxe OST CD: Features Karl O'Janpa’s full original score for the game, plus brand-new tracks from George Sanger and Joe McDermott, the legendary composers behind the original Zombies Ate My Neighbors soundtrack.
Custom Lethal Wedding Shadowbox: 100% hand-assembled with distinct cut layers that give the key art insane physical depth. Easily one of the coolest physical collectibles in the lineup!
Extra Cartridges, Vinyl LPs & Merch: Pick up standalone Sega Genesis / Mega Drive carts, vinyl records, posters, and extra physical items to complete your collection.
Explore the Pre-Order Store Here: bit.ly/MCSLWPOS
To make sure everyone knows what to expect before locking in their order:
Bill Tiller Box Art Complete-in-Box: 100% Kickstarter Exclusive! Whether paired with a Standard or LE cartridge, CIBs featuring Bill Tiller's cover art are locked to this campaign and will not be sold on our website after pre-orders close.
Standard & LE Carts: Standard copies and a limited supply of the Limited Edition maniacal clown cartridges will hit our website down the road after backer orders ship. However, all future website orders will not feature the exclusive Bill Tiller Box Art nor include the Bill Tiller Poster. See image below for reference!
If you want the full Limited Edition box artwork or Bill Tiller box artwork, this pre-order store is your only chance to get them!
The dev team has been hard at work tuning mechanics, smoothing out performance, and polishing gameplay based directly on playtester feedback. Here is a look at what we've been building:
More Action on Screen: We raised the active enemy limit to 6 or 7 on screen at once.
Spawn Priority: To keep classic hardware running fast without hitting performance walls during packed fights, we implemented a spawn-priority system so combat stays intense and smooth.
Visual Polish: We’re fixing wall textures and layer-sorting glitches across the Mansion and Final Boss stages.
Hedge Maze Level: We’re actively refining the layout, environment art, and visual effects for the Hedge Maze stage to make it stand out.
ROM Optimizations: Fitting everything into vintage cartridge limits came with a few quirky priority bugs (like background elements rendering over characters). We’ve been clearing those out, and recent 2-player co-op test runs are running great.
Balloon Animal Gun Upgrade: We reworked this weapon to include auto-aim, rebalanced its damage and ammo counts, and moved its first drop location so it feels much better to use early on.
Respec Feature & Vows: We removed boring stat boosts (like +10% experience) that didn't feel rewarding. Instead, we're adding a full respec feature so you can reset your vows and reallocate upgrades to test out different builds.
Boss Health Indicators: We’re testing sprite-flashing during boss encounters so hitting bosses gives clear visual feedback.
Environmental Interaction: We’re adding fun details like using the Acid Flower weapon to put out fires scattered through levels.
Spanish Translation Pass: Notes from our Spanish playtesters came in, and updated text strings are being integrated.
Thanks again for keeping the momentum going with us! Head over to BackerKit if you want to grab any of those pre-order physical items, and we'll catch you in the next update. - The Mega Cat Studios Team