Games made with passion, creative freedom and a sense of humour, because to make great games, you have to be a gamer first.
Black Cat Entertainment was founded 2017 by a professional storyteller and several industry veterans. We named ourselves after the most fun, creative and magical creature we could think of. In some cultures black cats are seen as lucky. In others, the opposite. There's an element of the mystical to them that reflects our ethos.
Our mission is to treat games like an art form, where nothing is off the table, and everything is made with passion and love. As great editor Damon Knight once said to great writer Robert Silverberg, to make great art you have to sit at the keyboard and open a vein. This stands every inch as true for comedy as it does for a thought piece, and of course everything in between.
We are bringing a new level of narrative effect to the games industry, expanding its borders to include artists from every other medium.
Games is an entertainment industry. We're going to prove what that means, and why it's so important.
In any entertainment industry, audience impact comes first.
Games
Works In Progress
Roald's Adventure
Little Ben is sick with a curse called The Withering, and his zest for life is dwindling away. It’s up to Roald to inspire his son to rise up and fight! Get out there in a multi-genre adventure where you’ll run through platformers, solve puzzles, race log boats and fight “road man” birds. Most of all, help the quirky characters of this world, come home and tell Ben how you became a hero. Your score is tied to Ben’s health, so the better you do on your adventures, the better he’ll get.
Super Canary
For centuries, canaries were stuck in cages to die as a warning, until one little fellow had enough. He pumped iron, woke at 5AM each morning to fly, fought with large bugs, birds and eventually cats. He even got a few cybernetic enhancements, like a laser eye and missile wings. Soon enough, it was his job to save those miners by kicking some butt. In this bulletstorm Metroidvania, blast your way through the treacherous, monster infested caves and save those paltry humans! Use the money you earn to buy more enhancements, and become the most super of all canaries.
Hunter XL
Remember those drug PSA games from the 90s? I sure do. I remember the whole culture around it. Every 30 minutes on TV there was some fearmongering garbage about marijuana turning you into a crazed murderer, or an actual zombie. Every time you put a quarter in an arcade machine, George Bush shouted from D.C., “Don’t do drugs! Drugs are bad... m’kay?” Even us little kids knew the politicians and rich folks were coked up to their eyeballs half the time, but people were getting life in prison just for smoking a spliff. Those drug PSAs painted a grim future, where everyone you know and love dies as society crumbles into a dystopian hellscape, because one evening you decided to try weed instead of beer.
In this dystopia, Hunter’s your man. He’ll take just enough high-class uppers to keep a level head. Junkies will hear his muscle car roar as he barrels towards their neighbourhoods, and he’ll clean up the streets with all American firepower to strike the fear of Reagan into those shiftless hippies. Take back the streets for Wall Street cash while you gun down junkie hoards in a 2.5D isomestric bloodbath. Use hard earned cash to buy better guns and take out bigger trash. Because America, f**k yeah.
Narrative Consultancy
We have access to some seriously great authors, whose skills are proven and audiences won in the world of literature. Authors have a lot to offer the games industry. Novelists are master hypnotists, asking the reader to become another person and go on a journey in those shoes. That's exactly what we do in games.
Contact us to hire a masterful storyteller, contracted to craft your narrative to your specifications, and unleash the power trapped in the story you want to tell.
Scott Bradfield
Novelist, short story writer and critic, and former Pofessor of American Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Connecticut. Works include The History of Luminous Motion, Dazzle Resplendent: Adventures of a Misanthropic Dog, and The People Who Watched Her Pass By. Stories and reviews have appeared in Triquarterly, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, The New York Times Book Review, The Los Angeles Times Book Review, The Baffler, and numerous "best of" anthologies. He lives in California and London.
He has stories and essays forthcoming in The Weird Fiction Review, The New Statesman, The Best From Potato Soup Journal, Delmarva Review, The Baffler, The Moth, Albedo One, The New Republic, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and Flash Fiction Magazine.
Carmen Capuano
Carmen Capuano was born in 1966, in Govan, Glasgow and came to England at the age of eighteen. A full and varied working life saw her move from London to Birmingham and finally to the small Worcestershire town of Bromsgrove.
A prolific writer, she has penned twenty novels in just six years, covering every genre from chick-lit to science fiction. Works include Ascension, Split Decision, Alone, and Storm Clouds.
Eighteen months ago she began writing screenplays. Lyv is her film debut.
Robin Wyatt Dunn
Born in Wyoming in 1979, Robin Wyatt Dunn is an author of 26 books, and producer of 3 feature films. You can find more of his work at http://robindunn.com/.
He was a finalist for Poet Laureate of Los Angeles in 2017.
On top of being an accomplished author, Robin is editor in chief of Chrome Baby, an e-zine that has seen monthly publication since 2012. You can find Chrome Baby here: http://robindunn.com/chrome-baby-index.html
Brian Evenson
Novelist and short story writer with a dozen books to his name, including Song for the Unraveling of the World, Immobility, The Open Curtain. Under the name B. K. Evenson he has published two novels based on the video games Dead Space, a Halo novel and a book set in the Aliens universe. He has co-written novelizations Rob Zombie's Lords of Salem and James Demonaco's Feral. He has been a five-time finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award, a finalist for the Edgar Award, and a winner of the International Horror Guild Award. He lives in Los Angeles and teaches fiction writing at CalArts.
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Kim Newman
Kim Newman is a movie critic, author and broadcaster. He is a contributing editor to Sight & Sound and Empire magazines. His books about film include Nightmare Movies, Millennium Movies, Kim Newman’s Video Dungeon and BFI Classics studies of Cat People, Doctor Who and Quatermass and the Pit. His fiction includes the Anno Dracula series, Life’s Lottery, Professor Moriarty: The Hound of the D’Urbervilles, An English Ghost Story, The Secrets of Drearcliff Grange School and Angels of Music. His comics include Witchfinder: The Mysteries of Unland and Anno Dracula Seven Days in Mayhem. As ‘Jack Yeovil’, he wrote the Vampire Genevieve and Dark Future novels for Games Workshop. His most recent novel is Anno Dracula 999 1Daikaiju. He has written for television (Mark Kermode’s Secrets of Cinema), radio (Afternoon Theatre: Cry-Babies) and the theatre (The Hallowe’en Sessions), and directed a tiny film (Missing Girl). His official web-site is at www.johnnyalucard.com. He is on Twitter as @AnnoDracula.
Mandatory Fun Outreach
We've partnered with Very Good Friend LTD, and with aspirants from all around the world to create the opportunity to make quality games that see completion. Students and aspirants are given the chance to experience creative direction, project management, and the best mentoring around.
We accept applicants all year round, so head to the contact page and drop us a line if you're interested. No level of previous skill or experience is required. We're only interested in your attitude towards making the most of yourself.
The Core Team
Luke Richards
CEO & Creative Director
Luke does not know how to smile for profile pictures, but he's actually very friendly. He was an author for many years before striking out into the games industry.
Jon Reid
Project Director
An electronics industry veteran, Jon has been managing teams for decades. He co-founded the company with Luke, and in spite of being nice, also struggles to smile in profile pics.
Andrew Hague
Consultant Programmer
An industry veteran with 35 years' experience, Andrew has been with us almost since the beginning, and is the primary mentor on the Mandatory Fun programme.
Megan Shepherd
Artist
Megan is a highly versatile and talented artist (concept, 3D, 2D, Environment, Texture, Effects, you name it) who knows how to smile in pictures like a normal human. This accurately reflects her personlity.
Sam Want
Artist
Sam is a brilliant character, concept and pixel artist. He does most of our cutscenes, and even helps out with programming when need be. He isn't always drinking. Just in this picture. He swears.
Isaiah Nji
Animator
Isaiah has brought our characters to life in motion. He's also invented some great enemy NPCs for us and is a skilled concept artist.
Ruth Akien
Narrative Designer
Ruth is a brilliant writer who rocked her MFA. She has a flare for plots full of twists, layered characters, magical worlds, and comedy.
Muhieddine Saadeh
Programmer
Muhieddine is an IT industry veteran who transferred his skills to games with ease. He's played an essential part in all aspects of programming.
Jan Kalinowski
Programmer
Fluent in C# and C++, and highly skilled in Unity, Jan is a versatile programmer brilliant at building functions and mechanics from the ground up.
Joseph Burt
Environment Artist
Joseph has been essential in giving our worlds form and personality. He's skilled in 2D and 3D, textures and models, and can make assets stylised or realistic.
Adam Jurevich
Musician
Adam is a terrific musician with a wide range of skills. He has added so much personality to our games that it's honestly hard to express. He also looks almost exactly like Billy Corgan, which is neat.
Simon Borg
Programmer
With C# and Unity skills far beyond his years, Simon has taken the lead on Hunter XL to terrific effect, creating the game's engine from the ground up.
Rob Beasley
Project Manager
Rob honed his people skills in social work and entertainment. He brings this to bear managing teams, with empathy, humour and excellent communication.
Link Richards
Mascot
A professional mascot with 2+ years' experience. Aside from inspiring teams, his favourite things are playing fetch, telling Luke what he sees out the window, extracting chicken bones from the garbage and hiding them under the sofa.
He oversees all managerial decisions.
Our Culture
We'll keep it simple: great entertainment comes from either suffering or joy. We've consulted lawyers and apparently must inspire the latter.
Everything else is just buzz words, and we all agree it's meaningless to say. As the old writer's saying goes, show, don't tell.
If we're fun to work with and genuinely care about the wellbeing of our teams, you'll hear about it in time. Same goes for if we suck.
Contact
This cat prowls the streets of Leamington Spa, one of the UK's biggest games industry hubs.