Astro Burn is a love letter to the early 90s classics like Parodius Da and Pop’n TwinBee. It’s the latest sci-fi game with cat as the main character — a real “cute-em-up.”
The retro-focused game from London-based Beyond the Pixels has a pending Kickstarter campaign for a physical edition of the game. This is the latest title from Haz Dulull’s Beyond the Pixels.
After finishing three years of work as cinematic director for Dune Awakening, Dulull decided to leave triple-A games and return to indie gaming. Speaking to me at GDC Festival of Gaming, he said he loves games that are a little wacky, a little bonkers, and bursting with charm. So he traced his roots in gaming back to the golden age of Super Famicom Japanese classics for inspiration. There, he found what he needed for Astro Burn.
The game will be a fast-paced sci-fi cute-em-up filled with colourful bullet-hell chaos and giant adorable animals in huge mechs. Play as Astro a space cat, as you blast, dodge, upgrade, trigger Catnip Power Ups, and take down screen-filling cute critters overload in retro arcade style.
What is a Cute-em-up?
No, Dulull did not make up that name. But he wishes he did.
A cute-’em-up is a playful twist on the classic shoot-’em-up genre, blending fast-paced arcade action with adorably chaotic characters and worlds. Expect all the dodging, blasting, and bullet-hell intensity you love—wrapped in bright, charming, and often hilarious visuals. And a cat.
The company is planning on releasing the game on Steam, but Dulull also wants to do a physical version, which is why he is doing the Kickstarter. He misses the days of opening a game box, flipping through an instruction manual packed with artwork, blowing the dust off the cartridge, and slot in > press start!.
Back then, buying a game wasn’t just a transaction — it was an experience. That’s exactly the spirit behind the physical release of Astro Burn. This isn’t just the game on a USB cartridge – it’s a full ritual. Artwork, collectibles… even the soundtrack on cassette.
And most importantly, players will truly own it. They just plug and play. There are no digital platforms and it’s DRM free. No logins or sign up. No disappearing libraries.
There will of course be PC, Mac and Linux versions. It’s a game you can hold, keep, and come back to whenever you like (and even take to your friend’s house to play, just like the good old days!).
You can experience the soundtrack as intended. You can stream it, sure — but nothing beats the raw, nostalgic warmth of cassette, the company said.
Venice Bleach composed the soundtrack with the early 90s in mind, and we mastered it specifically for tape, making this the most authentic way to experience it. And even if you don’t have a cassette player, owning it as part of your collection is pure retro cool.
Origins
It all comes from the mind of Dulull, who has started a transmedia studio last year. It was dedicated to bringing modern retro to today’s generation.
“I wanted to really move back into making games because it’s where my heart was,” Dulull said.
Since he came off of a big triple-A project, Dulull decided to get out of the technology race with the Unreal Engine. He saw all the layoffs and cancellations and studio closure.
“I realized that I wanted to go back to the way games were being made back in the day, which was with very small teams. The scope of the games meant they could be released really quickly, and they would also focus on fun, fun, fun,” he said. “I didn’t want to focus on things like monetization or live ops or do anything like that.”
Dusting off the Super Famicom
He said he went back to his Super Famicom collection (for the Nintendo 16-bit system that debuted in 1990) and looked at some of the shoot ’em ups.
He turned to the GDevelop open source game engine. It was script based and he could create a quick demo within two months. Dulull went to various events and started playtesting it very earlier.
“I immediately realized you can’t do that in film and TV. You had your focus testing group, but that’s really it. And I just loved how immediately at a lot of these events, game developers would say, ‘Hey, I see what you’re doing.’ And they made suggestions,” Dulull said.
He added, “I absolutely love there’s this level of camaraderie in the industry, which I thought would be competitiv. But it’s not at all. Other indies want to see other indies succeed, and other indies want to help other indies games,” he said.
The modern retro game market
Stats say that the retro market is growing about 10% a year and it is estimated to be $4.18 billion in revenue by 2027, according to Newcastle University Research. A lot of those games will work well on mobile and will keep pushing the mobile market up. Indie devs are embracing this trend, he said.
“I am focused on modern retro, and I feel like it’s on the rise and it fits today’s modern generation and it’s not just about nostalgia,” Dulull said.
He added, “People still want to play those big Elden Ring games. Of course they do. But once in a while, someone wants to pick up a game and just play it a couple of hours and put it down, and not have to remember where they were.”
“A cartridge is also less likely to have the dopamine factor, where you want to buy more loot, more skins. Now, again, no shade on those games. But there is a lot of concern about things like things like Roblox and Fortnite where there has been a lot of addiction,” Dulull said. “A kid can play, put it down and go back to the homework.”
Gone testing
He worked on a platform with Pragma’s FirstLook platform to do game testing.
“That was phenomenal. We had like, 250 or 300 playtesters, and pretty much the sentiment from the players was to lean to the cute stuff, lean to the cat stuff,” Dulull said.
So Dulull’s Super Famicom collection didn’t steer him wrong. One of the games from the pile was a Konami title Parodius and another was Pop’n TwinBee
“I looked at those games and they were basically shoot them up mechanics, but replaced with cute characters. Instead of firing bullets, you fire bells and stuff, and they were just weird and wacky,” he said. “And I realized back then, it was a niche because we didn’t have meme culture. We didn’t have the internet back then. And I thought Parodius, or those sort of games, if they were released today, they would be massive hits.”
Dulull said that fans of older games like the action to be scripted, not procedural. They liked how they could memorize the pattern of things.
“One of the challenges I’ve had is how do I balance between the hardcore players who are going to play this game that way and the new generation of gamers that are not so much about memorizing and are more about having fun?” he said. “And the more procedural, the more fun it is. So it’s finding that balance, which is why one thing we did recently is put in difficulty modes. So we have the kitten mode, which is for easy, and then we’ve got the hardcore feline fury mode, which is for the hardcore players.”
In the harder mode, it’s less procedural but there are more enemies on the screen. And you need to hit the boss more to move forward. And if you get hit, you take more damage.
Leaning into cute
So he leaned into the cute. The Cute-em-up phrase was translated from the Famicom manual.
“From that point, I just saw traction. So my biggest lesson was, like in film and TV, I’ve always felt like it’s good to not play it not safe. In the inde game space, it’s more like you have to make it more bonkers, more wacky, more insanely absurd — then the more traction you’re going to get.”
While Dulull is driving most of the work , he has tapped the indie game community ffor a variety of help to make the game. At the same time, he started efforts to make transmedia, including a film and TV show.
“This is modern retro,” Dulull said. “I’m not interested in making much chasing triple-A glory here. I don’t want to make full on freedie games. These games are 12 months or less in development time. I’ve looked at the big resurgence of retro at the moment with researchers, but Atari, Commodore, Acclaim, and there seems to be this big resurgence.”
He added, “And it isn’t just nostalgia. Nostalgia plays a part of it. I’m finding it’s more to do with today’s generation of kids and players watching Stranger Things. They’re asking, ‘What is D&D? What is this cassette thing?’ They’re also seeing their parents talk about classic games and what they remember.”
Those were the days when you bought a cartridge game and put it into the machine. It’s yours. And rather than focus on graphics, Dulull has been focused on fun.
“We’re a small team making pixel art, and that’s what Beyond the Pixels is. Beyond the Pixels is reinventing modern retro for today’s generation, and that comes from film, that comes from TV, but it’s led by gaming,” he said.
In building his team of eight people, Dulull said he tried to follow good advice about surrounding himself with people who can do things better than you on a C-suite level.
“I spent good portion of the year building these relationships, working with people that I’ve known for a while. I’ve got a company that still has an indie ethos, which is to make fun games, keep teams small, be agile, but having a business around that,” he said.
Polishing the game
The game will not likely require a tutorial to play the game, as you shot with just one button. There’s no actual violence in the game, and no actual explosions — just fireworks.
“It makes it more approachable and attractive to publishers,” he said.
The game will be about three hours long, with replayability.
“It’s the sort of game that you could speed run in a weekend if you really wanted to,” he said.
The game has about 11 levels and it will have couch co-op.
“It goes back to the whole modern retro thing of sitting by the side, playing on the controller, shared screen, not split screen, but at the same time,” he said.
You get nine lives, since you’re a cat. It’s not about unlocking online loot boxes.
Getting it to the market
Early access is coming up soon in April. In the meantime, the company is stoking the community around the game on Discord.
The company has partnered with 33 Games to launch the collectors edition of the debut title, Astro Burn. Oozing retro nostalgia on the outside, developed for modern gamers on the inside, the collectors edition will include the Astro Burn USB Cartridge for PC and Mac, and will mirror the game’s release on Steam, GOG and Epic Game Store.
No mere shooter, this modern day cute ‘em up is an outer space adventure that’s out of this world, and guaranteed to put a smile on the face of any retro shooter fans.
Astro the space cat and her quirky companion AL are on a mission to return home, but to do so they need to reign bullet hell over the cute and chaotic critters in their path.
As players progress through explosive levels they’ll build a power bar to unleash Catnip special power moves and, instead of the special weapons shmup fans would come to expect, in Astro Burn players unleash special power moves inspired by anime-style fighting action.
Blending fast-paced arcade action with creativity, charm and humour, Astro Burn will make its mark in gamer’s collections, both physical and digital. Beyond The Pixels is on a mission to bring the golden age of gaming to today’s players, when buying a game wasn’t just a transaction – it was a ritual. Players would hold their cherished new game in their hands, with no need to download patches or updates or sign up anywhere, and dive into new worlds either solo or together, sharing a couch with friends (or opponents!). This is the modern retro way and Astro Burn is capturing that with a USB cartridge edition for PC and Mac.
“Gamers will be able to get their hands on Astro Burn, literally, as part of Beyond The Pixels’ limited Astro Burn Collectors Edition, which includes a retro game box featuring beautiful artwork, exclusive collectible cards, and an eye-catching cassette of the retro-synth soundtrack and more,” Dulull said. “Astro Burn is a fast-paced sci-fi cute’em up that will have players blast through colourful bullet hell chaos, delivering a nostalgic knockout of gaming’s golden age that players are sure to adore.”