Katana ZERO

This page details pre-release information and/or media for Katana ZERO.

Katana ZERO is well-known for its protracted development, which lasted six years thanks to numerous delays. As can be expected for a game that spent so long in development, a fair amount changed.

To do:
Well, everything.

Document the concept art.
Get early footage and compare it to the final.
Pax footage needs to be documented as it contains ALOT of changes compared to the final game.
Finish the Early Music section.
Find higher quality images for early V torture dialogue if possible.
Clean Development Timeline and add sources to claims.
Sources, get sources on everything.

Development Timeline#

2013

Unknown - Development begins.

2014

December 12 - The first teaser of Katana Zero is shown. The name isn't known at this point.

2015

January 28 - The game is first presented at IGDA Montreal 2015 demo night.
August 29 - The game makes its first public appearance at PAX West. With the name "Katana ZERO".
December 10 - The game is properly announced with a teaser trailer released, alongside Adult Swim Games being labelled as the publisher. A release window of 2016 is set.

2016

April 18 - Katana ZERO appears at Pax East.
June 9 - Katana ZERO Steam page is officially put up.
August 31 - The game makes another appearance at PAX West. The release date has slipped into 2017 at this point.
September 17 - Makes another appearance at the Montreal independent games festival.
Unknown - Around this time Akiisoft got burnt out during development. He started logging hours and tried to work every day to help with this.

2017

Mar 12 - Katana Zero makes another appearance at PAX East.
July 29 - It's announced that KZ has been ported Game Maker Studio 2 after 30 hours of work/
December 20 - The game is delayed again into 2018. The campaign is about 80% percent complete at this point.

2018

March 15 - The campaign is now 90% completed.
March 20 - A poll is put up to ask if voice acting should be added to Katana Zero. Poll is overwhelming against adding it and finishing the game.
March 21 - Voice acting is shelved and never added to the final game.
December 10 - The game is delayed to March 2019, with Adult Swim dropped as publisher.

2019

January 16 - Devolver Digital becomes the game's new publisher.
February 27 - Development is 100% finished.
April 18 - The game is finally released.

Early Footage (2014)#

Unknown Prototype Footage#

During a random stream in the Katana ZERO discord. Askiisoft should off an early 2013 - 2014 prototype of Katana ZERO. This build is extremely early and uses Mega Man X sprites as placeholders. The purpose of this prototype seems to be testing movement and slashing. Watch on YouTube

Early Footage (2014)#

During Katana Zero's development, Askiisoft made alot of tweets about the game and showing off it's progress, this gives us alot of insight into how the game looked during development.

Removed V Mansion Dialogue#

Early dialogue for the torture scene for V. Shown off on Godsavant's twitter.

"I'm gonna plug you nice and quick, and then i'm gonna get some Starcraft pussy"

Early Minecart Section#

Posted in 2017, The minecraft section switches here are using a placeholder block instead of the final texture. It was also possible to use sword momentum to jump out of the cart.

(Source: TIGSource & Wayback Machine)

Early Music#

To do:

Clean up notes descriptions
Final tracks uses audio files ripped directly from the game. Some early tracks are closer to there OST counterpart rather then ripped versions. Unsure if they should be swapped out.
Unsure if Blue Room should be listed, since it's less "early music" and more a portion of it being featured in the soundtrack.

Katana ZERO's soundtrack underwent a good amount of changes during development; some tracks ended up in levels they were not intended for, while others were simply discarded. Both Bill Kiley and LudoWic have released EPs containing unused/early tracks - Katana ZERO OST - Extras and Lost Tracks Katana ZERO, respectively.

Name	Final	Notes
Come and See (Vocal Version)		An unused vocal version of "Come and See". According to the composer, Justin Stander. "This was an unused vocal version of the song 'Come and See' from the game 'Katana ZERO', which was cut before final release".
Chronos	N/A	The title indicates that this track is related to Chronos (the drug Zero gets his precognition from), but it is unclear where it would have been used. Was included in Lost Tracks.
Jam #5 (Disturbed Lines)		A portion of the game's soundtrack was drawn from LudoWic's "jams", improvised recording sessions that he releases on his YouTube channel. Jam #5 would become Disturbed Lines, V's theme. The jam's instrumentation is the same as the game version's, but the intro is much longer, lasting 41 seconds rather than 18.
Jam #10 (Full Confession)		The final boss theme, Full Confession, was based on this jam. This is probably the jam that is most different from its Katana ZERO counterpart: while the composition remains similar, the instrumentation is very different, and the game version adds vocal samples. Additionally, the original jam is much shorter, lasting only 1 minute and 47 seconds, whereas the game version is 4 minutes and 5 seconds.
Jam #12 (All for Now)		The boss theme, All for Now, was also taken from a jam. The game version is nearly identical to the original jam, aside from having a slightly lower pitch. According to LudoWic, this was the jam that caused Justin Stander to reach out to him regarding working on the Katana ZERO soundtrack.
Jam #17 (Overdose)		The final jam-derived track, used as the Bunker Pt. 1 theme in Katana ZERO. The game version has some slightly different instrumentation compared to the original jam.
The Mansion	N/A	The title indicates that this track was written for the sixth level, Mansion Hideout. The final game uses "Katana Zero" instead. Was included in Lost Tracks, and was also incorporated in the live version of Disturbed Lines.
Slaughterhouse		An early version of Meat Grinder. While the first 17 seconds of the track are quite close to the final, they begin to diverge after. In particular, the final version has a different melody. Was included in Lost Tracks.
You Will Never Know		An early version of You Will Never Know. This version was released on Bandicamp back when Katana Zero was first revealed. Featured in early previews all the way to 2017''.
Nocturne (Tell Me About Your Katana Version)		Early version of Nocturne. Included in Katana Zero Extras''.
Clubber Language	N/A	Unknown Early song. Possibly used during the Club level before Hit The Floor was used instead. Included in Katana Zero Extras''.
ELECTROHEAD	N/A	Unknown Early Song. Possibly used for an Electrohead boss fight? Included in Katana Zero Extras''.
Emotional Ramen Menu	N/A	Unknown Early Song. Included in Katana Zero Extras''.
HOMEBOY	N/A	Unknown Early Song. Included in Katana Zero Extras''.
Light Bloom	N/A	Unknown Early Song. Included in Katana Zero Extras''.
Sacred Interlude	N/A	Unknown Early Song. Included in Katana Zero Extras''.
The Daily Dose	N/A	Unknown Early Song. Included in Katana Zero Extras''.
Special Secret Unfindable Song	N/A	Unknown Early Song. Included in Katana Zero Extras''.