Adventures in Programming

A Complete History of Techno Kitten Adventure

This is the timeline of Techno Kitten Adventure's rise and fall as I understand it.

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September 6, 2010 -- Techno Kitten Adventure is released on Xbox Live Indie Games (XBLIG) as a solo project by Nick Kinkade.

Late 2010/Early 2011 -- Brian Ferrara is the head of a small game studio called 21st Street Games. Their parent company, Zaah, demands the studio to produce multiple apps in a short period of time. Ferrara goes looking for an easy game to put out and finds Techno Kitten Adventure. He plays the demo and is amazed by the game, thinking of the vast possibilities. He goes back to Zaah with the idea and they hate it. But Ferrara pushes on and eventually gets the project greenlit, even though the responsibility rests entirely on his shoulders. He reachs out to Kinkade and brings him on the team.

May 5, 2011 -- A new version of Techno Kitten Adventure is announced with improved visuals and more levels that will be released on June 7, to be published by Elite Gudz. The game will also receive a mobile version on iOS, Windows Phone, and Android (at some point in the future).

May 9-June 6, 2011 -- Development continues on the game. Dream Pack is finished first, followed by Lava Pack and finally Cloud Pack. Terminal Press (Ferrara's comic book company) contributes to the art for Cloud Pack, but most of the art is done by Narek Gevorgian and Rolo Ledesma.

June 7, 2011 -- The new version of Techno Kitten Adventure releases on XBLIG and iOS. In order to promote the game, a dance party is held outside E3 2011 with "Techno Kitty" dancers and a mascot with a custom boombox. The group is also featured on Good Day LA. Supposedly, the idea to use half-dressed women to promote TKA came from the higher-ups at Zaah and Ferrara was not a supporter of it. This may be why Ferrara was unwilling to be interviewed by Ashly Burch from Gametrailers when she asked about it.

June 19, 2011 -- The team goes to Philadelphia Comic Con to promote TKA.

July 14, 2011 -- Nyan Cat is added as an additional playable character to the iOS version only to be removed later that month due to a request from Chris Torres (creator of Nyan Cat).

July 21-24, 2011 -- The team goes to San Diego Comic Con to promote TKA, showcasing various merch, exclusive stickers, and featuring an exclusive comic published by Terminal Press.

Early August 2011 -- Ferrara sees the popularity of bacon as a meme and comes up with the idea of Meat Pack. Zaah hates it but lets him do it anyway.

August 12, 2011 -- Meat Pack is released for XBLIG, featuring a replacement for Nyan Cat called "Byarf Cat" and the first original song for the game. The content is later released for iOS on August 31.

August 23, 2011 -- Techno Kitten Adventure is released as a Facebook game.

September 23-October 9, 2011 -- Elite Gudz holds a contest to celebrate the release of Meat Pack where participants would submit videos combining TKA and meat in order to win various prizes. The contest was originally suppposed to end on September 30, but got extended to October 9.

October 2011 -- A collaboration level with American pop artist Ron English is being worked on. It is internally known as "Ron Pack".

October 28, 2011 -- Techno Kitten Adventure is released for Windows Phone and Android. Notably, the Android version was outsourced to a foreign team and had multiple issues.

Late 2011 -- The team repairs relations with Chris Torres and discusses creating a game for Nyan Cat (one idea being a 2D Animal Crossing style game). They are also working on a Keyboard Cat game around this time that never releases due to licensing issues.

November 25, 2011 -- 21st Street Games announces they will be creating a solo game for Nyan Cat called Nyan Cat Adventure, to be released later that year.

December 8, 2011 -- Techno Kitten Adventure Kitteh Parteh is released for iOS as a companion app to TKA featuring music, wallpapers, videos, and the SDCC-exclusive comic.

December 13, 2011 -- Nyan Cat Adventure releases for XBLIG and the team hosts a code giveaway on the Destructoid live show that weekend.

Feburary 27, 2012 -- The collab level with Ron English is officially announced as "Popaganda Pack".

March 14, 2012 -- Popaganda Pack is released for iOS.

March 20, 2012 -- The team announces NCA is coming to iOS, and that TKA has passed 100k downloads on XBLIG.

March 22, 2012 -- Nyan Cat Adventure is released on iOS. Popaganda Pack is released on XBLIG.

April 5, 2012 -- The team hosts a party for Nyan Cat's 1st birthday. The party is livestreamed.

July 2, 2012 -- It's announced that Techno Kitten Adventure has sold over 700k units on all platforms.

Early-Mid 2012 -- Relations between Zaah and 21st Street Games are strained. Ferrara is unhappy with the constant criticism from Zaah and attempts to purchase the rights to TKA. They refuse his request. This results in 21st Street Games leaving Zaah.

July 8, 2012 -- The Super Techno Kitten Adventure kickstarter campaign starts with a lofty goal of $100,000. The high cost is explained to help pay rent and salaries for 20 people, along with the cost of producing new art and music for the game and licensing fees for Xbox and iOS.

July 9, 2012 -- The team holds a Reddit AMA to answer questions about the kickstarter. The reason behind Nyan Cat's removal in July 2011 is revealed.

July 25, 2012 -- A small web game is released to promote the kickstarter called "Dr. Meatballs ADventure Game 2000". Those who reached a certain score in the game could unlock an exclusive Techno Kitty remix from Barbarossa.

August 2, 2012 -- Nyan Pack is released for iOS. Many of the assets were created by Chris Torres.

August 7, 2012 -- The kickstarter campaign ends unsuccessfully. Super TKA is officially cancelled and any future TKA development is uncertain.

November 2012 -- TKA merch is given away at a video game charity party in New York.

December 24-27, 2012 -- A social media contest is held to give away more TKA merch.

May 2013 -- The trademark application for Super Techno Kitten Adventure is declined due to lack of documentation.

June 2013 -- TKA cameos in a new game from Zaah called Beat Blocks.

2013 -- Techno Kitten Adventure is considered for the Ouya and/or Xbox One. Nothing comes of this.

July 2015 -- Microsoft replaces the Windows Phone Store with a unified Windows Store for all platforms. It's unknown if Techno Kitten Adventure survives this migration.

2016 -- The Techno Kitten Adventure Facebook game stops working.

2017 -- Techno Kitten Adventure vanishes from the Google Play Store.

September 19, 2017 -- Apple kills support for all 32-bit apps with the release of iOS 11. Techno Kitten Adventure, Kitteh Parteh, and Nyan Cat Adventure are delisted from the App Store.

October 7, 2017 -- Microsoft shuts down the XBLIG Marketplace and Techno Kitten Adventure is delisted from Xbox 360.

May 2018 -- The trademark for Techno Kitten Adventure is deemed to be abandoned and is subsequently cancelled.

July 2019 -- The trademark for 21st Street Games is deemed to be abandoned and is subsequently cancelled.

TKA Archive - Kitteh Parteh Deep Dive

The Kitteh Parteh companion app has been found and archived, but the app no longer functions properly. Most of the content was hosted on web servers that are now dead. Today I'll be deep-diving into what remains in the app itself.

Main Functions:

Kitteh Parteh opens you into a dashboard containing a comic, alarm clock, links to various YouTube videos, some downloadable backgrounds, a link to the TKA online shop, a jukebox, and Facebook/Twitter feeds. Interestingly, the social feeds come from http://www.adminmyapp.com/tkadashboard/api/read?action=getrssfeeds instead of a direct API call to Facebook or Twitter.

Comics
The app loads the official TKA comic from http://www.adminmyapp.com/tkadashboard/api/read?action=allbooks and momentarily turns into an e-reader. (Archived comic available here.)
Clock
Works without an internet connection. Has two wallpapers to choose from and plays a cool little song when the alarm goes off. Interestingly, the date only goes up to 2021.

Videos
Pulls a list of YouTube links from somewhere in http://www.adminmyapp.com/tkadashboard and displays them. While I don't have the full list, all of these videos seem to be still available to watch. (The ones in the screenshot can be found here, here, and here.)

Backgrounds
Pulls a list of images from http://www.adminmyapp.com/tkadashboard/hdwallipad and displays them. These images can be saved to your device. (I've attempted to archive them here.)

Jukebox
Works without an internet connection. Only contains three songs:

Shop
Seems to send you to the official TKA merch store at http://shop.technokittenadventure.com. No screenshots of this part exist.

Other:

The .IPA also contains some .XML documents that look like placeholder book info for the eReader implementation and "New Text Document.txt" which contains a local file path:

\\192.168.1.204\designer\xavier\Downloads\TerminalPress\CONTAGIOUS

I have zero idea who "xavier" is, but Terminal Press is a comic book publisher owned by Brian Ferrara (executive producer of TKA) who did the TKA comic mentioned above.

TKA Archive - Meat Pack Contest

To celebrate the release of Meat Pack, Elite Gudz hosted a contest where contestants would submit videos for the chance to win TKA merch, money, and various meat products. This contest lasted from 9/23/2011 to 10/9/2011. From the official page:

The rules are simple; submit a creative video that involves Techno Kitten Adventure and meat in some way, and you may win a prize. Prizes will be awardedPrizes to be awarded include an assortment of meats, cash, limited edition hand sculpted Techno Kitten Plastic Kittehs, meowsome t-shirt and rainbowlicious stickers.
9 people will win prize packs, 3 people will win the grand prize pack of meat, cash and goodies. Winners will be chosen by Destructoid.com editors in conduction with members of the Elite Gudz & 21st Street Games Staff, based on creativity, humor, and relevance to the Techno Kitten Adventure game.
THREE especially meowsome video creators will receive the GRAND PRIZE PACK which includes:
-An assortment of delicious meats
-$100 CASH (USD)
-PLASTIC KITTEH hand-molded custom-painted Techno Kitten Sculpture
-Techno Kitten Adventure T-shirt
-Stickers
Three second place winners on each platform will receive a Plastic Kitteh, T-shirt and Stickers. Three third place winners will receive a t-shirt and stickers.

Promo video here.

The winners were announced on 10/14/2011:

GRAND PRIZE WINNERS

Trevor Patricelli - Kittehfield
John-Charles Holmes - Untitled Bacon Project
Alisha Putz - Meat Stalker

SECOND PRIZE WINNERS

Chris Vosler - Epic Techno Kitten Adventure Time [Dead Link]
Tim Armstrong - Techno Kitten Takes Over
Semok Peacemaker - Techno Kitten Adventure in Real Life [Dead Link]

THIRD PRIZE WINNERS

Destin Allen - Untitled Vidrythm TKA Project
Noah Jette - Poops the Cat [Dead Link]
Justin Irick - Techno Kitten Adventure = AMAZING

John later uploaded a picture of his winnings:

Rebuilding XACT files for FNA/Monogame

When trying to use the original XACT files for an XNA project, sometimes they just won't work. Now why is this? Generally, I've seen that the issue is that the files are big-endian instead of little-endian.

How do you know if a file is big-endian or little-endian? Open them in a text editor. Wave banks start with "WBND", sound banks start with "SDBK", and settings files start with "XGSF". If any of these strings are reversed, then your file is big-endian.

An Introduction to XACT

XACT is an audio framework used by the DirectX SDK and many XNA projects. There are a variety of different file types for this.

Project Files (XAP)
These are used by the XACT editing utility to pull up the resources of an individual project and their various links and settings.
Wave Banks (XWB)
A collection of waves.
Sound Banks (XSB)
A collection of sounds (waves with properties like volume and pitch) and cues (triggers for one or more sounds).
Global Settings (XGS)
Sets the rules and settings for sounds. Includes categories (groups a set of sounds so they have the same settings), variables (the programmer can reference these in their code to control sound parameters at runtime), DSP presets (for effects like reverb), and compression presets (which can be applied to waves or wave banks).

Building an XACT project creates the XWB, XSB, and XGS files for that project for whatever platform you specified (Windows is little-endian, Xbox 360 is big-endian). Please note that you cannot load these files back into the XACT editor. You will need to have the original XAP project file.
This is where the issue is. When extracting these files from an XNA project, you usually don't have the XAP that enables easy editing. Which means we have to make it ourselves.

How to Tear Apart XACT Files

Wave banks are the easiest to start with. These are just collections of raw wave data that we need to separate out into the individual files. There is a utility for this called unxwb.

Once you have the individual files, you may notice that they aren't named. We'll come back to that later. They may also not play in VLC or Windows Media Player. This is a format problem that's solved by opening the files in Audacity and exporting them as WAV files.

Sound banks require digging into the file to find certain values. Thankfully someone wrote a file specification on this. Note the plain text cue names at the end of the file. It's incredibly common to have a cue for each wave file and to name them after that file. Basically, these are your wave names.

For global settings files, category and variable names are written in plain text.

Putting Them Back Together

You will need the XACT editor for this. Here's a guide on one of the ways to get it. You can also download it as standalone here.

Open the editor and create a new project. It doesn't matter what you name this.

Create a wave bank under "Wave Banks" and name it after your original one. Put all of your WAV files in here.

Add a sound bank under "Sound Banks" and name this after your original one too. Drag all of your wave bank files here to create sounds.

To make a cue, right click and select "New Cue". You can add sounds to a cue by dragging them to that cue. If you click on the cue itself, you will see a panel with all of the sound names and their play probability. If you have multiple sounds here, you can move them around to change the play order. On the far left, there is another panel that contains playlist settings so you can have it shuffle or play in order.

To change the category of a sound, drag it to the relevant category in the main left side panel.

To edit variables, double click on the variable to open a window that has settings for intial value, min, max, and visibility. Other XACT settings such as DSP and compression presets are accessible in the side panel.

Go to "View" at the top and select your platform from the dropdown menu. For example, clicking "View Windows Properties" will build it for Windows. Then go to "File > Build" to actually build it.

Output files will be located in the same directory as the project. Replace your existing XACT files with these new ones.

Decoding audio XNBs (WAV and XMA)

When extracting sound effects from XNB containers, I've found they can exist in one of two formats:

WAV files
XMA files (which are WAV files with a certain codec)

Let's take a look at two different uncompressed .XNBs and break them down according to WAV file specs:

XNB1.xnb

XNB Header
58 4e 42 78 05 01 8b 88 00 00 01 31 4d 69 63 72 6f 73 6f 66 74 2e 58 6e 61 2e 46 72 61 6d 65 77 6f 72 6b 2e 43 6f 6e 74 65 6e 74 2e 53 6f 75 6e 64 45 66 66 65 63 74 52 65 61 64 65 72 00 00 00 00 00 01
34 00 00 00 01 66 00 01 00 00 ac 5e 00 00 4a 66 00 02 00 10 00 22 00 01 00 00 00 01 00 01 58 00 00 00 80 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 56 4c 00 00 01 80 00 01 56 80 00 04
00 02 00 88 00 00 30 00 01 00 08 8f fc 03 80 00 17 d4 73 17 49 bd 24 61 44 c2 8c 27 0c 4f 7c 2a af d7 d5
Song Starts

34 00 00 00 -- Subheader size, 16 + extra data size (36 bytes)
01 66 -- Audio format (XMA)
00 01 -- Number of channels (1 = mono)
00 00 ac 5e -- Sample rate
00 00 4a 66 -- Byte rate
00 02 -- Number of bytes in sample (2 bytes)
00 10 -- Bits per sample (16 bits)
00 22 -- Extra data size (34 bytes)
34 00 00 00 01 66 00 01 00 00 ac 5e 00 00 4a 66 00 02 00 10 00 22 00 01 00 00 00 01 00 01 58 00 00 00 80 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 56 4c 00 00 01 80 00 01 56 80 00 04 -- Extra data

XNB2.xnb

XNB Header
58 4e 42 77 05 00 43 e1 00 00 01 31 4d 69 63 72 6f 73 6f 66 74 2e 58 6e 61 2e 46 72 61 6d 65 77 6f 72 6b 2e 43 6f 6e 74 65 6e 74 2e 53 6f 75 6e 64 45 66 66 65 63 74 52 65 61 64 65 72 00 00 00 00 00 01

12 00 00 00 01 00 01 00 44 ac 00 00 88 58 01 00 02 00 10 00

00 00 da e0 00 00 73 23 43 35 25 15 d5 26 b4 1b 24 18 09 1b d0 13 e7 14 62 12 26 10 c3 0f 95 0d c4 0c a0 0b 75 0a b7 09 c0 08 03 08 57 07 a8 06 1a 06 8d 05 0f 05 a7 03 f1 ad 55 a4 1e d8 82 b4 22 d0

Song Starts

12 00 00 00 -- Subheader size (16 bytes)
01 00 -- Audio format (PCM)
01 00 -- Number of channels (1 = mono)
44 ac 00 00 -- Sample rate
88 58 01 00 -- Byte rate
02 00 -- Number of bytes in sample (2 bytes)
10 00 -- Bits per sample (16 bits)
~~00 00 -- Extra data size (0 bytes)~~ Not used with PCM

To extract a playable file out of an XNB, you will need to convert the XMA within to a more widely known codec. I used vgmstream, which can convert any kind of audio XNB to common WAV. You can then convert them back to XNB for use in your games.

TKA Archive - Plastic Kitteh

One piece of Techno Kitten Adventure merchandise included handmade cat statues of Jetpack Kitten in varying colors. Per the description:

Your TKA REAL-LIFE PLASTIC KITTEH! Every TKA Real-Life Plastic Kitteh! is a unique, hand-made, hand-painted & hand-gliterfied gift of joy! No two are the same and there will never be a duplicate of your one-of-a-kind new friend. Techno Kitten is looking forward to continuing his Adventure on your shelf!

Get them at shop.elitegudz.com/technokit/technokitten.html

This Kitteh stands around 10" high when attached to his base. He may be a little shorter or a little taller, but he will love you all the same :)

Hand-Made by Mr. Den

*TKA Real-Life Plastic Kitteh may contain small parts, so don't eat them! Also, sparkles may get all over the place, so handle with care!

These were sold on Elite Gudz's online store for $50 and are no longer available.

Archival link

TKA Archive - Promotional Content

While Techno Kitten Adventure was originally released in 2010, the version we know came out on June 7, 2011. These are some promotional posters, screenshots, and videos for that re-release.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tecmm3lbsNM (Original release teaser)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21AIzwtZXpE (Techno Kitten in Times Square)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwQb8tfb2SQ (Techno Viking)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbWqBmheMhc (Rave Practice, flashing lights warning)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YFLKOmQzPo (The New Employee)

There was also a contest to celebrate the release of Meat Pack a few months later:
https://www.destructoid.com/win-100-and-meats-in-this-techno-kitten-giveaway

TKA Archive - Kitteh Parteh

Kitteh Parteh was an iOS app from 2012, during the height of Techno Kitten Adventure's popularity. Per the iTunes description:

Are you a kitten with a jetpack fueled by hopes and dreams? Have you ever really touched the blue blue sky?

Then U R invited to the Kitteh Parteh! It's an app for everything in the Techno Kitten Adventure universe!

* TKA Boombox with music from the game
* Wake up with a TKA Alarm Clock
* Read the FREE TKA Comic
* Watch all the best TKA Videos (& funny kitteh vids)
* TKA Backgrounds for your iPhone & iPad
* TKA Twitter & Facebook feeds
* Universal & FREE :)

This was an app that featured extra content related to TKA such as music, YouTube videos, a tie-in comic, and custom backgrounds. The .IPA for this application has been lost to time but I believe the content may exist somewhere else.

Content:

iTunes store link, archived

9/17/23 - Original article posted.

4/14/25 - Most of the content has been found and is now linked.

Converting Shadertoy code to DirectX HLSL

Lessons learned from someone who didn't know GLSL, HLSL, or any kind of shader code a week ago.

Shadertoy is an online tool that uses WebGL (a version of GLSL) to write and run shader code. You don't need a compiler or an IDE, and you can even use it on mobile.

Shadertoy

       void mainImage( out vec4 fragColor, in vec2 fragCoord )
       {
               vec2 uv = fragCoord/iResolution.xy;
               vec4 col = texture(iChannel0, uv);
               fragColor = col;
       }

Since Shadertoy code is almost exclusively pixel shaders, your HLSL code will be a pixel shader as well. In HLSL, fragColor is COLOR0, fragCoord is SV_POSITION, and uv is TEXCOORD0. This means your mainImage() function will look like

HLSL

       float4 MainPS(float4 pos : SV_POSITION, float4 color0 : COLOR0, float2 texCoord : TEXCOORD0) : COLOR
       {
               float2 iResolution = float2(<resolutionX>, <resolutionY>);
               float4 color = tex2D(<sampler>, texCoord);
               return color;
       }

Everything else is a 1:1 conversion between GLSL and HLSL. For example, vec4 becomes float4 and mix() becomes lerp(). Here are a few reference lists for that:

I hate .cso shader files

When you compile a high level programming language, it gets converted into an executable containing, for the most part, assembly code.

I like to say that most of an XNA project's assets can be recovered from the final deployed package. They come in XNB containers so you only need to uncompress them.

This is not true for .cso (Compiled Shader Object) files, which are often used as camera/texture effects in XNA.

When working on a project in XNA Game Studio, HLSL shaders are compiled into binary .cso files for usage with your code. They cannot be converted back into HLSL files, much like how most executables also cannot be converted back into source code.

The pain is real.

.ccgame files and what to do with them

Per RB Whitaker's fantastic wiki, .ccgame files (XNA Creators Club Game files) are packaged XNA projects for sharing with other XNA users or for deployment on Xbox 360/Zune.

Now, I have the XNA Game Studio 4.0 Platform Tools. When you install them, they're located in "Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\XNA" and the tool in question is called XnaPack. Open your .ccgame file with this application.

"Error 2164: The packages game does not have a valid target registered for its supported platform(s). You must register at least one target with XNA Game Studio Device Center before unpackaging this game. Use /listplatforms to see the list of platforms supported by this game package."

You need to add a device (Xbox 360 or Zune) with an active connection before you can unpackage it.

For Xbox, this requires an XNA Creators Club subscription.

These subscriptions were discontinued in 2015.

No worries though, as you can still unpack these files albeit with a bit more effort. Open your .ccgame file as archive with 7-Zip File Manager and you'll see a series of numbered files along with XCabInfo.resources.

File 0 is always your executable. This can be decompiled with ILSpy (available as a Visual Studio extension) into the C# source code.

Everything else is XNB assets. XCabInfo.resources provides a list of their original names along with an embedded PNG package icon. Luckily the icon isn't compressed so you can just select everything from %PNG to IEND®B`‚ and save as image.

You can tell that the other numbered files are XNB assets because they start with the XNBx header when viewed in a text editor.