Skull Bat Studio

Having worked in the industry for almost ten years, we decided to strike out and make our own independent studio. We are huge fans of video games old and new and hope to pass that love onto the games we make.

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Help Lacey Get Neuralgia Migraine Surgery, organized by Jeffrey Hawkins

My partner, Lacey Canton/Hill-Hawkins (they/them), is the most vibrant, rad… Jeffrey Hawkins needs your support for Help Lacey Get Neuralgia Migraine Surgery

I’m dusting off this account to spread the word for my spouse’s migraine surgery. I’m biased, but they are truly an incredible person and have suffered more than anyone could ever deserve. The pain is disabling, and all they want to do is be able to work and do art again.

If we can raise the funds, we have an opportunity to get them significant relief. Even if you aren’t in a position to donate, please share. We have had some success, but are reaching the edges of our personal and professional circles.

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Bestiary #5: The Eldrid of Rephaim have long abandoned any pretense of humanity.

Rephaim is on KickStarter.

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In our 4th bestiary update, the Hierophants of Rephaim call their aspirants to a dark mass.

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In today's bestiary update, The Sons of Akheilos.

[skullbatstudio]

Bestiary update #2, we go over the walking and crawling remnant's of Rephaim's people. #PixelArt #IndieDev #Zombies

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Fight for it!

Back us on KickStarter

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Command the elements to blow away your enemies!

On KickStarter

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Jeff is down in San Diego and has an update from meeting with our composer Rob. Check out his takeaway and listen to the new WIP track!

https://www.facebook.com/SkullBatStudio/posts/1908697999349931

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Down in San Diego, meeting with our composer Rob Quillen to discuss Rephaim's sound design. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/767921618/rephaim-the-shattered-city?ref=category

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Update 2: Design Process: Combat Difficulty · Rephaim: The Shattered City

The first consideration when we're designing a new enemy or a boss fight is not “how much damage will this attack do?” or “how many hit points should this creature have?” Instead, we ask “what spells and traversal abilities will we expect the player to have unlocked when this enemy is introduced?”, “what kind of environments will this enemy be present in?”, “what level of complexity has the player become accustomed to?” and “how will this enemy complement other enemies and traps it may be partnered with?” Simply tweaking the numbers to create difficulty balance is superficial, leading to smooth challenge curves. In these systems, when you fight tougher enemies your strength progresses evenly to match them. It creates a kind of treadmill, simulating motion without changing position. Our preference is to instead focus on novelty and complexity as the primary drivers of our challenge curve. When the player encounters a new enemy, the challenge should be derived primarily from trying to recognize new patterns, understand their tells and find vulnerabilities or identify weak points. In this system, the challenge curve becomes multi-dimensional. An enemy can be made more challenging by shortening its tells, making its movements more inscrutable or giving an awkward and uneven timing to its attack patterns. As the player advances through a zone and masters certain enemies, or unlocks new spells or moves that seem to trivialize monsters from the early game, novel combinations of different enemies and traps can re-contextualize each component of an encounter into something new. A simple and slow moving zombie with one clearly telegraphed attack, can apply a great deal of tension to a scenario where the player must duck and jump acid bolt traps with careful timing. A group of hanging enemies that drop on the hero and chase her can re-contextualize a gauntlet of traps, pressuring the player to rush through the traps rather than cautiously time each movement. That said, we are not abandoning character progression. Character progression and power accumulation are not enough to build a challenge curve on their own, but they are an important dimension to this delicate balance. And we will go into greater detail on our two parallel systems of progression in our next update.

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What an exiting day! We’re getting close to the $2,500 milestone! We still need your help to keep pushing forward to Victory! 

Please Like, Share, and Back us on Kickstarter and Steam Greenlight!

[skullbatstudio]

The Queen Below is pleased, but ever hungry.

Back us on KickStarter

[skullbatstudio]

We had a good night, getting some new Kickstarter backers.  Let’s see if we can carry that on to have a good day!

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1st Day Ends

Thank you to Rephaim's first round of KickStarter backers! We're excited to come back at this tomorrow with renewed vigor!

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We are excited to announce that the KickStarter for Rephaim: The Shattered City is now LIVE!  Helps us spread the word and reach our goal!

Back us on KickStarter!

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Reblog for the evening crowd.  We’ve hit $1,312 with 21 backers in just the first 8 hours!  Help us keep it going!

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We are excited to announce that the KickStarter for Rephaim: The Shattered City is now LIVE!  Helps us spread the word and reach our goal!

Back us on KickStarter!

[skullbatstudio]

Tomorrow morning, 3/21/17 at 10AM Pacific time, the gates of Rephaim will open!  Join us then to get the early bird deals, and help us spread the word as much as you can!