The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's notability guidelines for companies and organizations .(February 2024) |
Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Video games |
Founded | 2009 |
Founder | Robert Boyd, William Stiernberg |
Headquarters | Lake Arrowhead, California, United States |
Key people | Robert Boyd (Co-Owner), William "Bill" Stiernberg (Co-Owner) (2009–2023) |
Products | Epiphany in Spaaace!, Molly the Were-Zompire, Breath of Death VII, Cthulhu Saves the World, Penny Arcade's On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3, Penny Arcade's On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 4, Cosmic Star Heroine, Cthulhu Saves Christmas, This Way Madness Lies |
Number of employees | 2 |
Website | zeboyd |
Zeboyd Games is a indie developer specializing in retro-style 16-bit role-playing video games. Zeboyd is most associated with its co-creators Robert Boyd and William Stiernberg, who did the great majority of the work for their games. Stiernberg left the studio in 2023, but it continues onward under Boyd. [1]
Much of the studio's work is comedic in nature and parodies Lovecraftian horror. Its first games were the interactive fiction works Epiphany In Spaaace! and Molly the Were-Zompire for Xbox Live Arcade; which were remastered for Windows in 2023. Soon afterward, the studio released its first RPGs, Breath of Death VII and Cthulhu Saves the World . The studio was then contracted to develop the third and fourth installments in the Penny Arcade Adventures series. In 2017, Zeboyd released the original IP Cosmic Star Heroine , a sci-fi adventure. The studio subsequently returned to comedy games with Cthulhu Saves Christmas and This Way Madness Lies . [2]
The studio's games are typically short in length, and have been positively received by critics and commended for their writing, gameplay and value.
Epiphany In Spaaace! is an interactive fiction story released on October 20, 2009 on Xbox Live Indie Games. A sci-fi parody, it follows the travails of Philemon K. Bort (possible Captain of the U.S.S. Epiphany, one of the latest additions to the Universal Galactic Space Corps fleet). [3] [4] [5] Molly the Were-Zompire was released shortly afterwards on December 10, 2009. [6] It follows the character Molly Desper, who is turned into a were-zombie-vampire. [7] Both titles sold about 500-700 copies. [8]
A remastered compilation pack of both games, under the modified title Molly the Werezompire, was released for Windows on December 29, 2023. Sam Wachter of RPGamer reviewed both games as "hilarious", saying that despite their short length, they were well worth the price. [9]
Co-created with William Stiernberg, Breath of Death VII: The Beginning was released on April 22, 2010, on Xbox Live Indie Games. [10] A retro-style comedy RPG, Dem the Skeleton Knight, Sara the Ghost Historian, Lita the Vampire Techie, and Erik the Zombie Prince are customized via a branching ability tree. [11] Robert felt that most turn-based RPGs were too slow, so Breath of Death VII battles employ a combo system based on player character choices with non-player characters receiving a strength bonus based on how many turns the fight has gone, giving the battles a pseudo time limit. [12] Additionally, the number of encounters in an area are limited. [13] With more than 40,000 sales, Breath of Death VII has a 2/3 conversion rate from the trial. [12]
Despite its title, it is the only game of its "series", and the previous "six" do not exist. The title is simply a parody of serial RPGs whose sequels are often not in chronological order.
Co-created with Bill Stiernberg, Cthulhu Saves the World was released on December 30, 2010 on Xbox Live. [14] Cthulhu, the squid-faced, winged god created by H. P. Lovecraft emerges from the sea after centuries of slumber only to find his dark powers immediately sealed away by a mysterious holy wizard. A narrator then informs the player that the only way to break the curse is to become a true hero. Quickly breaking the fourth wall, Cthulhu informs the narrator that he was eavesdropping and now knows how to break the curse. [15] Like Breath of Death VII, Cthulhu Saves the World has a branching level-up system and caps random encounters in an area (there is an option where the player can choose from the menu to have additional encounters). [16] The "Hey There, Cthulhu" music video was produced by Nakatomi HMC [17] using the parody song written and recorded by Eben Brooks. [18] All in-game music was composed and recorded by Gordon McNeil. [19]
Zeboyd Games began a Kickstarter fundraiser towards development of an enhanced version of the game for PC and Xbox 360 platforms; it was more than successfully funded on February 16, 2011, garnering over twice the fundraiser's goal. The new version was officially announced on March 14, 2011, retitling the game as "Cthulhu Saves the World: Super Hyper Enhanced Championship Edition Alpha Diamond DX Plus Alpha FES HD - Premium Enhanced Game of the Year Collector's Edition (without Avatars!)". The PC version was released on July 13, 2011 together with Breath of Death VII on Valve's Steam service. The Steam version was a financial success, making more revenue in its first week of release than in a year and a half on the Xbox 360. [20] By November 21, 2011, the "Zeboyd Games Combo Pack" (Cthulhu Saves the World & Breath of Death VII) had sold over 100,000 copies on Steam in less than four months after release. [21]
Zeboyd Games developed Episode 3 of Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness , [2] [22] which was released on June 25, 2012. Robert Boyd and Bill Stiernberg, along with Jerry Holkins and Jeff Kalles, hosted a panel at PAX East in Boston on April 6, 2012. [23]
Zeboyd Games developed Episode 4, which was released on June 7, 2013.
Cosmic Star Heroine is a science fiction RPG that was released in April 2017 for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 4. A PS Vita and Nintendo Switch version followed in 2018. It received positive reviews. [24] [25]
Zeboyd officially announced Cthulhu Saves Christmas , a prequel to Cthulhu Saves the World, on their personal website on July 29, 2019. [26] It was subsequently released on PC on December 23, 2019. In the side-scrolling JRPG, Cthulhu teams up with Santa Claus’s granddaughter to stop Jack Frost before Christmas is cancelled forever. Along the way he fights Krampus, Mari Lwyd, and other “Christmas League of Evil villains” in turn-based combat. He also builds “R'lyehtionship” levels with his friends. [27]
This Way Madness Lies is a Shakespeare-themed magical girl role-playing game. It was released on November 10, 2022 for Microsoft Windows. [28]
Call of Cthulhu is a horror fiction role-playing game based on H. P. Lovecraft's story of the same name and the associated Cthulhu Mythos. The game, often abbreviated as CoC, is published by Chaosium; it was first released in 1981 and is in its seventh edition, with licensed foreign language editions available as well. Its game system is based on Chaosium's Basic Role-Playing (BRP) with additions for the horror genre. These include special rules for sanity and luck.
A role-playing video game, role-playing game (RPG) or computer role-playing game (CRPG) is a video game genre where the player controls the actions of a character immersed in some well-defined world, usually involving some form of character development by way of recording statistics. Many role-playing video games have origins in tabletop role-playing games and use much of the same terminology, settings, and game mechanics. Other major similarities with pen-and-paper games include developed story-telling and narrative elements, player character development, complexity, as well as replay value and immersion. The electronic medium removes the necessity for a gamemaster and increases combat resolution speed. RPGs have evolved from simple text-based console-window games into visually rich 3D experiences.
Golden Axe is a side-scrolling hack-and-slash video game released by Sega for arcades in 1989, running on the Sega System 16B arcade hardware. Makoto Uchida was the lead designer of the game, and was also responsible for the creation of the previous year's Altered Beast. The game casts players as one of three warriors who must free the fantastical land of Yuria from the tyrannical rule of Death Adder, who wields the titular Golden Axe.
Torchlight is an action role-playing hack and slash dungeon crawler video game developed by Runic Games and published by Perfect World Entertainment. It was originally released for Windows in October 2009. The fantasy-themed game is set in the fictional town of Torchlight and the expansive caverns and dungeons nearby, which adventurers explore to collect valuable loot and battle hordes of monsters. Following the October 2009 digital distribution release, a Windows retail box version was released in the U.S. in January 2010 by Encore, Inc, and JoWooD Entertainment published a retail box in Europe in April 2010. A port for OS X was developed by World Domination Industries and released through Steam on May 12, 2010. Runic Games and World Domination Industries developed a port for Xbox Live Arcade which was released on March 9, 2011. A Linux port was released as part of the game's inclusion in the Humble Indie Bundle 6.
Xbox Live Indie Games were video games created by individual developers or small teams of developers released on Microsoft's Xbox Live Marketplace for the Xbox 360. The games were developed using Microsoft XNA, and developed by one or more independent developers that are registered with App Hub. Unlike Xbox Live Arcade titles, these were generally only tested within the local creator community, had much lower costs of production, and generally were less expensive to purchase. The service was released to widespread use alongside the New Xbox Experience, and as of November 2014, over 3,300 games had been released on the service, many receiving media attention. All Indie Games currently require the user to be logged into their Xbox Live account to initiate the start-up of each game. Indie Games were not available in Australia, due to the requirement for all games to be rated by the Australian Classification Board, and the prohibitive expenses involved. The Xbox Live Indie Games program did not continue with the release of the Xbox One, and the marketplace for these games was shuttered on October 7, 2017.
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Faery: Legends of Avalon is a role-playing video game released for Xbox Live Arcade on 10 November 2010, and for PlayStation Network and Microsoft Windows in 2011. It was developed by Spiders Studio and published by Focus Home Interactive.
Bastion is an action role-playing video game developed by independent developer Supergiant Games and originally published in 2011 by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. In the game, the player controls "the Kid" as he moves through floating, fantasy-themed environments and fights enemies of various types. It features a dynamic voiceover from a narrator, and is presented as a two-dimensional game with an isometric camera and a hand-painted, colorful art style. Bastion's story follows the Kid as he collects special shards of rock to power a structure, the Bastion, in the wake of an apocalyptic Calamity.
Dust: An Elysian Tail is an action role-playing video game developed by American independent designer Dean Dodrill, published by Microsoft Studios. It was released for Xbox 360 through Xbox Live Arcade in August 2012, and subsequently for Microsoft Windows in May 2013, for Linux and OS X in December 2013, and for PlayStation 4 in October 2014. A version for the Nintendo Switch was announced at E3 2018 and was released in September 2018.
The Indie Games Uprising is a developer led event designed to promote the "best of the best" Xbox Live Indie Games. The promotion was originally conceived by Robert Boyd of Zeboyd Games and Ian Stocker of MagicalTimeBean, when they noticed that they both had games coming out in the same time frame.
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Cthulhu Saves the World is an indie turn-based role-playing video game developed and published by Zeboyd Games. It was released in 2010 for Xbox Live Arcade, and in 2011 for Windows. It was later bundled with its predecessor, Breath of Death VII, as a compilation release. A parody resembling a retro 16-bit JRPG and based on the Cthulhu Mythos, the game stars the Great Old One Cthulhu as an antiheroic protagonist who is stopped by a wizard before he can destroy the world. He must become a "true hero" in order to break the spell and regain his evil powers. The game received favorable reviews from critics, and was a commercial success. It was praised for its value, but criticized for aspects of its gameplay.
Breath of Death VII: The Beginning is an indie turn-based role-playing video game developed and published by Zeboyd Games. It was released on April 22, 2010, for Xbox Live Arcade, and on July 13, 2011, for Windows. It was later bundled with its spiritual successor, Cthulhu Saves the World, as a compilation pack. Despite the title, the game is standalone and unconnected to any other games. A parody of 16-bit Japanese role-playing games, it takes place in a post-apocalyptic world in which humans have gone extinct. The main character, an undead skeleton knight named Dem, is accompanied by other undead party members in a quest to stop an evil force. Breath of Death was positively received by critics, who commended its gameplay, story and low price, but also called it overly basic and generic.