Ska Studios

Ska Studios LLC

Logo

Type| Limited liability company
Industry| Video games
Founded| 2007
Headquarters| Seattle, Washington,

Key people

| James Silva[1]

Number of employees

| 2
Subsidiaries| Devoured Studios
Website| ska-studios.com

Ska Studios is an independent game development studio founded by James Silva in 2007 after winning a contract to publish Software:The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai to Xbox Live Arcade.[2] Ska Studios has released four Metacritic-aggregated console games since then, more than any similarly sized studio.[3] Ska Studios currently consists of Silva.[4]

The studio is well known in indie gaming for its art style, which is described as cartoonish, grim, and gory,[5] and its games' tight controls.[6] Many of the studio's games are strongly inspired by modern action titles, such as Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden Black, and Dark Souls.[7]

## Contents

* 1 History
* 2 Development
* 3 Games
* 4 References
* 5 External links

## History

Silva began making games as a hobby in 2001, starting with Zombie Smashers X, a River City Ransom style beat-em'-up game, but the title was financially unsuccessful, selling fewer than 100 units. James went on to develop more similarly unsuccessful titles, including Blood Zero, Zombie Smashers X2, and Survival Crisis Z, but didn't achieve viable commercial success until 8 years later, with 2009's The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai.[8]

## Development

All of Ska Studios' currently released games are built using the XNA framework or its open-source cross platform counterpart, MonoGame. When Xbox One launched with no XNA support, Ska Studios made the switch to PlayStation 4, with Salt and Sanctuary being the studio's first title to launch on a non-Microsoft console. Regarding the change, James said:

> "The engineering side of it was an issue. All of our code is .NET/XNA, and, even though XNA support has ended, .NET games can use open source wrappers like MonoGame and FNA to carry the torch. But Xbox One has no .NET support. PS4 does, with titles like Towerfall: Ascension and Transistor using MonoGame in one form or another to deploy to PS4."[9]

## Games

In Charlie Murder, players play as members of a garage punk rock band that is fighting a demonic army during the apocalypse. Year  | Title  | Platform  | Developers  | Metacritic Score

|
|
|
|

2009  | ZP2K9[10] | XBLIG  | James Silva  |
2009  | Software:The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai[11] | XBLA  | James Silva  | 75
2009  | I Made a Game with Zombies in It![12] | XBLIG  | James Silva  |
2010  | ZP2KX[13] | XBLIG  | James Silva, Dustin Burg  |
2011  | Software:The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile | XBLA/PC | James Silva, Dustin Burg  | 81
2012  | Z0MB1ES (on ph0ne)[14] | WP7 | James Silva  |
2013  | Charlie Murder | XBLA/PC  | James Silva, Michelle Juett Silva  | 78
2014  | TIME VIKING!!!!!ANDSPACERAPTOR[15] | XBLIG  | James Silva, Michelle Juett Silva  |
2016  | Salt and Sanctuary | PS4/PC/PS VITA/Switch/XB1 | James Silva, Michelle Juett Silva  | 85
2022  | Salt and Sacrifice[16] | PS5/PS4/PC/Switch  | James Silva, Shane Lynch  | 72

## References

1. ↑ Ska Studios About Page
2. ↑ "MS offers deals to four XNA devs". https://www.gamespot.com/articles/ms-offers-deals-to-four-xna-devs/1100-6176569/.
3. ↑ "Ska Studios". http://www.metacritic.com/company/ska-studios.
4. ↑ "Official Ska Studios Twitter Account". https://twitter.com/skastudios/status/1253752923747577858.
5. ↑ "Review: Salt and Sanctuary by Ska Studios" (in en-US). April 19, 2016. http://www.indiehangover.com/review-salt-and-sanctuary-by-ska-studios/.
6. ↑ "'Salt and Sanctuary': A Worthwhile, 2D 'Souls' Successor - Quad Nine" (in en-US). April 5, 2016. http://www.quadnine.net/reviews/salt-sanctuary-worthwhile-2d-successor-dark-souls/.
7. ↑ "james silva". February 26, 2015. http://www.nodontdie.com/james-silva/.
8. ↑ "Future ICONS: Meet Ska Studios' indie gaming power couple". http://www.syfygames.com/news/article/future-icons-meet-ska-studios-indie-gaming-power-couple.
9. ↑ "Ska Studios shifts to Sony after 6 years on Xbox". https://www.engadget.com/2014/08/28/ska-studios-shifts-to-sony-after-6-years-on-xbox/.
10. ↑ "ZP2K9 - Xbox.com". http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/ZP2K9/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802585501ba?DownloadType=Game#LiveZone.
11. ↑ "The Dishwasher". http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/The-Dishwasher/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258410902.
12. ↑ "I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1 - Xbox.com". http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/I-MAED-A-GAM3-W1TH-Z0MB1ES-1/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802585502a6.
13. ↑ "ZP2KX: Zombies & Pterodactyls!". http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/ZP2KX-Zombies-Pterodactyls/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258550732.
14. ↑ "Z0MB1ES (on teh ph0ne) – Windows Games on Microsoft Store". https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/apps/z0mb1es-on-teh-ph0ne/9wzdncrfhv6n.
15. ↑ "Ska Studios releases TIME VIKING!!!!!ANDSPACERAPTOR". http://www.gamespot.com/articles/ska-studios-releases-time-viking-andspaceraptor/1100-6416931/.
16. ↑ Miller, Matt. "Salt And Sacrifice Brings The Soul To Summer Game Fest" (in en). Game Informer. https://www.gameinformer.com/e3-2021/2021/06/10/salt-and-sacrifice-brings-the-soul-to-summer-game-fest. Retrieved June 13, 2021.

## External links

* Official website

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