You Must Gather Your Party Before Venturing Forth

Even with SKALD launching on Kickstarter June 3rd, the game is far from finished. However, it has always been important to me that I have a playable ALPHA build to serve as a demo by the time the Kickstarter finishes.

This is both to serve as a proof-of-concept and also to dip my toes into getting tester feedback.

Even though crunching to finish the demo is a lot of work it’s still a ton of fun. One of the main reasons is my amazing group of freelancers!

Marco’s speed paint for the SKALD splash screen.

These guys have truly gone above and beyond for the SKALD project and it’s time to give them a shout-out!


MementoMoree has been creating art since his late teenage years. Proficient in most types of art, from pencil & paper to highly detailed 4k textures, he’s found solace and pleasure in the retro pixel art! 

Twitter: @MementoMoree


Marco Pedrana is a digital and traditional artist (illustration, storyboards, comic art, paintings, installations, pixel art), focusing on narrative art, regardless the media or the scope. He works in advertising and game design (Aeon of Sands: story, texts, graphics, audio, VCS testing). He loves D&D, his cat Agony, Spring, and the sounds coming from the meadow outside his window. 

Illustration: www.behance.net/marcopedrana  

Fine art: marcopedrana.blogspot.com/


Romanus Surt is a Jack of all trades at Graverobber Foundation and the developer behind Das Geisterschiff. He did the music for the SKALD demo. 

Twitter:  @surt_r | Web:  Das Geistschiff on Steam


Edwin Montgomery is a composer and sound designer for games, films and performance. A long-time RPG obsessive, he wrote the soundtrack for inXile’s remastered release of “Wasteland” and is currently working on the 30th Anniversary version. He has created music and sounds for a variety of fantasy game worlds, including Warhammer 40,000, Game of Thrones and Neverwinter. Edwin did the sound design for the SKALD demo.

Twitter: @edwinmmusic | Web:  www.edwinmontgomeryaudio.com 


MementoMoree’s “Rat Queen”. Hope to animate certain central characters in the final game (think Wasteland 1 or Bard’s Tale)

Please take the time to follow these guys on Twitter and be sure to check out their other projects and portfolios! Also be sure to support SKALD on Kickstarter so I can keep paying them to do awesome work!

See you Monday 3rd!

SKALD: Against the Black Priory

SKALD: Against the Black Priory is an upcoming classic turn-based RPG. It’s set in a dark and gritty fantasy universe, full of tragic heroes, violent deaths and eldritch horror. 

After a great run on Kickstarter, I’m now super happy to announce:

SKALD is now on Indiegogo “InDemand”!

For press kit, click here!

We’re on Indiegogo!

The game is currently in beta-development and it’s coming to Early Access fall 2020. It will release for Windows and Mac first and then handheld devices down the line.

To support the game, subscribe to this devlog, check out our Youtube channel and follow the project on Twitter!

You can also join our Discord server. This is really where the SKALD community lives and we’re always happy to get more members. Also: Discord members occasionally get to test development builds.

Check out that lovely CRT filter!

Finally, wishlisting SKALD on GOG.com might earn us a spot in their web-store and that would rock! In other words: Wishlist SKALD on GOG.com now!

Do you want to follow the SKALD project? Subscribe to our newsletter today!

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Kickstarter: The Rewards

The Kickstarter goes live on June 3rd and crunch is upon me!  One of the coolest aspects of running a Kickstarter campaign is designing awesome rewards for passionate fans!

SKALD: Against the Black Priory will feature a range of rewards from the game itself, the sound-track, a printed hand-drawn map, manuals and perhaps even a collectible big-box edition!

The Anatomy of Rewards

My strategy for the Kickstarter is simple: Run a low risk – low rewards campaign with a low target number and an emphasis on digital rewards. There’s a couple of good reasons for this:

First of all, my primary motivation for running a Kickstarter is to put SKALD: Against the Black Priory in your hands as soon as possible whilst making it the best game it can be. For a one-man team, even whilst working with freelancers, this means prioritizing coding, writing and designing the game itself.

Second, I’m based in Norway. Most of my backers are not. Neither are most of the production facilities for physical rewards. Shipping costs and logistics add up.

Digital Rewards

One of the (many) advantages of Kickstarting a video-game is that the final product tends to be digital! This allows for easy distribution which in turn cuts down on logistics, cost and risk! I like this.

Samples from the lower “digital rewards” tiers. 1 Dollar = 8.7 NOK.

Shown above are three of the lower reward tiers (1 Dollar = 8.7 NOK). Up to 300 NOK (approx. $35) the rewards are all digital and include the game itself, a demo (due in July 2019), access to the BETA version, sound track and digital copies of the manual, campaign guide and map.

The manual and campaign guide will outline the SKALD system as well as describing Idra and it’s surroundings and the most prominent characters, items and monsters. All in a classic old-school RPG style!

Concept for the manual cover-art!

Whilst serving as a hint book for SKALD: Against the Black Priory, the campaign guide will also contain enough information to allow you to drop the setting into a tabletop RPG and create your own adventures in the SKALD universe!

Image result for ad&d 2 edition manuals
A page from the Monster Manual 2 for 1. edition AD&D . I want this!

As for the map, it will be hand-drawn and colored and available either as a digital file, a paper print or an exclusive cloth map depending on the reward tier.

Physical Rewards

There’s no doubt about it: Backers LOVE feelies! The printed manuals, cloth maps and trinkets that came in gorgeous boxes are a big part of the experience for a lot of players!

Image result for Ultima feelies
The feelies from Ultima IV.

At higher reward tiers (Approx. $55 and up) the Kickstarter will feature printed versions of the manual, campaign guide and map (paper and cloth prints). If all goes according to plan, I’ll even throw in an exclusive collectible “big-box” edition with extra feelies for hard-core backers.


That’s it for now (it’s back to work for me). Be sure to subscribe to this blog and follow on Twitter to stay posted!

See you on Kickstarter June 3rd!


The Shores of Idra

With the Kickstarter in June fast approaching it’s time for another update! As always I wish I had more time to spend on this devlog. Time however, is currently my most precious asset on this project. What time I have is still being put into actual development and I think that’s a good idea.

The animation-system really makes the world pop!

So far everything is on track for Kickstarter in June. There is still a lot of work to be done to get the campaign ready but work is progressing at a steady pace.

During Easter-crunch I spent a lot of time repaying technical debt as I plugged memory leaks and optimized the draw pipeline. The payoff is that the game now consistently runs at 60 FPS+ and has a much smaller memory footprint with no leakage. Oh, and I also added animation for characters and the environment!

Another big reason I keep making steady progress is that I’ve had the opportunity to work with some more amazing freelance artists for music and some of the graphics. The result is some pretty cool assets I can’t wait to feature in the game:

The theme for the demo by @surt_r

It’s incredibly fun and rewarding to work with people that go the extra mile to help realize your vision.

“Your debt is due” A trio of bandits by @MementoMoree

Finally I really want to shout out the “Nox Archaist” project by 6502 Workshop. This little gem of an indie-game is currently on Kickstarter where it has had amazing success so far! As a modern 8-bit game for the Apple 2, this game is a love-letter to all the games that inspired SKALD!

I can’t wait to sink my teeth into this!

The project looks really solid with a large chunk of the game being complete already. More importantly, Mark and the other members of 6502 Workshop seem like great people who deserves all the support the retro-gaming family has to offer.

I support and endorse “Nox Archaist” 100% and so should you!


That’s it for now! Be sure to follow this blog and look me up at twitter if you want to keep posted!

See you on Kickstarter in June!