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| 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 aindie developer specializing inretro-style16-bitrole-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 parodiesLovecraftian horror. Its first games were theinteractive fiction worksEpiphany In Spaaace! andMolly the Were-Zompire forXbox Live Arcade; which were remastered forWindows in 2023. Soon afterward, the studio released its first RPGs,Breath of Death VII andCthulhu Saves the World. The studio was then contracted to develop the third and fourth installments in thePenny Arcade Adventures series. In 2017, Zeboyd released the original IPCosmic Star Heroine, a sci-fi adventure. The studio subsequently returned to comedy games withCthulhu Saves Christmas andThis 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 aninteractive fiction story released on October 20, 2009 onXbox Live Indie Games. Asci-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]
Aremastered compilation pack of both games, under the modified titleMolly the Werezompire, was released forWindows on December 29, 2023. Sam Wachter ofRPGamer 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, soBreath of Death VII battles employ a combo system based onplayer character choices withnon-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 byH. 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 thefourth wall, Cthulhu informs the narrator that he was eavesdropping and now knows how to break the curse.[15] LikeBreath 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'sSteam 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 developedEpisode 3 ofPenny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness,[2][22] which was released on June 25, 2012. Robert Boyd and Bill Stiernberg, along withJerry Holkins and Jeff Kalles, hosted a panel atPAX East inBoston on April 6, 2012.[23] Zeboyd Games also developedEpisode 4, which was released on June 7, 2013.
Cosmic Star Heroine is a science fiction RPG that was released in April 2017 forMicrosoft Windows andPlayStation 4. A PS Vita and Nintendo Switch version followed in 2018. It received positive reviews.[24][25]
Zeboyd officially announcedCthulhu Saves Christmas, a prequel toCthulhu 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 fightsKrampus,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-themedmagical girl role-playing game. It was released on November 10, 2022 forMicrosoft Windows.[28]