SKALD: Against the Black Priory News

Greetings all!

As most of you know, Skald modding has been in beta for PC on the "experimental branch" for the last couple of months!
Well, today we're moving it to the main branch so it'll be easier for everyone to enjoy the user-created content or even make their own!

The game is also coming ON SALE for a few days, so be sure to point friends, family and small children to our Steam page!

Start Brewing!

Skald user-created content is hosted on mod.io so find it there today! We already have a good handful of modules from some of our talented community creators!

To get started on downloading or creating mods, have a look at our tutorials (also on mod.io):

In particular, you may want to have look at the "How to play Mods" tutorial!


To stay posted, be sure to follow the Skald Twitter, Bluesky and Discord if you haven’t already!

Keep being awesome and have a fantastic week!
AL

Before playing Skald: Against the Black Priory, I liked the idea of this throwback roleplaying game, but wasn't sure it was for me. I love old-school RPGs, but pre-1997 is too old-school for me, and Skald's primary source of visual inspiration is an era of DOS and Commodore RPGs I have respect, but not much affection for. Skald's gorgeous VGA-inspired pixel art scared me off as much as it enticed me...
Read more.

Greetings one and all!

We have some cool news for those interesting in playing or creating mods for “Skald: Against the Black Priory”: A big update to the SkaDE tool and a bunch of new content for you to play!



NOTE: The modding enabled build currently exists exclusively on the Steam and GOG Experimental branches. See the guide on how to play here!

[h2]Module Creator Contest Winners[/h2]
The module creator content has finished with 5 submissions! There is some truly AMAZING work in these modules, and hours of fun, so I highly recommend you go check them out!

In fact, I’m so happy with all the great work the community has done that we’ll be awarding a 100 USD gift card to all 5 creators! Raw Fury will be reaching out to you shortly!

The submissions, in no particular order:

[h3]THROUGH THE TEMPORAL GATE[/h3]
By UndeadBus

“An old friend’s magical experiment has gone awry, opening a temporal gate that floods the village with unstable energy. To set things right, you’ll journey to the past and the future, solving puzzles and battling foes across time.”



[h3]A BRAND NEW RATVENTURE[/h3]
By MorDanGames

“You’re a new adventurer fresh out of a local Guild. Go kill some rats. Easy, right?”



[h3]TYRANNY AND JUSTICE[/h3]
By PrimitiveType

“A classic tale of Tyranny, and the Justice of the subjugated. A short adventure with custom classes.”



[h3]THE UNINVITED[/h3]
By Jukse

“In this short adventure, you are a Seeker or, more precisely, you aspire to become one. Explore the Beltar Mansion and get to know its residents and guests. Ask questions. Learn secrets. Save a man from something that came crawling from beyond. Prove yourself.”



[h3]LOOP TWO[/h3]
By Shout27

This one seems a bit unfinished but I appreciate the effort in any case so I’m including it as well.



[h2]Updated Toolset[/h2]

The SkaDE toolset has gotten a major overhaul. I’ve added a bunch of QoL features as well as added in ALL the graphical and audio assets from the core game. Yes you read that right: You can now use all the Skald assets ever created in your projects!

What’s more, I’ve also added a full copy of the main game data on mod.io. This can be used by modders for learning purposes as it allows them to dissect the main game’s data. Check it out!



[h3]SkaDE Tool 1.0.3 CHANGE-LOG[/h3]

• Button of selected draw-mode in map editor is highlighted
  
• Keyboard shortcuts are now available for draw modes (hover over button to see the tooltip indicating the shortcut)
  
• There are now options to toggle or un-toggle all draw layers
  
• Loading and saving now uses a more modern interface for file-selection
  
• The editor remembers the last folder you loaded a project from between sessions
  
• Bundled in all the graphical assets from the main game
  
• Touched up the graphical asset preview feature in the editor
  
• Added audio assets (music and FX). These can now we “pre-viewed” (listened to) from the editor
  
• Removed some of the redundant “Go to…” buttons that were connected to fields not referring to objects
  

[h3]CORE GAME 1.0.7c CHANGE-LOG[/h3]

• Fixed issue where certain items were not available when playing modded versions of the main game (such as tomes)
  
• Fixed issue where a few quests were when playing a modded main campaign: “Gnawing at the Roots” and “Lost Sailors”
  

Ok, that’s it for now! To stay posted, be sure to follow the Skald Twitter, Bluesky and Discord if you haven’t already!

Cheers!

AL

Ho ho ho!

It's the most wonderful time of the year and I come bearing gifts: The Skald Data Editor tool (SkaDE for short) enters open beta today and YOU'RE invited!



In short, the SkaDE toolset is a bundle of tools that I made to make Skald. In other words, they are the actual tools I used to make the game.



What I'm releasing into BETA today is the first step towards bringing these tools to the community. This means that, for now, only a reduced tile-set is available (should be enough to get you started on that Ultima clone you're dreaming about).

You can read more about the tools in the tutorials linked below. Modding also has its own subchannels on the Skald Discord.

Finally, it is worth reiterating that the current version of the tools and the modding implementation in the game itself is in a very early Beta stage. There are a lot of rough edges so be patient.



Skald modding lives on mod.io! This is where you'll find all the content created, sample projects and all the tutorials for the SkaDE toolset.



If you want to start using the modding tools, head on over to the first tutorial!

If you would rather just download and play mods, check out the guide for installing mods.

A WORD OF WARNING: You need to swap branches to play the version of the game that supports mods (see guide above). The reason we keep it on the experimental/Beta branches is that the build is less stable that we hoped. This will improve but for now these builds should ONLY be used for testing mods – not general play of the vanilla game.

At the time of writing, there is not really any user-created content up so you may need to check in over the coming weeks. Which leads me to...





[h2]The Task[/h2]

Using the SkaDE tool you are to create a small, playable adventure.

• The theme of the adventure shall be “Low Level Adventures” – How does a hero take their first steps to become an adventurer?
  
• The adventure must be based on the SkaDE sample project. Note that this is a nearly empty project and you can change any aspect of it – it’s just a way of ensuring that the scope remains manageable
  
• The adventure must contain both a surface level and a dungeon level (as in the sample project)
  
• There must be both dialogue and combat
  
• There must be 15-30 minutes of gameplay for a “fresh” player (the jury will spend around 20 min with each contribution)
  
• You are free to collaborate!
  

[h2]Winner and Prizes[/h2]

We'll pick three winners of a Steam gift card to the value of 100 USD. Your submission will also be featured on the devlog.

Our assessment will be based on:

• Creativity
  
• Fun of play
  
• Overall impression
  

[h2]How to Submit[/h2]

Upload the module to the Skald mod.io and use the tag "XMAS CONTEST".

Uploading mods is super easy - just remember the tag so that we can find your submissions.

[h2]Date[/h2]

The final date for submission is January 15th.

That should be enough to get you started so head on over to Skald on mod.io and start hacking or go to the Discord to find people to collaborate with!

I'm really excited to see what the community does with this. I'll be putting out more tutorials over Christmas as well (they may be handy for the contest) so keep an eye out for those.

Best of luck and seasons greetings,

AL

Greetings,

Firstly, we want to say a massive thank you for all of your support this year. We're now sitting at over 2,000 Steam Reviews, have received amazing encouragement and feedback from the community and are so pleased to hear players are enjoying playing SKALD with Controller and on Steam Deck!

We know competiton is fierce and there are so many incredible games that have released in 2024, but If you're one of those players who've loved your time with SKALD, we'd humbly request your support in this years' Steam Awards!

We'd humbly like to request your support in the Outstanding Story-Rich Game Awards as we've loved hearing how much you've enjoyed the game's narrative twists and turns and are grateful for all the kind words!



Regardless of where you do cast a vote, though, we wanted to express our appreciation. Launching SKALD has been a dream come true and it wouldn't have been possible without your support.

That's not all from us, though! We've got something really exciting cooking that we'll be talking a lot more about before the end of the year!


AL