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Skellboy Refractured is the upcoming action-RPG from UmaikiGames, originally released just as Skellboy for the Nintendo Switch - it's getting a desktop release soon.

You play as Skippy, the square, flexible skeleton in this sweet action-RPG, to keep a heartbroken court magician from destroying the world with his army of monsters and undead. As you play through you get to swap body parts with those of slain enemies and friends to become the hero of Cubold Kingdom. It's genuinely charming and it has such a great visual style that we've been excited over this for some time.

So what's actually going to be different for the Linux, macOS and Windows version with Skellboy Refractured compared with the Switch version released earlier this year? Quite a lot actually including:

  • Co-Op multiplayer.
  • Randomized Dungeon.
  • New Game+ featuring new enemies, Items and Bosses.
  • 20+ Body Parts with unique effects.
  • Lots and lots of gameplay improvements.

You can see their original trailer below to get an idea of what it's like:

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The flat pixel-art character design, blended in with a 3D actually looks brilliant.

With the Steam Game Festival: Autumn Edition going on, the team at UmaikiGames recently updated the demo with Linux support too! The demo should be available until the event ends on Tuesday, October 13.

If you wish to try it out head over to the Skellboy Refractured Steam page.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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3 comments

Anza Oct 10, 2020
Demo was quite a surprise. Beginning started by telling me that I can't jump without feet. After that it was simple hack and slash for a while, but towards the end it started to throw in new weapons and enemies. Weapons and enemies even change the gameplay in some way. Seems like developers know some good game design tricks.

For some reason first version I got was the Windows version, with little bit fiddling around I managed to download the native Linux version. After playing the demo I noticed that graphics can be improved little bit in the settings. Game will still retain the retro looks though, so the pixels won't go anywhere.
Klaus Oct 11, 2020
Trying right now. Pretty fun game :)

The way
Quoting: Anza... Weapons and enemies even change the gameplay in some way. Seems like developers know some good game design tricks. ...

Not only the gameplay though. The aesthetic of "2D pixel art, stretched in third axis" is pleasant, and the use of the camera is interesting too. Already in the intro-animation a slow movement of the camera is used to emphasize the perception of depth in the way of a parallax effect.

The strong perspective is probably unrealistically over-emphasized, but it really brings the "3D-ness" to life.

Depth of field also works well for this game, where usually I prefer turning it off. Probably related to the abstract graphics style, where having distance-dependent blurriness doesn't obscure details.


Last edited by Klaus on 11 October 2020 at 8:05 am UTC
psy-q Oct 11, 2020
I was pleasantly surprised, in the trailer it looks like it might be hard to judge distances with that perspective, but in practice it works really well.
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