| Type | Limited liability company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | 2001 (as Totally Screwed Software) 2005 (as Ska Software) 2007 (as Ska Studios) |
| Headquarters | Schenectady, New York |
| Key people | James Silva |
| Employees | 2 |
| Website | ska-studios.com |
Ska Studios is an independent game developer founded by James Silva in 2001 as Totally Screwed Software. The name was changed in 2005 to Ska Software, and then in 2007 to Ska Studios.
The studio is well-known in indie gaming for its games that utilize graphic cartoon violence. The games often pay tribute to the retro gaming scene, with the first two entries of its Zombie Smashers X series paying tribute to River City Ransom, while Blood Zero is a tribute to The Legend of Zelda.
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Their games have generally received good ratings, and have also won a few awards:
Zombie Smashers X2: Punx and Skins – Reflexive Arcade entry, average reader review: 4.2 out of 5 stars[1]
Zombie Smashers X2: Punx and Skins – GameTunnel.com 2005 Action Game of the Year [2]
Zombie Smashers X2: Punx and Skins – Download.com average rating of 4 out of 5 stars [3]
Zombie Smashers X3: Ninjastarmageddon! – GameTunnel.com number 15 of Top 100 Games[4]
Zombie Smashers X3: Ninjastarmageddon! – Gizaim! Score 7.75/10[5]
Zombie Smashers X3: Ninjastarmageddon! – Bytten.com Overall Score: 91%[6]
Their most recent and notable award came from Microsoft, who hold the Dream-Build-Play contest. In this contest, independent developers are challenged to use the XNA Game Studio software to create a game. Whoever creates the best one gets a publishing contract to have the game distributed on Xbox Live Arcade. James Silva tied in first place with his game The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai, beating out over 4,500 other entrants from over 100 countries.[7][8]