Note that the difficulty on the Casual mode has been tweaked to be a little easier. If you’re stuck, you might want to give it another go…

If you happen to run into any additional issues, please let us know — our address is support@skullsoftheshogun.com.

On Tuesday, March 12 from 10am-6pm PST you can ask Jake, Borut and Ben anything and everything about Skulls of the Shogun. Not only that, but the best questions from the community can win signed SOTS posters and t-shirts! You can actually start asking questions NOW and the guys will start hitting them Tuesday!

CLICK HERE to head on over to where the Raptr Q&A is taking place.

GRAND PRIZE: Lifelower

SECOND PLACE WINNER: Alan Rappaport

SECOND PLACE WINNER: Ty Shughart

THIRD PLACE WINNER: Clint Griffin

THIRD PLACE WINNER: Abdulrahman Alrehan

THIRD PLACE WINNER: Thomas Lamont

Congrats to all the winners! We will be contacting you today to work out prize delivery. Thanks again to all for submitting entries, and special thanks to FanGamer for producing such amazing prizes!

Update: We’ve amended the contest rules due to the fact that a large portion of the entries received came from international entrants. This is something we did not plan for and we are sorry for this inconvenience.

We hope you have a wonderful weekend eatin’ skulls!

How do I play?

1. Print out this picture of the Skull, available here: http://bit.ly/12H5Wkv
2. Take a picture of the Skull somewhere cool and interesting. (That being said, please keep it legal.)
3. E-mail your picture to skullsanywherecontest@17-BIT.com with the subject line “Skulls Anywhere Contest”, or post it on Twitter using the hashtag #SKULLSANYWHERE
4. Hope your entry is chosen as a winner!

Pro-tip: BE CREATIVE! We here at 17-BIT are super-creative people, or at least that’s what we tell our parents when we try to justify what we do. Only the most creative entries will have a chance to win the SUPER RAD PRIZES designed by 17-BIT and Fangamer!

What can I win?

Third Place (3 Prizes available) – One black/silver 17-BIT t-shirt from Fangamer.

Second Place (2 Prizes available) – Four limited-edition Skulls of the Shogun art prints (one for each season in the game) signed by Jake, Borut, and Ben, PLUS one black/silver 17-BIT t-shirt from Fangamer.

GRAND PRIZE – (1 Prize available) –  One limited-edition Skulls of the Shogun wall scroll created for this contest by 17-BIT/Fangamer, signed by Jake, Borut, and Ben, and four limited-edition Skulls of the Shogun art prints (one for each season in the game) signed by Jake, Borut, and Ben, plus a black/silver 17-BIT t-shirt from Fangamer.

When does the contest run?

The contest begins February 13^th at 10am PST, and ends February 27^th at 10am PST.

Where are the contest rules?

Here! http://skullsoftheshogun.com/contest-rules/

Good luck! Have fun!

The Skulls of the Shogun Soundtrack can be downloaded via Bandcamp (http://bit.ly/XBw4au) for $7.00, on iTunes (http://bit.ly/WUWCWX) for $6.93, or Amazon (http://amzn.to/Y7aATq) for $6.23.

Here’s the full press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

  OFFICIAL SKULLS OF THE SHOGUN SOUNDTRACK NOW AVAILABLE

The soundtrack to Skulls of the Shogun is available for digital download

SEATTLE, WA (February 19, 2013) – Indie developer 17-BIT today announced that the soundtrack to Skulls of the Shogun is now available for digital download!

A global collaboration between Makyo and Sam Bird, the Official Skulls of the Shogun Soundtrack features an original score inspired by classic samurai films and dub.

“I usually work with Indian and middle-eastern instruments in Makyo, so this was a nice chance to explore Japanese instrumentation for a change,” Explained Makyo. “Each season needed to have a different feel, so I made a point of using different instrumentation for every track, including shamisen, shakuhachi, and sanshin.”

“Between the zombie samurai and the request for music blending an old Kurosawa film with Dub, I pretty much had no choice but to jump aboard,” added Sam Bird.

The Skulls of the Shogun Soundtrack can be downloaded via Bandcamp (http://bit.ly/XBw4au) for $7.00, on iTunes (http://bit.ly/WUWCWX) for $6.93, or Amazon (http://amzn.to/Y7aATq) for $6.23.

ABOUT MAKYO

Makyo is a Tokyo-based producer & DJ who has been creating exotic Eastern electronica since 1994, with releases on Dakini Records, Six Degrees, Ministry of Sound, and many more. As a remixer, Makyo has worked with artists like Cheb-i-Sabbah, Natacha Atlas, and Bill Laswell, while Makyo tracks have also featured on mix CDs by Alex Patterson (The Orb) and Mixmaster Morris. As an early pioneer of the Asian-electronic sound, Makyo developed his sound contemporaneously with producers like Talvin Singh and Karsh Kale, and has been pumping it since. Makyo’s sixth album “Purnima” was released in 2012, and his new 5-piece live-band has begun touring globally. For more information visit www.dakinirecords.com or http://www.facebook.com/pages/Makyo/190215504359505

 ABOUT SAM BIRD

Sam Bird did sound design for 8 years at Electronic Arts after studying film scoring at Berklee College of Music, and is currently hibernating in a cabin on the top of a mountain focusing on music for upcoming projects Born That Guy, Minim, The Tourist Song and Stars without Graffiti.  His last band was an indie band called The Outdoors from Echo Park, California. For more information about Sam Bird, visit http://www.theoutdoorsmusic.com.

ABOUT SKULLS OF THE SHOGUN

Skulls of the Shogun is an invigorating cocktail of 1960’s-flavored sorcery and strategy. Washed up on the shores of the Afterlife, players meet and join forces with vibrant ghost-samurai warriors, magical animal-monks, and mustachioed samurai generals on the way to capture the Skulls of the Shogun in a 15-hour single-player campaign. Skulls of the Shogun also features up to four-player local and online multiplayer battles.

We’d like to keep this new home of Skulls discussion clean, so please read the FORUM RULES before posting, because forum moderators are standing by wielding the almighty banhammer in case things get unruly. We have been trained in the fine arts of forum moderating by General Akamoto himself, so be warned.

These are our Beta forums, so things may be changing around, categories may be locked now, certain functionality may act wonky, etc. And yes, we know they’re purple. We’re working on all of these things. Please pardon our dust while we finish construction.

That all being said, have fun. We’ll see you in there!

That being said, we are nowhere near done!

We know some of you have encountered some technical issues with the game, and in case you’re one of them, please send an e-mail to support@skullsoftheshogun.com with details of what you encountered. If you can snap a photo of the issue, it would be extremely helpful. We’re currently gathering known instances and putting together our title update.  Even though we vigorously tested the game on all three launch platforms, a few bugs slipped through, and with your help we can get this patched soon. We don’t have a date on the title update yet, but stay tuned.

Finally, we’ve got a few more things in store, including the launch of our forums and a few other surprises. Until then, enjoy the game! EAT THEM SKULLS!

OH MY GOD IT’S FINALLY HERE. Yes you can go buy Skulls of the Shogun RIGHT NOW (and you totally should!). We here at 17-BIT all realize it’s been a hell of a wait, and we sincerely thank all of you for your patience and support! The extra time we took converting the game to Windows 8 and implementing all the awesome cross-platform functionality also gave us a chance to really polish all the content to a blinding sheen, and we are super happy with the final game. Most small studios like us are never given the opportunity to go back and touch up what was an almost finished game, and man what a difference it makes.

Some of you have been fans for literally years, and it will be so weird not going to this upcoming PAX East to hang with the crowd, and watch people laugh as they beat the undead hell out of their friends and loved ones. All the feedback and enthusiasm we received from all you fans over the years has been a huge source boost for us and I can’t thank you enough.

A huge thank you and congratulations to the whole team too, those who believed early on and really made this thing a reality. It’s been an amazing journey and I am truly grateful for your mad skillz and friendship.

Mega thanks to EVERYONE who ever had anything to do with this game getting out there, all the informal playtest sessions, all the opportunities to show the game (again, and again) at trade shows, anime conventions, retro game conventions, last minute press tours, all that.

I had that beat up laptop with the latest build on me wherever I went for YEARS, and I really want to just tell you all how much all your support and friendship has meant. I can’t believe it’s actually done, and as of Wednesday morning people all over the world will finally get a chance to play the game AS MUCH AS THEY WANT. Looking forward to a ton of Skulls Anywhere! YOU DIE!!

- Jake

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SKULLS OF THE SHOGUN NOW AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE

The highly anticipated action-packed turn-based strategy game is now available for Xbox Live Arcade, Windows 8, Windows Surface, and Windows Phone

SEATTLE, WA (January 30, 2013) – Indie developer 17-BIT today announced that Skulls of the Shogun is now available worldwide for Xbox 360, Windows 8 PC, Microsoft Surface, and Windows Phone.

The Xbox 360 version is now available for 1200 Microsoft Points in the Xbox Live Marketplace, and for a limited time will debut at a discounted price for Windows 8 PC, Microsoft Surface, and Windows Phone. The Windows 8 and Windows Surface version are now $9.99 (normally $14.99) in the Microsoft Store, and the Windows Phone version is $4.99 (normally $6.99) in the Windows Phone Marketplace.

Skulls of the Shogun is an invigorating cocktail of 1960’s-flavored sorcery and strategy. Washed up on the shores of the afterlife, players meet and join forces with vibrant ghost-samurai warriors, magical animal-monks, and mustachioed samurai generals on the way to capture the Skulls of the Shogun in a 15-hour single-player campaign. Skulls of the Shogun also features up to four-player local and online multiplayer battles.

Also, for the first time ever, players will be able to challenge their friends, fight their way through online multiplayer battles, and even take their single-player campaign on the road asynchronously — whether they’re playing on Xbox 360, Windows 8, Surface, or Windows Phone. Called Skulls Anywhere, this cross-platform gameplay has never been done before on Microsoft platforms and is available on all four launch platforms!

“After three and a half years, Skulls of the Shogun is has been released into the wild!” says 17-BIT Founder and CEO, Jake Kazdal. “We’re ecstatic we could bring Skulls to all four of Microsoft’s platforms, and bring them all together with cross-platform functionality. We appreciate the excitement and patience by all the Skulls of the Shogun fans, and we here at 17-BIT believe the wait will be well worth it.”

Skulls of the Shogun will be localized in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Korean, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, and Russian.

ABOUT 17-BIT

17-BIT is a Seattle-based boutique independent video game developer specializing in revitalizing classic genres with cutting-edge gaming experiences. Founded in 2009 by game industry veteran Jake Kazdal, 17-BIT aims to deliver iconoclastic games that challenge the expectations of 2D gaming. With bold, eye-catching art and broad audience appeal, 17-BIT creates fresh game experiences that hearken back to the 16-bit era of consoles, but with the power and high definition of modern hardware.

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