After the game is released, we’ll update it with multiple endings and a hardcore “post-game” bonus dungeon, with new monsters and more!
The Hardcore Bonus Dungeon will be found inside Ajna's Inner Realm, and will literally be filled with her inner demons. Facing one's inner demons is tough, so she'll be an optional party member for this.
About Our Stretch Goals
The $3.5M budget we’ve presented is for our full vision for Indivisible's core, but we have plenty of ideas for stretch goals.
We have two primary aims in mind for Indivisible’s stretch goals: 1) Make the game into an even better game and more desirable product, 2) Without greatly extending the development schedule of the core game.
As such, most gameplay-oriented additions are currently being considered as content for a post-release expansion.
Also, please note that these are not the exact costs of each stretch goal item in question, but instead represent a balancing of the costs across multiple goals. Adding multiplayer functionality, for example, is rather expensive and would require an unreasonably large sum compared to other stretch goals.
And as we did with Skullgirls, we will always look for ways to spend any extra money to make the game better or faster, should things come in cheaper than expected.
Lab Zero is proud to announce our new action/RPG, currently titled Indivisible.
Indivisible is inspired by classics like Valkyrie Profile and Super Metroid, but with the unique character, world, and gameplay depth Lab Zero is known for, and will feature a stunning soundtrack by legendary Japanese game music composer, Hiroki Kikuta.
This is a fixed funding campaign, which means Indivisible will only happen if we reach our goal. 505 Games has generously agreed to contribute a further $2 million toward its development only if we reach that goal. So for us here at Lab Zero, your contribution counts for more than double!
If funded, Indivisible will be released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Steam Windows / Mac / Linux. The final product will support the English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese and Russian languages.
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Overview
Indivisible is a side-scrolling RPG in the vein of Valkyrie Profile, spanning a huge fantasy world inspired by our own world’s various cultures and mythologies.
Players will navigate beautiful environments using a variety of different traversal abilities, and engage monsters in fast-paced combat.
Ajna
Meet Indivisible’s protagonist, Ajna.
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A good-natured tomboy with a rebellious streak, Ajna was raised by her father on the outskirts of their rural town. Her father raised her to be fair-minded and tough, and trained her in martial arts so that she might defend their home.
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When their town is attacked by local warlords, Ajna discovers a mysterious power - the power to absorb certain individuals into her being. Furthermore, fusing with these “Incarnations” will not only allow her to summon them into battle, but also grant Ajna new weapons and abilities.
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Determined to confront the warlords and find out more about these strange new abilities, Ajna sets out on a globe-spanning quest that will reveal her true nature and much more.
The World of Indivisible
While Indivisible’s thematic core is inspired by Southeast Asian mythology, the game is full of lands and characters inspired by a variety of cultures and myths.
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The monsters of Indivisible will draw inspiration from a variety of mythologies, and will get our own unique spin. Of course we will also be creating our own creatures, as well.
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Incarnations
Throughout Ajna’s quest she’ll encounter many “Incarnations,” people who she can absorb into herself. There are many of them to recruit, and each has their own story and personality. She will unite a unique cast hailing from far away lands, discovering aspects of herself in the process. There are many Incarnations, and the more you find, the more powerful Ajna will become.
Many Incarnations will fight alongside Ajna, and some will also grant her the ability to manifest new weapons and abilities that will help her explore the game’s varied environments.
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Exploration
The world of Indivisible is presented as a side-scrolling platformer: Ajna can run, jump, crouch and dash.
Furthermore, as Ajna fuses with more Incarnations, she’ll gain new weapons and abilities. In addition to their obvious uses in battle, each weapon can be used in the world to traverse various obstacles.
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For example, an upgrade to her Martial Arts abilities might allow her to jump off of walls, while an axe might let her cut down certain obstacles in her path.
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Should Ajna collide with an enemy while exploring, you’ll seamlessly transition into...
Battle
Indivisible’s battle system is inspired by Valkyrie Profile’s, but we’re leveraging our combat expertise to make it more active and give it even more depth and customization.
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If you’re not familiar with the combat in Valkyrie Profile, each character in your four-person party is mapped to one of the face buttons. Tapping this button will make that character attack.
Essentially, your party functions as a single, customizable fighting game character - the key to success is mastering your party’s attacks to create combos, and experimenting with new Incarnations and attacks to make the most out of every round.
However, unlike Valkyrie Profile, Indivisible’s battles are not strictly turn-based. We’re taking a more active approach, where characters can attack any time they have actions available. Actions recharge in real time for you and your enemies, so waiting for more characters to be able to act at once allows for bigger combos and gives you more strategic options.
In addition to the basic controls, as Ajna develops an affinity with her weapons and Incarnations, new attacks will be unlocked. The additional attacks will be activated by tapping a button and holding either up or down.
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Furthermore, as you upgrade your party’s weapons, they’ll be able to attack multiple times per turn, giving you more options than ever before.
Finally, successful combos will build your Iddhi meter. Iddhi can be used to cast spells between actions, defend against incoming enemy attacks, and execute super attacks. Every party member will have a super, and in the full game, Ajna will be able to transform into her formidable Heruka form to unleash divine retribution.
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Of course, text is a poor substitute for actually playing it - download the playable prototype right now and give it a shot!
Ajna’s Inner Realm
Along with her ability to absorb certain people, Ajna will also discover she can meditate and enter a mysterious dimension growing inside her.
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The Incarnations Ajna absorbs live in this “Inner Realm,” which gradually grows and evolves the more powerful Ajna becomes. Beginning as some rocks in a void, it will eventually develop into a safe haven and secret base reminiscent of Ajna’s hometown.
Once she discovers it, Ajna’s Inner Realm becomes the central hub for the game, where most of the game’s quests, upgrade and saving functionality resides. Simply pressing a button will send Ajna inside herself, sparing players a lot of needless trekking back to towns. Your own custom town, anywhere, at the touch of a button!
Most of the game’s Incarnations are for expanding and adding functionality to Ajna’s Inner Realm. For example, quests to upgrade your weapons and armor may come from a blacksmith Incarnation you discover, or a biologist might unlock a bestiary.
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Additionally, talking to your battle Incarnations may send you on quests to help them resolve their stories and unlock new abilities.
To summarize, Ajna's Inner Realm will let you immediately:
Save almost anywhere in the game
Upgrade weapons and armor
Start side quests
Talk with your Incarnations to learn more about them, or jog your memory on what you’ve got to do next
Character Progression
While Indivisible will have an experience points system, our goal is to never require grinding to advance or enjoy the game. Progression will be about giving you more tools to work with, rather than just more power.
Stat bonuses from leveling up will be relatively small, while upgrades from weapons and armor will be significant. Additionally, characters will learn their other directional attacks as you level, make them more flexible and giving you more combat options as you advance through the game.
The primary stats that will level up based on experience will be HP and action charge speed. Damage will increase for all party members based on the number of Incarnations Ajna collects, while upgrading your weapons will give you more attacks. Similarly, Armor upgrades will be powerful and noticeable.
Weapon and armor upgrades aren’t purchased with money, but will require Ajna to find items in the exploration part of the game, as well as complete a short quest with the Blacksmith or Armorer in her Inner Realm.
Game Length
We’re targeting a playtime of around 20-30 hours for Indivisible’s main scenario, not including sidequests.
This is the approximate length of some of our favorites: Chrono Trigger, Valkyrie Profile, and more. The priority here is on solid and fun content, not simply filling time to hit a number.
These shorter RPGs are also more eminently replayable, and we’d like to expand on that if we successfully fund the core game.
Your Feedback Will Make Indivisible Better
As Skullgirls fans know, Lab Zero strongly believes in directly engaging its community to make better games.
We’d like to keep this going with Indivisible, but it’s a bit more complicated when you’re talking about a story-driven single player game that (presumably) people don’t want to be spoiled.
As such, if Indivisible is funded, we’ll migrate the playable prototype to Steam and periodically update it with new stages and challenges to enjoy. Each update would feature a new region or dungeon, and also let players test out new Incarnations and abilities while fighting new monsters.
We think this approach will let players experience gameplay and provide feedback, without giving too much away.
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With Indivisible, Lab Zero is continuing in Skullgirls’ winning formula of beautiful graphics, high-res hand-drawn animation, and a stellar soundtrack from a noted Japanese game music composer, Hiroki Kikuta.
Engine
Indivisible will be built in Lab Zero’s very own Z-Engine, the engine responsible for Skullgirls.
The Z-Engine has the most advanced 2D sprite support there is today, and supports streaming of massive high-res animations, dynamic character coloring, and real-time lighting on sprites.
While initially created for fighting games, the scripting system in the Z-Engine is robust and flexible enough to support any 2D game genre.
The only reason we were able to complete the playable prototype in such a short time is because of the flexibility of the Z-Engine, allowing us to rapidly prototype and realize our vision for Indivisible’s gameplay.
Finally, Skullgirls will run on just about any toaster-level PC, and we don’t expect Indivisible will end up too far off from that.
Characters and Animation
Lab Zero’s animation work on Skullgirls laid the groundwork for Indivisible - while the style may be slightly different, we’ll be using the same production method.
If you’re not familiar with Lab Zero’s animation process, check out this mini-documentary we released back in 2012!
As the video explains, every frame of animation has three layers: line, shading and color.
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For Skullgirls, characters were drawn with thick, tapered lines to give each frame a more illustrative style and stand out from backgrounds during the fast-moving fighting gameplay. However, with Indivisible, we’re going with thinner and more uniform lines to emphasize a more unified and consistent animated style.
Lab Zero’s palletization technology was used in Skullgirls to provide alternate character colors, as well as accessories like glasses and face masks. For an RPG like Indivisible, this tech and other aspects of the game engine will allow us to visually represent weapon and armor upgrades, easily differentiate enemy types, etc.
Finally, we’re adding a new “dye” layer to color the lines, giving us more artistic flexibility and to help the characters really pop.
Environments
Indivisible’s world is divided into regions, each being a large level inspired by a different culture or mythos. With the memory available to us on the new systems, our goal is for there to be no loading whatsoever within a region for a seamless play experience.
Each of these massive levels will be constructed from a 3D tileset and individually polished with detail elements, such as plants and rocks to mask any visible tiling.
In addition to the tileset-created areas, each area of the game will also be punctuated with unique, detailed set pieces reminiscent of Skullgirls stages.
Audio
For Indivisible, Lab Zero has once again partnered with a legendary Japanese game music composer: Hiroki Kikuta.
If you don’t recognize the name, Kikuta-san is responsible for the amazing soundtracks to Secret of Mana, Seiken Densetsu III (Secret of Mana 2), Soukaigi, and Koudelka, among others.
And here’s a brief message from the man himself:
For the playable prototype, Kikuta has composed three tracks:
We sought out Kikuta-san because his music is memorable and fantastic, and he’s also got the ethnic and tonal range an RPG like Indivisible needs.
To say it is an honor to be working with him would be an understatement, and we’re proud to be working together to make the best musical experience we can.
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By now you’ve probably noticed that rather large amount of money we’re asking for in this campaign. However, this isn’t the actual budget for the game.
The total budget for Indivisible is $3,500,000.
If we raise our goal of $1,500,000 or more, 505 Games will provide the remaining $2,000,000 we need to complete the game. So, effectively, up to the initial goal your contribution is worth more than double.
And the more we raise beyond the initial goal, the better the game gets and the better the publishing arrangement with 505 gets for Lab Zero.
To be clear, this is not a campaign to “gauge interest” – Indivisible’s budget represents a more equitable funding split, where your support directly influences not only the game, but also the post-release benefits Lab Zero receives.
Indivisible will not happen if we don’t hit our goal. But should the campaign succeed, Lab Zero will have a better outcome than we would’ve gotten through a more traditional publishing deal – that’s the risk we took, and we feel it’s a worthwhile tradeoff.
Additionally, this represents the complete budget for our entire vision of Indivisible. If we are lucky enough to be in that situation, we will not be adding additional gameplay content to the core game as stretch goals As such, all additional content funded through stretch goals will be released in post-release updates.
So how will this money be used?
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Fortunately, it’s pretty straightforward: virtually all of the initial $1,500,000 will go into developing the game, with the exception of the 8% we need to pay Indiegogo and PayPal.
Having a publishing partner means that just about every dollar you give will go towards making the game: 505 Games will be involved in the game development and helping to fill in the gaps in other areas of production, such as QA and localization. Not only does this make budgeting easier, it frees us up from distractions so we can focus on delivering the game.
After accounting for pre-production and ramp-up time, the full budget will support a spending rate of around $10,000/man-month - this includes employee salaries, benefits, office rent, utilities, equipment, legal costs, and all other business overhead. This is widely considered a sort of baseline average spending rate for the games industry.
We'd love to break down our budget more, but the reality is that we can only calculate these numbers roughly. Unlike fighting game characters, which have a pre-defined set of things you need to create, each area of the Indivisible will have varying amounts of environment art, characters, monsters, etc.
The Prototype
Let’s take a moment to discuss that playable prototype you’ve (hopefully) played by now.
We began working on the prototype in early May. Between salaries for the core Lab Zero staff, art contracting and music contracting, we spent around $250,000, which was provided by 505 Games.
We felt that in order to justify asking for so much money, we had to do more than just present an idea for the game, and give players something they could actually touch and enjoy. In addition to making an abstract game idea more concrete for backers, it helped us figure out some important parts of our development pipeline before asking for your money.
There’s a lot we’d still like to do in the final game that we weren’t able to do in the prototype:
Create more visual consistency in the environments
Support for more graphical configuation options, such as anti-aliasing
Support for graphical post-processing effects
- Better object management and streaming systems, to allow us to create richer environments
Staffing
Indivisible is a new game by the core staff responsible for Skullgirls, but we can’t complete it without growing the team.
For example, Indivisible will need level design and environment staff that a fighting game like Skullgirls wouldn’t need. And we need to hire more programmers and artists to more efficiently produce content.
We have people in mind for many of these roles already, and will update you if we’re funded and can confirm their hiring. Depending on how the campaign turns out, additional staff may be hired to get the game out faster and more efficiently without sacrificing quality.
In addition to the full-time staff, we’ll still be employing our stable of talented animation contractors, voice director Cristina Vee, and others, which will speed up development and help us make the most of your contributions.
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Lab Zero Games is a consumer-facing studio created by the core creative staff behind the critically-acclaimed fighting game Skullgirls. We’re passionate gamers, and strive to make games that appeal to people like us.
We pride ourselves on communicating with our fans to make both a better game and a better game community. Skullgirls was very much Lab Zero’s vision, but it became a better game thanks to the community’s involvement and feedback. And we’re excited to bring the same community-driven iteration to a single player game.
We always try to be as transparent as business allows. This means letting our fans and supporters know what’s going on, even when it’s bad news.
And we try to do the right thing for the greater gaming community, even when it doesn’t directly benefit us. If you’ve played Ultra Street Fighter 4 or Mortal Kombat X on PS4 with your PS3 stick, that’s because we licensed our technology to those games to use, completely free.
We even try to be cool on Twitter!
You can trust that Lab Zero will bring the same passion, persistence and grit to Indivisible that we brought to Skullgirls.
Skullgirls’ Indiegogo Campaign
In February 2013, we crowdfunded new Skullgirls DLC characters, story and stages. The campaign was a success, and not only did we deliver everything we promised, we even managed to over-deliver when some things came in cheaper than originally anticipated.
Promised
- 5 new characters
- 5 new story modes
- 6 new stages
- 6 new music tracks
Delivered
- 5 new characters + 1 free “Clone” character
- 5 new story modes + 1 free “Clone” character story mode
- 12 new stages + 2 new variants
- 12 new music tracks
We intend to approach Indivisible similarly, and will commission additional music, monsters or environment setpieces if things come in under budget.
The People
Indivisible is a new game by the core staff responsible for Skullgirls.
Mike Zaimont: Design Director
Mariel Cartwright: Art Director and Lead Animator
Alex Ahad: Lead Concept Designer
Richard Suh: Lead Clean-up Artist
Jonathan Kim: Senior Animator
Earl Gertwagen: Designer
Brian Jun: Art Producer
Brady Hartel: Lead Graphic Designer and UI Artist
Peter Bartholow: CEO
In addition to Skullgirls, members of the team have shipped the following games, among others:
- Battle Realms
- Full Spectrum Warrior
- Gaia Online
- The Saboteur
- Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Game
- Star Wars: Battlefront I and II
Indivisible is a big game, and Lab Zero can’t complete it without growing the team. If funded, we’ll need to roughly double the size of the development staff.
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Toe-dipper
$5: Wallpapers
Show your support, and we’ll give you a set of beautiful wallpapers to decorate your desktop with!
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Audiophile
$15: Toe-dipper Tier + Digital OST
Indivisible will feature a stunning soundtrack by the legendary game music composer, Hiroki Kikuta, and you can now listen to it anywhere!
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Backer
$30: Audiophile Tier + Digital Game + Exclusive Backer Character Colors
Get the digital release of Indivisible, in addition to the wallpapers and digital OST!
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Contributor
$60: Backer Tier + Limited Edition Physical Game + Name in Credits
Get a everything above, a campaign-exclusive Limited Edition physical copy of the game on the platform of your choice, and your name in the credits!
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Well-wisher
$75: Digital Game + Digital OST + Digital Art Compendium + Name in Credits
All of the digital goods - wallpapers, soundtrack, game code, art compendium - and your name in the credits!
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Proponent
$100: Contributor Tier + Physical OST + Digital Art Compendium
Get a physical copy of the Indivisible original soundtrack and a complete digital collection of all production art!
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Supporter
$125: Proponent Tier + T-shirt
Get a stylish Indivisible T-shirt, in addition to everything else!
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Booster
$175: Supporter Tier + Roti the Tapir Plushie
In addition to everything else, get this adorable plush of Ajna’s pet tapir, Roti! Manufactured by our friends at Sanshee.
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Advocate
$250: Booster Tier + Framed Giclée print
In addition to everything else, get a gorgeous framed Giclée print.
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NO LONGER AVAILABLE: Benefactor
$350: Advocate Tier + Voice Actor Voicemail
In addition to everything else, get a recorded voicemail or other message from one of the following voice actors! As a bonus, you'll also get Steam codes for 505 Games' How to Survive and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons!
Rich Brown
Christine Marie Cabanos
Erin Fitzgerald
Kyle Hebert
Kai Kennedy
Cassandra Lee
Danielle McRae
Erica Mendez
Matt Mercer
Laura Post
Patrick Seitz
Christopher Smith
Kaiji Tang
Kimlinh Tran
Josh Tomar
Cristina Vee
Sarah Williams
We worked with all of these amazing voice actors on Skullgirls, and while they may not perform in Indivisible, we wanted to give you a chance to get a personalized message from some of anime's best and brightest!
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Patron
$500: Advocate Tier + Ajna Statue
We’ve partnered with WeLoveFine to create an exciting Ajna statue, exclusive to this campaign!
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NO LONGER AVAILABLE: Patron of the Arts
$750 : Patron Tier + Digital Art Commission
One of Lab Zero’s amazing artists will complete a custom, full color digital art commission for you! As a bonus, you'll also get Steam codes for 505 Games' How to Survive and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons!
For a limited time, all backers at this tier and above will also get a second Lab Zero Games “Test Subject” t-shirt!
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NO LONGER AVAILABLE: Patron Saint
$1000: Patron Tier + Design an NPC
Work with the team to design a townsperson or other NPC and write their dialogue! Keep in mind, that whatever is made needs to fit the game. As a bonus, you'll also get Steam codes for 505 Games' How to Survive and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons!
For a limited time, all backers at this tier and above will also get a second Lab Zero Games “Test Subject” t-shirt!
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NO LONGER AVAILABLE: Angel
$2500: Patron Tier + Design a monster
Work with the team to design a monster! Keep in mind, that whatever is made needs to fit the game.
For a limited time, all backers at this tier and above will also get a second Lab Zero Games “Test Subject” t-shirt!
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NO LONGER AVAILABLE: Archangel
$5000: Patron Tier + Design a boss
Work with the team to design a boss! Keep in mind, that whatever is made needs to fit the game. As a bonus, you'll also get Steam codes for 505 Games' How to Survive and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons!
For a limited time, all backers at this tier and above will also get a second Lab Zero Games “Test Subject” t-shirt!
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NO LONGER AVAILABLE: Demigod
$7500: Patron Tier + Design a Secret Room
Work with the dev team to design a hidden area, sidequest, unique item, or other secret! Area layout, monster behaviors, character interactions... the possibilities are endless, within reason. As a bonus, you'll also get Steam codes for 505 Games' How to Survive and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons!
For a limited time, all backers at this tier and above will also get a second Lab Zero Games “Test Subject” t-shirt!
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NO LONGER AVAILABLE: Divinity
$10,000: Patron Tier + Design a playable Incarnation
Work with the team to design a playable Incarnation! Keep in mind, that whatever is made needs to fit the game. As a bonus, you'll also get Steam codes for 505 Games' How to Survive and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons!
For a limited time, all backers at this tier and above will also get a second Lab Zero Games “Test Subject” t-shirt!
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NO LONGER AVAILABLE: Brahman
$20,000: Everything Above + Visit Lab Zero and dine with the team
Literally everything above, AND meet and dine with the team!
For a limited time, all backers at this tier and above will also get a second Lab Zero Games “Test Subject” t-shirt!
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Physical Limited Edition Game
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Indivisible "Eyes" T-Shirt
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Indivisible "Inner Peace" Giclée Print
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Roti Plush
Indivisible "Duality" Statue