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[JDM]

This is a game I slapped together on a whim for a Glorious Trainwrecks event in a few hours last week.  With a couple of obvious improvements possible, I spent a few hours on it the next night tweaking it and making it better.



DOWNLOAD 1.1

Here's the description:

You're a vampire and you've just come to this village, looking to feed off the local populace and survive as long as you can. Avoid the police's bullets and create a vampire army to help distract the authorities, but make sure you leave yourself enough to eat!

RULES:
Scoring:
- For each living person (cop or citizen) you eat, you get 100 points, plus a 50% health regeneration
- For each second you stay alive, you get 10 points
- You do not get points or health for eating vampires

Interactions:
- Press X to eat (drain the blood of) a living person or a vampire
- Press C to convert citizens or cops into vampires
- If a citizens are close to the site of a vampire (you or your another vampire) execution, one will be stirred to justice and become a cop
- Cops will chase and shoot at other vampires if they're close
- If vampires are hungry, they will eat cops or citizens when they meet them
- Every 15 seconds you stay alive, a new citizen will move into town
- Sometimes when a male and female citizen meet, they will have a new citizen! It's important to leave some citizens alive so they'll create new citizens and leave you with a supply of food

If you play it, I'm interested in all thoughts.  Is it any fun at all?  Is it too frustrating?  Does it feel like skill is involved?  Can you beat my high score of 8460?

I'm also interested in what you think might be improved.  I'm considering new versions of this game, which might include new maps and locations, new NPC character roles (this game is very basically inspired by the party games Werewolf and Mafia), possible limited control of your vampire army, behavioral alterations, item implementation, and maybe a multiplayer mode.

Thanks for playing!

MUSIC ALSO WANTED: I'm considering making a more major, promoted release of this, which would mean I'd want to use music I have the rights to, instead of this delightfully silly spooky MIDI I found on a charming page from the 90s.  If someone feels like writing something similarly silly that I could distribute with this game (all releases will be freeware), I'd be delighted to entertain such offers!

[Udderdude]

Highest score I got was 3130, but I made a dumbass mistake.  Oh well.

It's not a bad concept, but doesn't really build up to anything.  Wouldn't keep me interested for much longer without something else (better scoring system?  More game elements?  Static levels with a point goal?)

[AntiAntagonist]

Seems like it has some potential.  The graphics are cute, to the point and it's responsive.

Feels like it should have more space to run around and have some more mechanics.  Maybe the ability to move quickly from one part of the map to another (lots of options there- turn into a bat, dig yourself out from underground, teleport BAMF!).  The trees make it a little cumbersome to navigate around bullets too.  I agree with UdderDude as well, there should be some sort of progression or change as you play through.

[JDM]

Thanks very much for the feedback, both of you!  I'm considering a couple of ways to make the game feel as if it's building to something.  Primarily, I'm thinking about new characters and events that come in randomly at specified intervals, such as a witch that kills off the populace, a rival werewolf faction (one a second player can control in competitive mode), and a supercop who moves faster, shoots three-way shots, and/or targets only the player and not the vampire army, and maybe uses smarter pathfinding.  A disease that communicates between townsfolk who touch each other might also add some tension as you have to execute the infected.

I've been thinking about how I might be able to do a sensible scoring combo system, or otherwise make that more exciting. 

I want to keep the game feeling as if it's about skill, and not just bad random chance from random elements.  So any special characters or items (I'm thinking about temporary invisibility, fast speed/bat mode, and something for confining townspeople for eating later, specifically). 

I kind of want to expand the playfield, but I also want to keep all the action on one screen.  I may have to consider expanding the playfield and bumping up the resolution instead.

I'll definitely look at a less obstructive and more functionally obvious implementation for the trees.  The entire environment will be up for review again.

Thanks again!  And if anyone has anymore comments or observations, I'd love to hear them.