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[doimus]

Hi all! Here's a little game I'm working on.

Drac's Quest (for blood)

The Story

Vlad T. Drac is your average Transylvanian aristocrat, doing what Transylvanian aristocracy does. But as of recently, he has noticed his subjects becoming more and more agitated by his actions. He sees pitchforks and torches, he smells holy water and garlic.
Life of Transylvanian aristocracy is becoming really difficult, he thinks.

At the same time, he hears about the big city of London, where everything is possible, where ladies are beautiful and juicy, where nights are cold and welcoming.... oh how would he love to move there!

And so he writes to London Bloodsucking Society in hope they will accept him as a member.
But Society's rules are strict and abiding. Each day he will have to prove himself as a true, willing candidate by collecting all the blood they require.

And so his quest begins...


The Gameplay (a.k.a TL;DR)

Old school platformer. Run, jump, collect, evade, fight, run some more, jump some more.


Gameplay video:



Playable Alpha demo: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8z8pqquwv3veq1z/DracsQuest-Alpha1-0.0.1.16.exe

Currently Windows only, should be available for Mac as well in the near future.



The Team


doimus - design, animation, attempts at programming
lordcyber12 - actual, useful programming
Lord Garvals - the almighty artist, the ruler of wasteland, the ayatollah of rocknrollah.

So, that's two lords and one clueless dude making a game about a count.  
 


Some screens:








Comments & suggestions welcomed!

[kraed]

Nice, like the backstory! It's looking fun already, hope to see how it develops.

Things that I would love to be able to do/see:
turn into a BAT, of course!!
suck blood, not just collect viles
crossbowmen
garliclaunchermen
black cats giving you some type of luck

just things i thought from seeing the vid!

[doimus]

Thanks for your comments, appreciate it! A lot!

Regarding stuff you mentioned:

Bats are there. I'm thinking about allowing Drac to transform into bat or just use bats as "meanings of transportation". Transformation could offer some interesting design elements (can't collect blood for example) but then again it would distract from basic platformer mechanics. Still unsure about that.

Same for bloodsucking. Originally it was planned for Drac to suck on ladies, with freaky weirdo face expression and all... but it just wasn't *platformer* enough, and was killing the flow of the game. Drac has to be nimble enough to jump away when enemies get close. Sticking him to her neck would make things difficult. 

BTW, there's a nice mechanic regarding ladies and draining blood from them. More on that when demo is released.

Garlic is already in, in the form of old lady at the window who throws it at Drac.

Black Cat is there too (there he is in the cover, chillin' on the roof). He, as truly devilish creature, acts as checkpoint save on difficult levels.

And there might be some crossbow-like stake-firing hazards that work on strictly horizontal level. Garlic is omnidirectional. This hazard should have Bullet Bill mechanics I guess.

Thanks again for the feedback!

[kraed]

Do you need music, my friend? I'm a composer and would gladly help out!

[oyog]

Will we meet Renfield, eatin' bugs and acting maniacal?

[doimus]

Will we meet Renfield, eatin' bugs and acting maniacal?

Definitely not maniacal, no. Enough maniacs in the game already. Just look at the main guy. 

I had an idea of a "tutorial guy", a cool, smart dude that's always there to help his master (actually, to guide his hand every step of the way, doing all the hard work).
He's a loyal servant through the night, but during the day he's a clerk in a music shop in Tin Pan Alley, closely integrated in the newly forming British Invasion music scene. A rocker. And a roller. He likes Fender guitars and Marshall amplifiers.
He does eat cocktail shrimps once in a while, which is as far as as it comes on a bug eating scale. He prefers beer though.

And his name is Igor.


But then I was... like... wth, who needs a "tutorial guy" in a platformer game!? And then I re-allocated all Igor related budget into making a garlic tossing old lady.

[doimus]

Uploaded a playable demo. It's just one quick level with basic game mechanics. Link is in the first post.

Collect 100 blood and reach the mansion before the dawn comes. Pretty much anything hates you, so avoid it.

Jump on nice ladies to get quick fix of juicy blood. But don't jump too much, as nice ladies tend to turn into [placeholder red rectangle] when irritated, and they will then take lots of YOUR blood instead. But you already knew that.

[lordcyber12]

Look good. It's great see my code in new good sprites and more detailed assets in the game. I see that you learn code some stuff yourself. I coild send an recent ebook to you learn more. I was afraid that the game was in a deep grave due your problems, but I'm glad that project still lives.