Vampyre story

A Vampyre Story

A Vampyre Story is a point-and-click adventure game currently being developed by Autumn Moon Entertainment for Windows, and set to be published by Crimson Cow in October 2008. The game is set in Europe during the 1880s, and follows a young female opera singer turned vampire as she attempts to make the journey back home to Paris in search of fame and normality. The title's distinctive spelling of vampire with a y was derived from the seminal western vampire tale The Vampyre by John Polidori.

Synopsis

Mona de Laffite, the game's protagonist, is a young and talented Parisian opera student who becomes the object of obsession for a rather pathetic vampire. As a result, Mona is swiftly kidnapped and taken to his castle in Draxsylvania, where she is turned into an undead vampire. Mona must find a way to return home and fulfill her dream of becoming a famous opera singer, while also dealing with the unfamiliar problems inherent in her new condition. Mona is not alone throughout the adventure however, but is followed by her newly acquired and sarcastic sidekick, Froderick the bat.

The game will be divided into three chapters, the first of which will take place in Castle Warg — the home of her kidnapper Shrowdy von Kieffer and his mother the Baroness Vasilia von Kieffer. The second chapter will largely take place in the town of Vlad's Landing, while the third will center about the castle of Dr. Riga Mortis. Little else is currently known about these latter two chapters of the game, other than that the player will be allowed to control Mona's companion Froderick during the final chapter, as at certain other points in the game.

Gameplay

A Vampyre Story is being created by a number of former LucasArts adventure game developers, and so is understandably similar to some of their previous classics (such as The Curse of Monkey Island (CMI) or The Dig) in presentation and style. As such, the game will utilise a point-and-click interface with a context-sensitive radial cursor, much the same as CMI: upon clicking an interactive item, a graphic menu will appear around the object, displaying the available actions and abilities. As the game progresses, Mona will gradually learn how to use her new supernatural abilities. Consequently, her newfound powers (and weaknesses) will play a large role in the game's puzzles, requiring Mona to use her abilities to overcome certain challenges and progress through the game.

Development history

A Vampyre Story was first announced in the June 2004 issue of The Inventory, an online adventure gaming magazine, as the winner of their "Most-Awaited Adventure Game" award. The game was originally given a tentative release date of Halloween 2006, but the loss of publisher backing in April 2005 left the game in unpaid preproduction for the following year. During this time Bill Tiller, Autumn Moon's founder and creative director, generally worked with no more than one or two other people on staff at any one time. This helped to reduce the cost of production while the project was still unfunded. In early July 2006 however, Autumn Moon announced that they had finally acquired a new publisher for A Vampyre Story, the Hamburg-based Crimson Cow, and that full production on the game would begin shortly thereafter, stating an expected 2007 release. In September 2007 however, the first trailer for A Vampyre Story was released, specifying a new date of early 2008. While Autumn Moon has mentioned their interest in the Nintendo DS and Wii as potential release platforms, no official announcements have yet been made.

Trivia

Mona de Laffite takes her surname from Laffite's Landing, a loading dock in the Pirates of the Caribbean theme park ride at Disneyland. Froderick's name was similarly borrowed from the popular 1974 Mel Brooks film Young Frankenstein.

The game's art direction, while akin to The Curse of Monkey Island in style, was largely inspired by Edward Gorey illustrations. As such, the game was originally planned to be drawn in Gorey's black and white, pen and ink style.