A Vampyre Story

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Description

Mona de Laffite led a successful life. As a famous opera singer in Paris she had it all. Fame, fortune and countless admirers. One of them was Baron Shrowdy von Kiefer - a vampire. But he didn't love and admire her just because of her beauty and voice. She also reminded him of his own mother who left him behind in the castle to go on the search for a powerful book. Shrowdy tried and tried to win over Mona's heart but she dared to send him away. So he did the only thing he could do: Bite Mona, transform her into a vampire and take her with him to his castle in Draxsylvania.

Several years have gone by and there is no day where Mona doesn't wish to be free and back in Paris. Also trying to ignore the fact that she is a vampire, she became friends with a cheeky bat named Froderick and when one day Shrowdy is slain by a monk while on a hunt for more blood, she sees her chance to escape the castle once and for all.

In a classic point 'n click adventure way, the player takes over the control of Mona and directs her actions through a pop-up menu. This way she explores the various locations, talks to people, creatures and some times even machines in multiple-choice dialogues and picks up everything that isn't nailed to the wall - or almost everything. If Mona thinks an item may be useful in the future but doesn't want to carry it around because it's too heavy, she places a memory imprint in her inventory. This way the player doesn't need to remember where it was and can just access it like every other item from the inventory. To help the player even more with finding every clue and item to solve the countless puzzles, a button press shows every hotspot in the room.

As a vampire, Mona of course also has the ability to turn herself into a bat and reach points too high for her to access in human form. But during the course of the game she will learn additional useful skills.

Screenshots

Promo Images

Alternate Titles

• "A Vampyre Story: Кровавый роман" -- Russian spelling
• "A Vampyre Story: Chapter One" -- In-game title

Part of the Following Groups

• Covermount: Level (Romania)
• Game Engine: Panda3D
• Protagonist: Female
• Protagonist: Vampire
• Theme: Vampires

User Reviews

Stay away from it as far as possible	Windows	micnictic (391)
A Ghoulishly Fun Adventure Game	Windows	browned (125)

Critic Reviews

Peliplaneetta.net	Windows	Dec 12, 2008	85 out of 100	85
IGROMANIA	Windows	Jan, 2009	8 out of 10	80
Hooked Gamers	Windows	Dec 23, 2008	8 out of 10	80
Games TM	Windows	Dec 24, 2008	8 out of 10	80
Cheat Code Central	Windows	Dec, 2008	3.9 out of 5	78
HonestGamers (Staff reviews only)	Windows	Dec 10, 2008	7 out of 10	70
Adventure Gamers	Windows	Dec 20, 2008		70
Adrenaline Vault, The (AVault)	Windows	Apr 03, 2009		60
DarkZero	Windows	Jan 08, 2009	6 out of 10	60
Immoral Gamers	Windows	Feb 20, 2009	4 out of 10	40

Forums

Topic	# Posts	Last Post
STUCK	2	Sciere (711537) Feb 21, 2009

Trivia

Art style

The game's art direction 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.

Namesakes

• The game's distinctive spelling of "vampire" as "vampyre" is a tribute to the first western vampire tale, The Vampyre by John Polidori.
• 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.

Related Web Sites

• A Vampyre Story (Official website.)
• Bill Tiller about A Vampyre Story and beyond (Just before its release, the game's creator talks about A Vampyre Story and its future sequel, focusing on his artistic and storytelling choices (Adventure Classic Gaming - 19.09.2008))
• Gothic Humor (An Apple Games article discussing the Macintosh version of A Vampyre Story.)
• Von Kiefer Journal (The journal of Von Kiefer, referenced as a website in-game)