Game Jam Memories and the future of pizza-based combat.

Good evening,

And there’s another game jam completed. Before I get started I’d like to thank Spagoodlers for his help on this project. His ideas for 3D modeling and his in game videos added a whole new aspect to this game that, in my opinion, make it a real gem.   I personally haven’t seen a lot of RPG maker games that utilize pre rendered sprites. 

Okay. I tagged this as game design. So let’s talk about that. Vampire Special Order is designed to put some of the RPG turn based combat rhetoric on its head. The game focused much much more on support actions than most RPG’s, and your main character can’t even take a single hit.  Instead, the protagonist spends their actions baking pizzas and adding toppings (healing and buffing). Then the pizzas get fed to the hungry monsters. But that’s not really that crazy of an idea, right? It still exists within the standard framework of a turn based RPG. Instead, it’s mostly about…. Atmosphere. But in the way that 80’s B horror movies have atmosphere. You know, the kind you can cut with a steak knife and oozes green glowing goo when you do so?

There is way more story written for vampire: special order than was implemented for the demo.   The real nightmare of the game isn’t the vampires and it isn’t the other monsters, it’s the pizzeria. The pizzeria isn’t normal. Papa Dave isn’t normal. It’s weird. Really weird. Hopefully as players run through the game, they take a moment to stop and think about just how messed up everything is. With a little luck, we can explore that further with game updates. 

lastly, I want talk about the game engine. It’s terrible. RPG Maker Ace VX is old, outdated software that fought me every step of the way. But that’s part of what made the game what it was at the end, and in a way I appreciate the struggle. That said, future versions of this project are going to be made in a different engine ( probably godot).  Ace VX doesn’t cut the mustard. I promise to keep the scummy charm though. We can’t have the game be too squeaky clean. 

That said, I’m not trying to discourage anyone from using RPG Maker, it’s just not for me. If you do use it, splurge for a new version. I’ve had Ace VX sitting in my steam library for a long, long time. 

So, as always, thanks for playing and be on the lookout for more updates in the future!

Doc Karl