Lifeblood (itch) (Cobalt Pixels)

Hi there! This is the DEMO of Lifeblood, a game I'm developing inspired by UNDERTALE.

KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN 

If you like the project please support it at:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cobalt-pixels/lifeblood-0

In the past fables and tales were told to children before they went to sleep. 

These were set in The Forest, a magical place full of mysteries. This place was inhabited by creatures and spirits that were able to speak and feel like human beings.

Humans and creatures had a pact with each other which only a few chosen ones knew about. The chosen ones were humans born with a gift. They could sense the Lifeblood of other living creatures and under certain circumstances, they were able to manipulate it.

Time passed, the tradition was lost... People stopped talking about the chosen ones and the creatures protagonist of those tales. But The Forest is still there... A place far away from civilization... forgotten by everyone.

Lifeblood is a story-driven RPG set in a mysterious world called The Forest, shaped by your choices and inhabited by creatures able to speak and feel like you...

During your adventure, you will encounter a lot of characters all with their personality and story with whom you will decide how to interact. 

Your initial goal will be to discover what happened to the disappeared people before your arrival in the human village and what's happening in The Forest.

OVERWORLD GAMEPLAY:

During your journey, you will have to resolve puzzles to advance, explore the forest, find keys, items, equipment, gold and lymph. 

You will encounter characters and you will have to interact with them sometimes deciding what to say and changing the outcome of the conversation and eventually parts of the story (the dialogue choices you take in the demo won't have a big impact on the story to keep it easier to manage for now).

DEFENSE

The defense system, at first sight, will remember the one of UNDERTALE but the mechanics by a closer look are really different and original.

In fact, the main difference with the UNDERTALE one, where you have to move to dodge the enemy bullets, is that you will be able to parry the enemy's directional attacks using the WASD buttons.

For this, you will need to synchronize the arriving projectile with the press of the right button when the projectile reached the white circle around your lymph (a bit like a rhythm game).

Another important difference is that you won't be able to move by yourself and the lymph will move by itself. This will increase the difficulty, putting you in bad situations and forcing you to use your skills to take less possible damage during that moments.

The creature's attacks won't be only directional attacks but could even trap the player slow him down, stun him, move him around and apply many other effects.

Every attack has its own way to be parried/beaten and will keep the player's attention high at every new creature encountered and especially in the boss fights.

FIGHT

During your attack phase, you will have to spam WASD in the fastest way you can (limited to your ATK SPD stat) trying to make more damage possible to the creature before your turn ends.

This anyway will have an impact on the possibility to interact with it.

If fights are your way, you will need to know that every creature has inside of itself a rare material called Lymph. Once the creature will be defeated you will decide what to do with it. You could Store it or Absorb it. 

STORING THE LYMPH

In the first case, you will store it as a rare spendable currency.

While in the second case you will absorb it increasing the EXP of your character and eventually leveling up. (By the way, it won't be the only way to gather experience even if it will be the most efficient)

ABSORBING THE LYMPH

While in the second case you will absorb it increasing the EXP of your character and eventually leveling up. (By the way, it won't be the only way to gather experience even if it will be the most efficient)

INTERACT

In this case, you will have to understand the personality of the creature using your own empathy and then try to interact with it choosing between the available interactions. 

Even in the peaceful way of play, you will have a ton of fun. You will need to understand the right interaction trying to beat the minigames (all with their own hidden meaning) necessary to get a minimum level of relationship with the creature before it trusts you enough to keep going with your conversation and eventually BOND.

The minigames anyway are influenced by the creature's personality and your own, making them easier or harder depending on the creature's temper.

If you can manage to bond with a creature that creature will stop fighting you and it will become your friend leaving the battle peacefully, but be careful, not all the wrong interactions will be forgiven by the creatures forcing you to fight them to death or run away!

YOUR PERSONALITY

Your personality will be determined by taking a personality test at the start of the game and will affect many parts of the game from the smallest things like the color of some sprites in the overworld, to the most important ones, like parts of the story. 

This will change even your appearance for the whole game:

For now, are available 4 main personalities.

IN-GAME EXISTING FEATURES: 

• Puzzles that need to be resolved to advance in the main story.
• A lot of easter eggs are hidden in the world of Lifeblood.
• Fight or Bond with the characters you will encounter in The Forest.
• Parry the enemy's different attacks using your ability to time them.
• Bonding system with minigames based on the creature's personality.
• Inventory system with usable items and equipment.
• Advanced player stats that are applied in battle and a level-up system.
• Original and beautiful pixel art made by me.
• Original soundtracks made by me (hopefully beautiful as well).
• A catchy story filled with humor and interesting characters.

PLANNED FEATURES

• Option to change controls from WASD to directional arrows.

HOW LIFEBLOOD IS BORN

I started to think about Lifeblood in 2018 after I finished and enjoyed UNDERTALE. By that time I was working for a museum in Florence as a 3D modeler. Between 2019 and 2020 I kept sporadically working on the game improving the lore with new characters and making the first prototype in a software used to create visual novels that didn't require code skills. Later I brought that demo to an important event for gaming in Italy. Even if by that time that demo was only a short story with few characters people were loving it and giving me a lot of feedback. This gave me the confidence to keep going with the project and learn to code later. While I was learning I started with some prototypes to make practice and right after it, I started on Lifeblood. During this year I made clear in my mind the lore, mechanics, story, and style of the game creating a demo I'm showing for the first time to the public right now.

The game has been mainly inspired by UNDERTALE in many aspects and from other games with beautiful stories like OMORI, Celeste, One Shot and Hollow Knight. 

What I tried to do with Lifeblood has been taking what in my opinion was the best from these games and mixing them to create an original exciting new experience.

Samuel Taddei,  that's me, the ideator of Lifeblood, its code, art, sound design, soundtracks,  etc... I have a diploma in electronic engineering and I made a course for a couple of years in 3D art.

My girlfriend, that supported me believing in this project and even helped me with many translations because English isn't my first language (Important note: she likes cookies with pink jam).

Thank you for taking the time to learn about this game!