The Official Dev Blog Of Your Nightmares

After two and a half years of development, we've finally completed the game. We hope you enjoy it!

DEAD HEARTS STILL BEAT

A ROMANTIC COMEDY RPG WITH A BITING TWIST

Life as a kindred can get dull. You’ve spent all of your undead life pushing papers, bumping shoulders with Camarilla officials, and worst of all? You’re getting no action. Luckily for you, there’s a chance to escape the monotony, and possibly find true love in your unending cursed existence.

In the small town of Sanctuary, located two hours out of El Paso, Texas, they’re hosting a festival to celebrate the once every one hundred year event of an elder vampire awakening. With enough vacation days under your belt, you think it’s time for a holiday! You pack up your belongings and head to the rough-and-tumble rural hellscape, hoping to find a new lease on life. 

After all, what could possibly go wrong?

DEAD HEARTS STILL BEAT is an RPG visual novel inspired by Disco Elysium, Monster Prom, and Hatoful Boyfriend. Explore the small town of Sanctuary and interact with all of its quirky little inhabitants! With lots of quests, branching storylines, and mischief to get into, even failure will at least make you crack a smile.

Featuring:

7 branching character routes, each featuring at least three different endings

A simplified version of the VTM 5th edition RPG mechanics, players may train 9 base stats during their adventure, rolling subsequent dice to see whether they succeed, fail, or botch any given situation. Choices matter but so does your luck.

3 different protagonists, players may choose to be of clan Malkavian, Nosferatu, or Venture. Each clan has differing abilities and personalities. Your clan can greatly affect your outcomes.

 Manage your blood, money, and time, as well as maintaining The Masquerade to make sure your time in Sanctuary doesn’t end prematurely…

Original Soundtrack!

Original hand drawn art!

Dozens of items and quests!

65 + Achievements!

30000+ lines of dialogue!

Anyways thank you for this wonderful story its so funny <3 hope you enjoy your day!

Thank you for submitting a bug! That’s very Verde to be hanging around in the shadows long after a conversation, but we’ll patch them out of that situation

Constance: Bella’s khaki skirt + blue shirt combo, but that’s too boring so she makes it herself and covers it in bows and frills

Rhonda: A cowboy-ified Edward (she got asked to be Edward but decided last minute to go as a cowboy, but still says she’s Edward when asked)

Pierre: A pirate. He’s gone as a pirate every year since he got turned

Gilbert: Doesn’t believe in dressing up for Halloween, but people assume he is and tries to use it to preach Sett

Tabitha: Sexy Sherlock Holmes, keeps a flask in a book and her pipe has weed in it

Verde: Dressed like “a menace to society” to prove a point, but ended up looking like a TikTok E-Boy and is getting far too much attention for their liking

Estella: Went all out on an elaborate, painstakingly accurate cosplay of a niche character from something she hasn’t see for internet clout. Gets increasingly irritated when nobody else knows what it is

⚰️🦇DEAD HEARTS STILL BEAT🦇⚰️

Are you looking for a delightfully delicious visual novel to sink your fangs into this Halloween season? Try our game: Dead Hearts Still Beat, a free western vampire dating simulator! It's been out on itch.io for a little under a year, and the folks who have settled into Sanctuary have been loving it!

For the romantics with a love of the odd, offbeat, and over the top! This game combines the mechanics of VTM stat building/training, rolling for the outcomes of certain situations, and choices heavily influencing your story. No two playthroughs are exactly alike!

There are over 40,000 lines of unique dialogue, all original music and art, 7 branching storylines (each with multiple endings), and lots more! Also it's free!!

Happy Valentine's day, denizens of Sanctuary! In addition to a fixing a few bugs and spelling errors, we've added a mini holiday treat! Look for the conspicuous box of chocolates in the Chance Superstore and see if Cupid's arrow will strike! (It won't.) This very special item will only be available until the end of March so be sure to gift it to your favorite freak in time!

What’s your favorite TTRPG? I think with its accessibility, versatility, and setting, D&D 5e is unmatched.

What was your favorite part to work on in the game? Fleshing out the little bits of content only accessible through extreme failure, I think players should get a special treat if they fuck up so badly.

What did you dislike the most about working on the game? The time. My naive ass thought we could make this thing in 3 months.

Did you have any unexpected challenges? The system for having the characters move around town ended up being surprisingly intricate. Many nights spent going crazy because Pierre wouldn't move to the damn forest when he needed to.

Who’s your favorite route/character? Lester Slick is obviously a favorite around here, based on my personal best crafted player character from an old VTM campaign and then enhanced with Willow's incredible writing, Lester became a beautiful disgusting homunculi of a route with the best of both of our sick and twisted minds.

What’s your favorite TTRPG? Probably VTMv5… I love a good game of DND5e but something about the customizability of VTMv5 is just too good

What was your favorite part to work on for the game? Coming up with the general outline for the routes was always the most fun aspect, mapping out what zany ideas were floating around my brain and making them work was always a treat. That or getting to write so many distinct voices for the game. Each character has a very clear voice to them, and getting to have those strong personalities bounce off each other was super rewarding and fun.

What did you dislike the most about working on the game? Management. Finding the time while working full time for this project, having to make tough decisions and having to put my foot down to achieve what I wanted, it was a tough process. I wish it could have just sprung forth from my brain like a little Athena game

Did you have any unexpected challenges? Tabitha. She was such a tough character to write for, and it was just a struggle to find something that worked for her. Besides that, just finding the motivation to keep going, it's something I've never done before and you really find new and hidden insecurities to battle when doing a big project like this.

Who’s your favorite route/character? This has changed so many times over the course of the process… Going in, Constance/Rhonda's route was my favorite, they're my special weirdos and I adore them and wanted to do them justice (Toxic yuri my beloved). But Lester is just the best, and he's most fun character to write… That type of character is just catnip to me. But I ended up falling in love with Pierre and his story unexpectedly!

What is your name, and what was your role for the game? Leilu Wasielewski, Background and Character Artist

What’s your favorite TTRPG? DnD 5e, definitely- it’s a solid system, and easy to learn, plus I like having a lot of dice.

What was your favorite part to work on for the game? Finding the personalities of all the characters, this has been a great exercise in differentiating personality through look and pose.

What did you dislike the most about working on the game? When I initially drew the backgrounds, I assumed someone else would be putting the characters into the space and I wouldn’t have to deal with my bonkers angles and spaces. But really I dropped my own curse on myself (justly served)

Did you have any unexpected challenges? You never realize how many different poses and expressions you need to find until you’re so many sprites in. I’ve also had a little difficulty making sure everything stays consistent between poses.

Who’s your favorite route/character? From an artistic standpoint, I could stare at Lester Slick all day (and it’s a great route) but my personal favorite little guy is Gilbert.

From the trenches so far we’ve had folks goin’ at it with Gilbert, smoochin’ the Slick, and rekindling w Constance and Rhonda, thank you so much!!

Hopefully this is the first milestone of many, and we’ll try to update with more fun things in the future!