There’s a whole lot more to unlife than blood, lace, and leather

June 9, 2024 4:43 PM

Vampire Therapist: “Guide vampires through centuries of emotional baggage, decades of delusions and the odd bout of self-loathing with real cognitive behavioral therapy concepts and become a Vampire Therapist! Even vampires need a shoulder to cry on when a neck to bite just won’t do.” Releasing July 18, demo available now.

Interview with the developer, who also voices multiple characters in the game. Cyrus Nemati is known for his roles as Ares, Dionysus, and Theseus in Hades (2018), among others.

posted by brook horse (9 comments total)

Oh man, I think I may have to play a video game now. (No shade; I am just not video game-brained...except for Dream Daddy.)

Oooh, Dream Daddy x Vampire Therapist game!
posted by Kitteh at 6:23 PM on June 9 [1 favorite]

Forwarded to my friend who is a therapist, and also a goth. I'm certain she will not want to actually play it, on account of "the hell would I want to spend my scarce free time pretending to do my day job", but I'm certain it will get a laugh.
posted by notoriety public at 6:36 PM on June 9 [6 favorites]

I would very much like a goth therapist.
posted by Kitteh at 6:41 PM on June 9 [8 favorites]

I would very much like a goth therapist.

Patient: i just keep having these... urges. Really uncomfortable urges.

Therapist: It's okay. This is a safe space. You can decribe them here.

Patient: I just... God, this is so horrible. But I keep getting the urge to wear pastels!

(The game itself sounds fun, in a Dream Daddy-goes-to-therapy way. And it's possibly a sneaky way to teach people some actual CBT techniques.)
posted by davidwitteveen at 1:26 AM on June 10 [2 favorites]

And it's possibly a sneaky way to teach people some actual CBT techniques.

One of my goth therapist friend’s favorite private jokes is the ambiguity of which kind of CBT one might be referring to.
posted by notoriety public at 4:28 AM on June 10 [4 favorites]

I'm not a fan of this style of game but damn if game ideas aren't getting more and more entertaining! I love the creativity.
posted by tiny frying pan at 6:20 AM on June 10 [1 favorite]

I have asked Shepherd to add this to his Steam account so I can try it out!
posted by Kitteh at 6:41 AM on June 10

If you say "Vampire Therapist" three times while looking in a mirror, a mediocre dramady appears in your Netflix recommendations.
posted by PlusDistance at 7:14 AM on June 10 [2 favorites]

Played it for a bit last night, and I'm not sure I'll pick up the full version. I don't mind interactive fiction, but I like to know where I'm making a choice that's going to affect the path of the story. There's a whole training section in this game where picking the correct answer appears to be the wrong choice, and I think you're probably supposed to just keep picking the wrong answer to progress the story (I'm still unsure). And lots of places where you have to click to proceed, but there's nothing to suggest that you need to.

I much preferred the game mechanics of things like Murder By Numbers and Strange Horticulture, just to pluck a couple of recent discoveries from the air.
posted by pipeski at 8:34 AM on June 10