Smalltown, Selfies, and Vampires
I've seen this game in production on Twitter a while back, and now its demo is out.
So now you're asking yourself " Is it really titled "#BLUD"?" and the answer is yes. #BLUD( a game being made by EXIT 73 Studios, and Developed by Humble Games) tells a story of Rebecca "Becky" Brewster, a new girl in who just moved in to her mother's old town of Carpentersville with her dad and coming across her mother's old Grimore CookBook, which contains: spells, monsters, and baking recipes in many different languages. Ontop of that, vampires have been showing up. So it's up to Becky and her friend Corey to take them on with her trusty field hockey stick.
The game is a top-down action adventure, done in a handrawn animation. The animation aesthetic ( done by Greg Lane or _TinHeart on Twitter) is like the old days of cartoon network(dexter's lab, powerpuff girls, 2 stupid dogs) and some nickelodeon tv shows (my life as a teenage robot, The Mighty B) around those artsyles. You solve puzzles, fight rats, Flys, roaches, and vampires, and take selfies around town.
The animation is smooth and well animated, being expressive, keeping idle animations well looped, along with simple colors. The voice acting is more of an animal crossing/splatoon like, making it easy for people who read faster than the voices. The music is simple and charming with jingles and loop arounds. The enemies are, of course, gross looking or the vampires the simple Nosferatu look.
The game handles well, being both gracious with your hit range and rough with your hit box. There were moments where I thought I wasn't in range of getting hit, but some enemies have a longer range than they should, but that gets evened out when you get your stick. Your story missions and story help is told through Perch(this game's Twitter) where Becky will post story focused problems and some of the town's citizens will comment of how to proceed and mark where you need to go or what to get with the "#". There are cute moments with where you can have Becky take a selfie with any pose you have with your disposal, and have responses with likes and comments.
While playing this, I came under the impression that the game is somewhat inspired by John Carpenter himself of some of his movies. The first is "The Thing" Poster hanging on Becky's wall, and the boss of the demo looks like the final variation of The Thing. Then again I tend to think to far.
So all in all, I'll be definitely be playing this in June 18, 2023. It's on steam with the demo as we speak, so why not give yourself a try and play for an hour or more