When our friends over at Portals and Atari threw open the doors to their Blocktoberfest Game Jam, we knew straight away which IP we were going after...and given our previous work I don't think it will be too surprising to learn that we went with Atari!
 
Given the choice of several iconic Atari titles, the Big Yellow Fishes team chose Dracula: The Undead, a classic game that felt ripe for something genuinely frightening that deserved a modern take.

We knew from the start that we didn't want to make a horror game that relied on cheap tricks. The goal was cold fear. The kind that follows you after the screen has been turned off.

The Big Yellow Fishes team built Oliver's story inside the native to browser, Portals games engine with additional work in Blender and Unreal Engine 5. Everything you see, hear and experience in the game, the custom models, the story, the audio, the soundtrack, was made in house. The world we created, a house based on Delapre Abbey on a tidal island cut off by the sea, does as much narrative work as the script itself. Players piece the story together through journals, environmental clues and atmosphere rather than exposition. We wanted the house itself to feel like a main character.

The script, which we're particularly proud of, takes the Harker bloodline mythology and pulls it into the present day in a way that felt both faithful to the source material and completely unexpected. Dracula reimagined not in a cape and fangs but in a well-tailored suit, calm and chilling in his menace, felt exactly right. The details mattered. Exploring a more modern expression of sexuality, desire and passion, the game explores mature and sensitive themes designed for an adult experience.

The adaptive soundtrack blends a modern reimagining of the original Atari Dracula score with distorted electronic tones, minimal piano and hyper-realistic sound design, shifting in intensity based on what the player is doing and where they are in the house. Moments of silence are just as important as the scares themselves.

Four weeks, start to finish. Zero sleep.

 
 

 

 

Out of the 22 submissions, Big Yellow Fishes came in first place, winning both the Judges and Community vote. Receiving over $12,000 in prize money, It was a brilliant project to be part of and a reminder of exactly what the Big Yellow Fishes team is capable of when the creative freedom is right. We'd love to do it all again.

You can currently play Dracula: The Undead - Oliver's Tale here right from your browser!