If you’re either a fan of vampires or just narrative-driven games, you might have already kept Cabernet on your radar. The video game is coming from the talented folks at Party for Introverts. Previously, they had released titles such as A Lozenge, Stories of Home, and From Head to Toe.
In this game, prepare yourself to be sent back into the 19th century where we’ll be stepping into the role of Liza. This newly turned vampire is trying to figure out how to go on with their life. It’s a constant battle to either succumb to the primal vampire instincts feasting on your prey or the focus of trying to preserve whatever is left of your humanity. With the game’s approach on the horizon, we had the chance to dive a bit deeper behind the game to see what Party for Introverts has in store for players.
Gameranx: How would you describe Cabernet to someone just coming across the game?
Party for Introverts: Cabernet is a 2D narrative RPG set in a 19th century Eastern European inspired world, with a modern twist. In the game, you follow Liza, a newly-turned vampire navigating her morality and her new supernatural world. Along her journey, you’ll encounter intrigue, ending-altering choices, skill checks, befriendable characters, and even some potential romance– all while exploring themes of social conflict, alcoholism, and corruption. You’ll also gain some fun vampiric powers along the way, allowing you to shift into a bat, hypnotize the trusting, become invisible, and feed on your next meal.
Now for a caveat: While we call Cabernet a “2D narrative RPG”, you’ll also notice traces of visual novel, adventure, and other genres in the mix. For brevity’s sake, we keep these out of the official description – “2D narrative RPG” is already a mouthful as is.
Gameranx: Where did the inspiration come from to develop this title?
Party for Introverts: We’ve always wanted to make a vampire game. Whether from the books we read, the films we watched, the comics we flipped through– vampires have always thrilled and fascinated us. However, our studio is all about making emotion-driven games, and without a clear emotional hook apparent to us, making a vampire game sat on the backburner for many years.
It wasn’t until we thought of alcoholism as a metaphor for vampirism (an obvious parallel that we’re surprised we didn’t consider sooner) that the real brainstorming began. From there, we started to develop the game’s “blood meter” and the drinking mechanics that allow the player to decide how they will feed, and consequently how they will morally choose to navigate their new eternal life.
From a design perspective, one of the other fun aspects of Cabernet was how we initially simply set out to make a type of game that the two of us would enjoy. We had no hard lines on genre or initial expectation, so we really let our personal desires run free in the early design phases. This resulted in a somewhat unusual hybrid genre that we concocted in order to serve the story and emotions in the way that we wanted.
Gameranx: Was there a particular reason you chose to set the game during 19th century Eastern Europe?
Party for Introverts: It was definitely a very intentional decision to explore this era and region in our fictional world. However, we would certainly never claim that our game is historically accurate; instead, we now like to describe it as being “inspired” by the era and period, with a “modern twist”.
Where this inspiration really does come into play, beyond aesthetics and lore, is in the themes we explore. Industrialism, modernization, alcoholism, corruption, – all these themes, while universal, took on their own particular shape in this era in this part of the world. Especially interesting to us was how these elements influence(d) social change, or lack thereof. For example, how remnants of feudalism lingered well beyond their legal date in many areas. Fascinating and sobering stuff to inspire a complex fictional world and highlight the struggles and moral dilemmas our characters endure.
Gameranx: Can players expect the same style of gameplay from your previous works such as From Head To Toe?
Party for Introverts: We wouldn’t really say Cabernet has the same style of gameplay as any of our previous titles, which we more so consider “short interactive stories”. However, we certainly do believe that they cumulatively gave us the necessary experiences and skills to create our first full-length game, and each served their own unique purpose. From Head to Toe was a great lesson in creating atmospheric feeling. Thing-in-Itself taught us how to craft small but impactful environments. And A Lozenge, allowed us to really hone our narrative chops.
Gameranx: In this game story, do players all arrive at the same destination, or are we potentially looking at multiple endings?
Party for Introverts: Multiple endings are a very important aspect of Cabernet, not just for player experience but also to thematically serve the story. Players will generally follow the same main storyline, however some of the decisions that they make along the way will directly impact the endings they are able to receive. Additionally, how the player interacts with the other characters that inhabit the world will also potentially influence the player’s experience, both in terms of relationship building and longer-term character consequences.
Gameranx: There appears to be a big focus on whether players strive to hold onto their humanity or let loose into nihilism. Is it possible to shift entirely towards your humanity side throughout the game and not feed onto an individual? Also, are consequences at play here if you opt to give into nihilism?
Party for Introverts: Without getting into spoiler territory, you absolutely do have a choice as to how and to what extent you feed; but you do have to feed on something, you are a vampire after all! While not as nutritiously satisfying, there is the option to feed on rabbits around town. Some may find this a worse or better option.
We can also say that you potentially never need to kill anyone or anything. Not saying it will be easy, but it can in theory be accomplished. And although you can’t just haphazardly go on a rampage draining random strangers (there are vampiric codes after all), you CAN choose to drain everyone you properly befriend dry. And yes, decisions such as these may influence some moments and the potential endings that open up to you.
Gameranx: What were some inspirations behind this system between humanity and nihilism?
Party for Introverts: Our morality system is not a “one or the other” type of thing. You only gain nihilism and humanity points throughout the game, you never lose them– it’s not a sliding scale. The idea behind this is that your good deeds don’t erase your bad and vice versa.
Some characters you interact with may prefer a more nihilistic remark, while others err on the side of humanity. Sometimes, it depends on the topic or context. People are imperfect, so getting some nihilism won’t immediately plummet you down a dark path, nor will some humanity guarantee the happiest of endings. The morality meters are more of a visual representation of the player’s choices, choices that also sometimes open up different options and consequences.
Gameranx: Do we have an idea as to how long of a story players will experience?
Party for Introverts: The honest answer is that it will largely depend upon how the player chooses to interact with the world.
A good benchmark is probably how long it takes you to complete our demo that is currently on Steam. For most, it’s around 50 minutes, but that really depends upon how much you explore and how fast you read/listen. Take that number and multiply it by 6 or 7, and you’ll probably get a good estimate for the main story. However, in addition to this storyline, there are over a dozen characters to befriend with their own side stories. While these are technically optional, they really enrich the game, so we would definitely consider playing at least some of them as an integral part of the experience.
Gameranx: Where are you right now in the development process of Cabernet?
Party for Introverts: We are full steam ahead in late production. All features are implemented, so we are polishing away and adding further extra content to really flesh out the experience. We’re busy, but we’re in a good place.
Gameranx: From my understanding, Cabernet is set to release on PC. Are there other platforms potentially coming out later?
Party for Introverts: We hopefully have some exciting developments on the horizon, but sorry, our lips are sealed for now!
If you have yet to check out a trailer for Cabernet, you can do so from the video we have embedded below. In the meantime, while we for the release of the game you can enjoy the demo right now on Steam.
