Mansion Lord’s description hooked me with its promises of (not necessarily in the same order) murders, a maid, old-school pixelart graphics, a maid, and building my own dream manic mansion. Did I mention that maid?
This Kickstarter game is looking to combine the ideals of a building simulation game—where you tweak your budding mansion’s rooms into the most magnificent piece of work this side of Hollywood—with the joys of inviting guests over so your other guests can kill them.
And then, in a stroke of brilliance, YOU kill the killers to collect their bounties. All in a pixelart retro style. How did we ever miss out on this bloody brilliant idea? Ah Ha. Bloody brilliant. Ok? Yes?
*Awkward silence*
Right, moving on. The brilliance of having to manage a house and having it appeal to a guest list of homicidal maniacs might have been enough to sell me (That and, err, I did mention the maid right?) [Ishaan: Yes, yes you did. Four times now] [Eugene: Ah. Quite.] especially with its low Kickstarter goal of just $28,000. But they had to layer on RPG-like leveling systems for your detective characters, too—including Dracula and a sentient robot called Spicoli. With an entire relationship system built in that unlocks new combos as detectives’ relationships improve.
Last but not last, the developers have thrown in an extra helping of turn-based, tile-formatted battles too for when you face down and capture/kill/cash-in the bounties on killers. And those bounties? They get higher if you let them kill more guests. Oh my. Are we done yet? NO! The maid’s not done cleaning yet! Look you missed a spot! Anyway, no, Mansion Lord isn’t done. There’s research that you’ll be able to conduct to improve rooms, as well as storekeepers such as our kitty overlords from whom to pick up new gear. The cat is selling us guns. And poison shivs. And a candelbra called a Head Basher. A HEAD BASHER. FROM A CAT. Nyancat can stuff it.
 
ARE WE DONE YET? NO.
There’s a rogue-like endless dungeon in the basement, filled with the undead from whence Dracula will send back to their demise, alongside other detectives you can hire. You can even build them their own bedroom. And finally, finally, there’s a 100% chiptune soundtrack to ensure it stays authentic to the past.
The game is already scheduled to be out on PC, Mac and Linux and like any self-respecting indie title has a Steam Greenlight page already. It also has its basic framework done, according to developers Golgom Games, but further system refinement needs to be done. Further, all the money you’re putting in goes to things such as sound effects, software licensing fees and alpha-testing all this on the platforms it’ll come out on. If stretch goals get met, they hope to also release the game on Vita, Wii U and iOS.
Mansion Lord has about 15 more days of funding to go if you want in on this insanity.
