‘Desmond’s Castle’ Battles Mini Vampires on a Time Limit

Desmond’s Castle gives you ten minutes to explore its gloomy halls, find secret weapons, solve puzzles, and overcome its vampire lord.

Vampires always sound so powerful except for how they’re so vulnerable during the daytime. What a drag to be immortal but have to hide out in a box all day. Seems risky. The vampire in this game seems to have thought about this problem, though. His estate is filled with a thick, toxic fog that burns the lungs and kills anyone who enters it. Thankfully our heroic knight playable character can hold their breath for ten minutes, giving you a small but workable time limit with which to defeat the undead creature.

That said, the journey to Desmond isn’t straightforward. The place is a sprawling maze of corridors and secret goodies. Monsters are also all over the place. You might be inclined to rush past them when you’ve only got ten minutes to spare, but when creatures are creeping towards you, you can’t always see the doors that lead out. You don’t have any choice but to fight quickly to be able to make your escape route appear.

Still, you can’t fight everything if you’re going to beat the vampire in ten minutes. That’s where the game’s secrets and hidden paths come into play. If you’re paying attention to cracked walls or other hints at hidden things, you can find better gear and even cheats to give yourself a better chance of surviving your quest. Looking for those things when the clock is constantly clicking down isn’t easy (and solving puzzles under time pressure sure isn’t, either), but it adds to the stressful fun of this game.

Desmond’s Castle is zippy and tense as you scramble through its halls, but it rewards you well for paying attention and seeing what neat things you can find before your ten minutes are up.

Desmond’s Castle is available now on itch.io.

About The Author

Joel Couture

Joel has been covering indie games for various sites including IndieGames.com, Siliconera, Gamasutra, Warp Door, CG Magazine, and more over the past seven years, and has written book-length studies on Undertale and P.T.. Joel is constantly on the lookout for digital experiences that push the boundaries of what games can be, and seeks to delve into the creative process, meanings, and emotion labor that goes into the work of artists worldwide.