Game Review: The Ruby Court
My Playthrough Review From The Newly Released Game by an Indie-Australian Developer
Rating: ★★★★☆
Status: completed (updated 2024), pay to play
Genre: interactive fiction, point-and-click, narrative, LGBTQIA+, explicit, vampire
Gameplay: single-player
Playtime: 1 hour
Replay Value: high, multiple possible endings
Difficulty Level: normal
Gameplay and Mechanics: 3/5
Graphics and Art Style: 5/5
Story and Theme: 5/5
Ultimate Assessment:
Deliciously nuanced in the art of seduction, this modern-made vampire has possibly bitten off more than they can chew by seeking for more in life. McKay absolutely delivered in this grim storybook turned game, almost mimicking the effect of a short film rather than a fully-fledged game. Where The Ruby Court lacks in bringing a more immersive environment to the gamer, it far gains in its story telling. While vampire are an all too familiar story, this game might just have all the Wicked Snakes wanting more.
In my most recent game jam exploration I came across an enticing queer game entry, “The Ruby Court,” created for the 2024 Queer Vampire Game Jam. Game developer Dana McKay, aka Fixgritt, originally released a short demo in the February submission window as an interactive point-and-click fiction. As of two days ago McKay announced an exciting update, a full playable release of the game! So of course I had to play it and upload my review here on my blog for all my bean sprouts.
The Ruby Court is an unnamed first person perspective game where I played as a recently turned vampire. As my “Sire,” or otherwise (if we are going by True Blood logic here) the “Maker” of my protagonist is high up on the vampirical court, which has reigned for many centuries. But one is not handed authority at birth, it must be proven, awarded based on acts of loyalty and conforming to the expected culture. In this game, reputation and perception are everything — based on your actions you will be rewarded, or punished, with reputation points. But what’s more: are you living in a delusion or becoming a savage monster in your newfound life? The biggest catch?
You lack a taste for blood.
So what’s a new fledgling vampire to do when the sweetest desire, turns out to taste like the driest sand?
Upon starting, I was met with a dark scene, panting breaths, and a masked figure in the shadows. Edging me to give in to the urge to dine on the finest thing — blood. I was quickly thrown into a world of delicate politics and bored violence. My guide, Florence, was the most recent initiate before me and tasked with leading me on my first hunt. After what felt like blindly selecting the most sought after meal, virgin blood, I am assigned with the duty to check-in and receive the RSVP confirmations for this centuries extravaganza of The Court. What could go wrong as an initiate by meeting the established, reining members of vampire society?
A Deeper Dive Into the Game
Now I want to remind you that this was an entry for the Queer Vampire Game Jam, and all participating developers were invited to create a narrative around queer relationships and or queer experiences, but told through the eyes of a vampire. Granted the protagonist wasn’t require to be a queer or a vampire, but nonetheless should have LGBTQIA+ inclusivity and of course, vampires. So to all my sensitive gamers, that means violence, blood, murder, death… you name it. If it’s sad, edgy, sexy, and just slightly more angsty than the token goth girl — then you are in.
The game is laid out like a comic book, with stylized art heavy with ink, bold outlines, and tri-color themes all around red. The storyline is broken out into 8 chapters, and like many truly wonderful narrative games, you bare given choices with actionable consequences. This plus the reputation meter equals multiple possible endings. I like to think I executed the “nervous and desperate survival” route.
I won’t detail my experience of each chapter in an attempt to not divulge too many spoilers, but let me highlight the few I felt really built in the vampiric lore/world.
Chapter 1 “The Connoisseur”
Here was really the most eye opening experience and the real introduction into the game — I got my first taste of what court culture is like and I was introduced to a women at the roof of it, Cassandra. Let’s call her the “caterer” of the event, in charge of the selection her kinfolk would be dining on. I was met with an equally totalitarian and cult-like process in which I see our first human “willing volunteer.” But after several human vestiges fail Cassandras palate, I am served up on the platter to decide a women’s fate. Now in my initial playthrough, I hesitated and it cost me a reputation point. But on another attempt I took quick action to “never waste a meal,” which revealed a grateful exchange from the human woman. In that moment, I couldn’t help but wonder why she was a volunteer. Why is she grateful?
Chapter 5 “The Immortal”
Fast forwarding to my final quest to confirm an RSVP (which at this point in the game definitely has a double meaning = I am the one being tested by members of the court if I am worthy of going,) I meet “Nonna,” a centuries old vampire. Here I learned that back in the old age of vampires, when magic was ripe, they could channel their own desires by sacrificing part of themselves. And after a seat squirming display of Nonna's magic, she catches on that my palate for blood is not quite right. And promises that she can help fix our predicament, but at a great price of myself. In this, I chose to sacrifice the last of my humanity in the delusion that this life could be everything I wanted as long as I could enjoy the blood I drink. But the sacrifice was in vain as she was not able to completely reverse the wrong, and as a vampire, I was still left with a deficit in this new life.
Chapter 7 “The Traitor”
It didn’t escape me that the politics of The Ruby Court existed on a fragile pedestal — and pride is above all the deepest root of the member of the court — so when a member want to move on and leave because he does not fit in, the take it as a snub and the offense feeds their fury. I am sent to kill this traitor. no questions asked. But as I suspected, we were met with a man attempting to live a normal life, working as a security guard on a night shift. I learned my blood disposition is due to a disorder some have back when they were human, which inhibits them from indulging in the taste for blood (obviously unseen to the human eye.) We learn, that we will never enjoy blood fully, but in order to be a member of The Court, I must kill this man Dimitri. I chose to kill him, with the hopes of a secret storyline route.
Up until this point, I was theorizing that the only being that we would have a taste for is vampires themselves. Admittedly I was a little disappointed that my theory didn’t pan out, but I did het a storyline in which a cat came home with me and that was a big bonus on my end (but also made me feel extremely guilty.)
After finally having completed my initiation and won entry into The Court, I killed my Sire, Marcella. i conspired to create my own court, but I spent the rest of my life being hunted down by other vampires. All in all, the lose/lose route of the game.
My final takeaways on “The Ruby Court” leave me with a lasting impression of wanting more. The game didn’t completely fulfil my own unsatiable appetite for narrative endings. Rather than saying I was disappointed, I would say I wasn’t convinced the game should be considered finished. My two biggest grievances of the game was with the sound design and the ending scene.
There was a lack of appropriate sound effects that added another layer of dimensional experience, as well as a missing consistent background them. Also, the execution of audio transitions between scenes, chapters, and layered sounds effects should have been smoother. I found the sudden onsets of sound effects on a mostly quiet backspace to be jarring. Where was the music to carry the tone and tension consistently through the game? This really helps guide the players into experience the emotion from an cultivated environment fully.
As for the ending scene — we, as the players, should have been rewarded visually with a glimpse of what life is like after the protagonist’s final choice. If she was on the run for the rest of her life (like in my ending of the game) I would have wanted to have seen some hand drawn panels to show what it looked like. As a player, who just completed what is essentially a comic book, I didn’t believe that ending on a black screen fit the tone of the game at all. The game could have been made all the stronger should it have included this.
That all said, I found much of the game to be incredibly enjoyable. And I truly struggled in some of the dilemma choices the game presented. In such a short hour, McKay was able to craft a succinct narrative, that continuously built on the founding vampire lore. The character design was clear, simple, and effective — one didn’t require their backstories or motivations to understand them. But most of all, the flow of conversation felt much more reflective of natural pace instead of routine procedure, I believe this to be the game’s greatest feature. I absolutely adored the art style and the color scheme, and my eyes didn’t tire from the set design.
Can I take a moment to gush how lustfully each character was drawn? That the language and affect of their personalities felt completely individualized.
The Developer Behind The Game
Dana McKay is an impressive solo-developer, with a versatile career including multiple releases, game contributions, a short silent animated storyboard, and more. McKay has displayed a true dedication to the art of games and champions a game herself that was winner of the 2021 Free Play Experience in Narrative Award. “A Long Goodbye,” is well deserving is such recognition just for the human-like existence she evokes in under five minutes. I played witness to a conversation between distanced friends from years apart, but this is their last phone call.
The speech, setting, tone, and flow of conversation — reflected such a normal and humanely unique moment, that I fully believed there was voice acting in this game until my third playthrough. The storytelling is so effective that my mind subconsciously filled the final missing element and created voices for both characters “Barb” and “Charlie.” You see the choices for different ending executed in such a brilliantly subtle way. It’s delicate, the way they try to reconnect, and it feels so brutally raw in the first playthrough that even trying to speak to the elephant in the room feel volatile. But in my second playthrough, where I force Charlie to be more honest and upfront, I was awarded with such rich lives of their past. It is so wrought with emotion that I connected with this game so strongly, and its not wonder that “The Ruby Court” conversation mechanics felt the strongest, McKay has a talent for it!
During my research, I was extremely excited to hear McKay received funding for a new game “SPÜTWEISER.” As an Australian independent game maker, to see McKay championing a spot in the Emerging Gamemakers Fund” speaks volumes to the ability and potential this game could bring. I am weak for post-apocalyptic games, and the chance to play a point-and-click survival game where the player operates a moving settlement? AND players can engage with other players while exploring the world’s narrative? Sign me up.
A major congrats to McKay for completing their 3-month development on The Ruby Court and thank you for taking this queer integrated concept a step further by building it into a fully fledged out story.