Note: This game has mouse controls in the web version, press F8 after the window has focus to turn it fullscreen for the (slightly) better experience!

The demon world is a rough place, given that it's the same world as ours. A certain demon (won't spoil who) has only a small, humble desire- eat as many of those yummy human souls as demonly possible. But human soul collectors - people who only collect human souls for their retail values and don't even really appreciate them - make it harder and harder for a humble hard-hunting demon to get his hands on some good human souls. Or evil human souls. Let's go with evil or we'll run into morality issues here, I always said evil. Will the demon overcome the collectors and their shallow representation of retro collection turning into a grift? Why is it so fun when stuff explodes into giblets? And is adding a bit of gray with the spray can tool in Aseprite enough to call something a new stage? All these and other important questions about life will be answered in- Demon Scalper Blues!


There seems to be a bit of drama about collecting in the retro gaming community recently, so that was the second thing that came to mind when I heard the theme "Collectors" (personally I only know I will never own a copy of Segagaga, but I think that wasn't in the cards even before grading sites existed). The first thing was demons collecting souls, so I thought I'd mash the two together with all the subtleness of a plane crash on a boat. And here we are, Demon Scalper Blues! Was a little worried that killing people would be too violent, so I added that you only force unhealthy lifestyle choices on them, which is of course legal and economically desirable, so it turned into biting social commentary. You can say that if someone walks into your room while you're playing it. I have a couple of grievances with how it turned out, but in the end I had fun making it, that can be my little victory, isn't that the true Ludum Dare goal, alas. Hope you can also still get a little something out of this game, thanks a lot if you give it a try!


Controls (Web + Windows):

  • Mouse - Move crosshair
  • Left mouse click - Shoot evil humans
  • Right mouse click - Grab souls after shooting evil humans
  • Enter - Advance on tutorial/pause/win/lose screens
  • P - Pause
  • F8 - Fullscreen under Web 
  • Alt + Enter - Fullscreen under Windows exe


Controls (Dreamcast) aka couldn't get the lightgun code  fixed in time:

  • D-Pad or Analog stick - Move crosshair
  • A - Shoot evil humans
  • B - Grab souls after shooting evil humans
  • Start - Advance on tutorial/pause/win/lose screens
  • A+B+X+Y+START - Return to Dreamcast menu (usual Dreamcast menu shortcut)


Thanks a lot again if you give it a try!

Download

Download
Demon Scalper Blues for Dreamcast.zip 39 MB
Download
Demon Scalper Blues for Windows.zip 17 MB

Install instructions

Windows:

Extract the folder and open DemonScalperBlues.exe.

Dreamcast:

Burn the .cdi file to a CD-R using Padus Discjuggler 6.0 (https://www.afterdawn.com/software/cd_dvd/burning/padus_disc_juggler.cfm).  CD-RWs will not work. Burn at slow speeds, if possible. Put the CD-R in your Dreamcast. If it shows -Demon Scalper Blues executable- during the Sega logo screen, you did everything correctly. Flycast is supported if you want to try it on an emulator.

Comments

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(+2)

your thing lately of adlibing past the written lines is kinda kino I feel. Is that some meme or trend lately that I just never seen, or that just your own little style?
it took me 1 1/2 rounds to figure out that you could right click the souls to pick I guess I just clicked through the instructions or sm

Thanks! I just kinda started doing  the adlib stuff one Ludum Dare and it stuck around, I don't remember what started it, I think it was one line at first and some comments said that the surprise adlib was funny so I tried doing it for all next time, lol