The tenth anniversary of A Vampyre Story came and went this past fall with little incident. As you may know, Bill Tiller's planned gothic saga has been in limbo due to frustrating rights issues - while Bill owns the IP itself, the distribution rights to the original game and its long-stalled sequel have been tied up with German-based publisher Crimson Cow Games.
But judging by the update Bill posted to the AVS Facebook page today, the Denver boot is finally off Mona de Lafitte:
Hi all. Good news, I have all the rights to A Vampyre Story back! Over this summer I will be trying to figure out the best strategy for moving forward so I can get the sequels and prequels funded. If you have any suggestions or funding ideas contact me at billtiller@gmail.com
It's unclear if the rights have simply reverted to Bill or if a blood sacrifice was involved to make this happen. We look forward to covering the quest to get AVS2 funded and back on track. In the meantime, it's always a good day when an IP and its creator are reunited. Congratulations, Bill!
Our thanks to reader Threepwood4life for bringing this to our attention and in the process bravely outing himself as a person who reads Facebook.
Source: AVS Facebook page
AlfredJ
I also just realized I never got around to playing Duke Grabowski. I should change that.
Duke gets a bad wrap for being short and easy, but I really enjoyed it. The artwork is beautiful, and as a casual gamer I appreciated that I didn't have to wrack my brain trying to figure out a bunch of overly complicated puzzles for a 2-3 hour game. It's a shame that the publisher backed out of making future episodes. I really liked the concept!
Jansenjfa
I hope it didn’t cost him a fortune, as AVS 2 is not going to make him rich, as its niche is too small.
I'm guessing the rights reverted back to him, rather than him having to buy them, but who knows.
I'm happy for Bill, and happy that he's still enthusiastic about this idea, but yeah, I really hope it works out for him this time. His old attempts really seemed to hit him hard. It's going to be a tough one to get off the ground.
I also just realized I never got around to playing Duke Grabowski. I should change that.
Time for more AVS goodness, hopefully!
I'd suggest forgetting the insane story distribution he had for AVS2-4 and trying to tell a complete story in one game, even if it's a smaller one. The biggest problem with AVS was that it just kind of...ended.