{"id":2033292,"date":"2026-07-08T15:51:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T12:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2033292"},"modified":"2026-07-08T15:51:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T12:51:11","slug":"dracula-is-king-of-england-new-immersive-sim-vampirium-1997-announced-by-tron-catalyst-and-thomas-was-alone-developer-bithell-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2033292","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Dracula is King of England&#8221; &#8211; New immersive sim Vampirium: 1997 announced by Tron: Catalyst and Thomas Was Alone developer Bithell Games"},"content":{"rendered":"<article class=\"article \" data-ads=\"true\" data-article-type=\"news\" data-article-group=\"news\" data-paywalled=\"false\" data-premium=\"false\" data-sponsored=\"false\" data-type=\"article\">\n<header class=\"article_header\" data-component=\"article-header\">\n<div class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n<nav class=\"nav_breadcrumbs\" data-component=\"nav-breadcrumbs\" aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\">\n<ul class=\"nav-links\">\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Home<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/news\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      News<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/nav><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_details\" id=\"main-content\">\n<h1 class=\"title\">&#8220;Dracula is King of England&#8221; &#8211; New immersive sim Vampirium: 1997 announced by Tron: Catalyst and Thomas Was Alone developer Bithell Games<\/h1>\n<p class=\"strapline\">I&#8217;ll bite.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_asset\">\n<figure class=\"headline_image_wrapper\">\n<p>        <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"headline_image\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/vampirium1997.jpg?width=570&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;dpr=3&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"A vampire roars with a bloody mouth.\" loading=\"eager\" data-uri=\"vampirium1997.jpg\" data-lightbox width=\"570\" height=\"321\"><figcaption>\n          <span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>Bithell Games<\/cite><\/span><br \/>\n        <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"metadata\">\n<div class=\"avatar\">\n<p>    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Robert Purchese avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/user-9946-originalxoriginal-14-03-23.jpg?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1017\"><\/p>\n<p>  <img alt=\"Robert Purchese avatar\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-uri=\"user-9946-originalxoriginal-14-03-23.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1017\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text\">\n<div class=\"byline\">\n                  <span class=\"article_type\" data-slug=\"news\"><br \/>\n                    News<br \/>\n                  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"by\">by<\/span> <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/authors\/robert-purchese\">Robert Purchese<\/a><\/span>                    <span class=\"job_title\"><br \/>\n                      Associate Editor<br \/>\n                    <\/span>\n            <\/div>\n<div class=\"published_at\">\nPublished on <time datetime=\"2026-07-08T15:51:11+00:00\">July 8, 2026<\/time>              <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"mypop-header-wrapper\">\n<p><button class=\"mypop-button button wide\" data-state=\"follow\" data-type=\"tag\" data-uuid=\"4d8ceaa1-c396-4804-a331-6fc5b14c55b1\" data-name=\"Tron: Catalyst\" data-follow-text=\"Follow Tron: Catalyst\" data-unfollow-text=\"Following Tron: Catalyst\" data-aria-follow-text=\"Follow Tron: Catalyst\" data-aria-unfollow-text=\"Following Tron: Catalyst\" data-popup=\"true\" data-force-login=\"true\" aria-label=\"Follow Tron: Catalyst\" title=\"Follow Tron: Catalyst\"><br \/>\n  Follow Tron: Catalyst<br \/>\n<\/button>          <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>Bithell Games &#8211; the developer of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/tron-catalyst\">Tron: Catalyst<\/a>, John Wick Hex and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/thomas-was-alone\">Thomas Was Alone<\/a> &#8211; has revealed a new immersive vampire sim called Vampirium: 1997.<\/p>\n<p>Catchily, it styles you as an assassin working for the King of England, who is also Dracula.  &#8220;At his command, master your dark gifts to assassinate his enemies and secure his vampiric empire,&#8221; the game&#8217;s blurb reads. &#8220;Infiltrate locked-down locations, adapt and survive in living environments and uncover your own unique methods of executing missions.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>From a gameplay point of view, Vampirium: 1997 plays out from an abstracted, top-down, tactical perspective. You see blueprint layouts of buildings and dots where other people are. When you interact with something like, say, a room, an interaction window pops up with various choices you can make while there. Do you want to turn a light switch off? Do you want to try and take out a guard? These are the various kinds of options you&#8217;ll find there.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"video_wrapper youtube\">\n<a aria-label=\"Vampirium: 1997 - Gameplay Walkthrough\" class=\"video-facade full-size\" data-platform=\"youtube\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/li_NCnbNiAQ?autoplay=1\" title=\"Click to play video from YouTube\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cover image for YouTube video\" class=\"video-facade__image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/li_NCnbNiAQ\/hqdefault.jpg\"><span class=\"video-facade__title\">Vampirium: 1997 &#8211; Gameplay Walkthrough<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><a class=\"button video\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=li_NCnbNiAQ\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/figure>\n<p>Central to all of this is the game&#8217;s use &#8211; and your use &#8211; of time. You&#8217;ll have to manage it carefully by moving time forwards fractionally to achieve things, but not too much that you put yourself in danger. This is all done using a clock in the bottom corner of the screen. Problematically, though, some actions you wish to carry out will have an associated time cost. Do you dare risk them?<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=li_NCnbNiAQ\">An eight-minute gameplay walkthrough of Vampirium: 1997<\/a> narrated by Bithell Games&#8217; founder, Mike Bithell, shows this in action. To my eye, it looks like a dense sandbox rich with possibilities for approaching situations in various ways. There aren&#8217;t many showy graphical flourishes, but there are dialogue interactions with character art.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/tron-catalyst-and-thomas-was-alone-studio-bithell-games-is-laying-off-the-majority-of-full-time-staff\">Bithell Games has had a rough time of it recently<\/a>: the studio had to lay-off the majority of its staff nearly a year ago, following its failure to secure a new larger scale project after Tron: Catalyst. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/tron-catalyst-review\">Tron: Catalyst was released in June 2025, and scored well on Eurogamer, earning four stars in our review<\/a>. It&#8217;s not clear how many people are making this new game, Vampirium: 1997, but it could be only Mike Bithell himself. &#8220;Developed on my Mac, and Steam Deck compatible already with hardware specific settings \/controls (60fps, natch),&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/mikebithell.bsky.social\/post\/3mq5g6wymzk2m\">Bithell wrote on Bluesky<\/a> in response to a comment about platform compatibility.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"poll_wrapper\" data-fixed=\"true\" data-hashid data-init=\"false\" data-poll-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"preferred-source\" data-component=\"preferred-source\">\nLove Eurogamer.net? Make us a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\">Preferred Source on Google<\/a> and catch more of our coverage in your feeds.  <\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>Bithell Games &#8211; the developer of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/tron-catalyst\">Tron: Catalyst<\/a>, John Wick Hex and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/thomas-was-alone\">Thomas Was Alone<\/a> &#8211; has revealed a new immersive vampire sim called Vampirium: 1997.<\/p>\n<p>Catchily, it styles you as an assassin working for the King of England, who is also Dracula.  &#8220;At his command, master your dark gifts to assassinate his enemies and secure his vampiric empire,&#8221; the game&#8217;s blurb reads. &#8220;Infiltrate locked-down locations, adapt and survive in living environments and uncover your own unique methods of executing missions.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>From a gameplay point of view, Vampirium: 1997 plays out from an abstracted, top-down, tactical perspective. You see blueprint layouts of buildings and dots where other people are. When you interact with something like, say, a room, an interaction window pops up with various choices you can make while there. Do you want to turn a light switch off? Do you want to try and take out a guard? These are the various kinds of options you&#8217;ll find there.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"video_wrapper youtube\">\n<a aria-label=\"Vampirium: 1997 - Gameplay Walkthrough\" class=\"video-facade full-size\" data-platform=\"youtube\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/li_NCnbNiAQ?autoplay=1\" title=\"Click to play video from YouTube\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cover image for YouTube video\" class=\"video-facade__image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/li_NCnbNiAQ\/hqdefault.jpg\"><span class=\"video-facade__title\">Vampirium: 1997 &#8211; Gameplay Walkthrough<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><a class=\"button video\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=li_NCnbNiAQ\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/figure>\n<p>Central to all of this is the game&#8217;s use &#8211; and your use &#8211; of time. You&#8217;ll have to manage it carefully by moving time forwards fractionally to achieve things, but not too much that you put yourself in danger. This is all done using a clock in the bottom corner of the screen. Problematically, though, some actions you wish to carry out will have an associated time cost. Do you dare risk them?<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=li_NCnbNiAQ\">An eight-minute gameplay walkthrough of Vampirium: 1997<\/a> narrated by Bithell Games&#8217; founder, Mike Bithell, shows this in action. To my eye, it looks like a dense sandbox rich with possibilities for approaching situations in various ways. There aren&#8217;t many showy graphical flourishes, but there are dialogue interactions with character art.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/tron-catalyst-and-thomas-was-alone-studio-bithell-games-is-laying-off-the-majority-of-full-time-staff\">Bithell Games has had a rough time of it recently<\/a>: the studio had to lay-off the majority of its staff nearly a year ago, following its failure to secure a new larger scale project after Tron: Catalyst. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/tron-catalyst-review\">Tron: Catalyst was released in June 2025, and scored well on Eurogamer, earning four stars in our review<\/a>. It&#8217;s not clear how many people are making this new game, Vampirium: 1997, but it could be only Mike Bithell himself. &#8220;Developed on my Mac, and Steam Deck compatible already with hardware specific settings \/controls (60fps, natch),&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/mikebithell.bsky.social\/post\/3mq5g6wymzk2m\">Bithell wrote on Bluesky<\/a> in response to a comment about platform compatibility.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"poll_wrapper\" data-fixed=\"true\" data-hashid data-init=\"false\" data-poll-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Home News &#8220;Dracula is King of England&#8221; &#8211; New immersive sim Vampirium: 1997 announced by Tron: Catalyst and Thomas Was Alone developer Bithell Games I&#8217;ll bite. Image credit: Bithell Games News by Robert Purchese Associate Editor Published on July 8, 2026 Follow Tron: Catalyst Bithell Games &#8211; the developer of Tron: Catalyst, John Wick Hex [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,253],"class_list":["post-2033292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-eurogamer-net"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2033292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2033292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2033292\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2033292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2033292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2033292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}