The Vampire Rabbit

By day, a stone rabbit bolted above a churchyard door. By night, the only thing standing between St Nicholas' dead and the worst-disguised grave robbers in the North.

The Vampire Rabbit is real. It has crouched above the back door of Cathedral Buildings in Newcastle upon Tyne since 1901: black, fanged, red-clawed, and nobody knows why it's there. One theory says it was put there to scare off body-snatchers working the churchyard next door.

This game takes that theory completely seriously.

How to play

• Move your light over a figure to see through their disguise.
• Click to pounce.
• Bite the robbers. Don't bite the vicar.

Easier said than done. The man with the shovel might be the sexton, who's allowed one. The horse might be a panto horse that took a wrong turn. The vicar might be the vicar. Lanterns burning red and flickering usually mean trouble, but not always. And some robbers blow their lantern out the moment they feel your gaze.

Survive three waves until dawn, spend your wages between waves on sharper eyes, a longer reach or stone skin, and find out which of the real theories about the rabbit the town settles on in the morning paper.

Controls: mouse to shine, click to pounce · Space: use item · M: sound on/off · P: pause Difficulty: Gentle, Normal or Cursed (pick on the title screen)

Credits

• Game design and development: Allan Rowntree
• Code written with Claude (Anthropic)
• Art, animation, sound effects, voices and music generated with Ludo.ai
• Title font: IM Fell English by Igino Marini (SIL Open Font License), via Google Fonts
• History: the Vampire Rabbit, Cathedral Buildings, Dean Street (Tyne & Wear HER 6675). Sources: Atlas Obscura, Icy Sedgwick, Newcastle Sitelines, Fabulous North