Software:Helsing's Fire

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Short description: Puzzle video game
Helsing's Fire
Image banner for Helsing's Fire
Developer(s)Ratloop
Publisher(s)Clickgamer.com
Platform(s)iOS
ReleaseiPhone
July 10, 2010
iPad
December 15, 2010
Genre(s)Puzzle
Mode(s)Single-player

Helsing's Fire is a 2010 puzzle video game developed by Ratloop and published by Clickgamer.com. The protagonist, monster hunter Van Helsing, and his assistant Raffton battle Dracula and his minions by revealing monsters using a torch and defeating them with tonics. Developed over the course of 6 months by Ratloop co-founder Lucas Pope and programmer Keiko Ishizaka, the game was originally designed to be a roguelike action game, but eventually turned into a puzzler.

The game was released in 2010 for iOS. It was reviewed positively by critics, who praised the game's torch/tonic puzzle mechanic, visuals, and dialogue between Van Helsing and Raffton; reception towards the game's difficulty was mixed. The game won the "Best Mobile Game" award at the 2011 Independent Games Festival.

Gameplay

Helsing's Fire is a puzzle video game with a top-down perspective, set in London.[1][2] The protagonist, monster hunter Van Helsing, and his assistant Raffton battle Dracula and his minions using torches and magical tonics.[2][3] In each level, the player must reveal monsters using their torch while avoiding blocks and walls that obstruct the torch's rays of light.[2] Once revealed, monsters can be defeated by using tonics corresponding to their color (red, blue, or green).[4] Monsters are initially immobile, but gain the ability to move and shoot back at the player in later stages.[2] Different monsters impact gameplay: for example, a werewolf hit by a tonic turns into a maiden, who the player should avoid harming.[4]

The game contains three campaigns with 180 stages in total[3] as well as boss battles;[5] later stages increase in difficulty.[6] The puzzles in the levels are randomly generated.[2] Players are scored by how fast they complete the level.[4] Helsing's Fire has two additional modes besides the campaigns: a "Bounties" mode,[3] and an endless mode where the player completes as many timed puzzles as possible before either running out of time or failing to complete a puzzle.[5]

Even when you could play Helsing’s Fire on your iPad, Until 10 July 2010, Helsing’s Fire had had an HD version of the game (called Helsing’s Fire HD). The gameplay is the same with the exception of the display being optimised for iPads, unlike the original version.

Development

Helsing's Fire was developed by Ratloop co-founder Lucas Pope and programmer Keiko Ishizaka, his wife.[7][8] The game was developed by them over the course of 6 months part-time, with additional work for updates and an HD version.[7] The game was originally a roguelike action game; Pope said that he "had a much easier time designing the puzzle elements" and that Helsing's Fire eventually turned into a puzzler.[7] The developers then focused on the vampire theme, then on Helsing and Raffton, the game's characters.[7] Pope had been creating app prototypes to familiarize himself with the iPhone SDK; the light/shadow concept arose from his prototyping work.[7] He initially wanted to simplify the art creation by using vector-like graphics, but added textures and hand-drawn sprites after feedback from friends.[7]

The game was released on July 10, 2010 for iPhone[9] and was published by Clickgamer.com,[4] a subsidiary of Chillingo.[10] A post-launch update added a new campaign (in addition to the original 90 stages), a new partner for Helsing, and new items.[3]

Reception

Reception
Aggregate score
AggregatorScore
Metacritic83/100[11]
Review scores
PublicationScore
Edge7/10[12]
Eurogamer9/10[1]
GameProStarStarStarStarStar[13]
GamezeboStarStarStar[14]
GameZone8.5/10[15]
IGN7/10[2]
Pocket GamerStarStarStarHalf star[4]
TouchArcadeStarStarStarStarStar[16]
Common Sense MediaStarStarStarStarStar[9]

Helsing's Fire received "favorable" reviews according to the review aggregator Metacritic.[11] Reviewers praised the game's light/tonic puzzle mechanic and dialogue between Helsing and Raffton.[5][13][15] Describing the gameplay as "unique", James Pikover of GameZone found it entertaining for both short and long sittings.[15] Ryan Rigney of GamePro opined that the game was consistently enjoyable by introducing new mechanics throughout its first 90 stages, and complimented the boss fights as "unique and challenging".[13] Tim Rattray of Slide to Play considered the game to have good replay value with an endless mode, leaderboards, and puzzles for each level changing depending on the set difficulty.[5] He also praised the game's dialogue as "quick and witty";[5] Rigney described it as "amusing" and with "a quasi Sherlock Holmes vibe".[13]

Critics also praised Helsing's Fire's visuals: Levi Buchanan of IGN complimented the design of the rays of light,[2] while Rattray praised various details like the "character reactions, comic-esque onomatopoeia, and enemy animation that ensues when they are in the light".[5] The game's Victorian era-style art design was described as "fresh and fun to behold" by Winda Bendetti of MSNBC.[3] Reception towards the game's difficulty was mixed. Writers for The A.V. Club asserted that the earlier stages "hold your hands";[6] Buchanan blamed the random puzzle generation for the lack of difficulty.[2] Pocket Gamer's Jon Jordan opined that the "more thought-provoking and carefully designed puzzles" of the last 30 levels of the first campaign were "replaced with situations that require less thinking and faster fingers", and claimed that "there's plenty of potential to craft a much more challenging experience based on this design".[4]

The game sold 60,000 units in its first week; sales tapered off significantly after its initial release.[8]

Helsing's Fire won the "Best Mobile Game" award at the 2011 Independent Games Festival, with honorable mentions for the "Excellence in Visual Art" and "Excellence in Design" awards.[17]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Reed, Kristan (July 16, 2010). "Download Games Roundup (Page 1)". Gamer Network. https://www.eurogamer.net/download-games-roundup-16th-july-2010. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Buchanan, Levi (July 14, 2010). "Helsing's Fire iPhone Review". Ziff Davis. https://www.ign.com/articles/2010/07/14/helsings-fire-iphone-review. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Bendetti, Winda (March 10, 2011). "App Addicted: 'Helsing's Fire' will light up your brain". MSNBC. https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/app-addicted-helsings-fire-will-light-your-brain-flna124591. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Jordan, Jon (July 13, 2010). "Helsing's Fire (iPhone)". Steel Media Ltd. https://www.pocketgamer.com/helsings-fire/helsings-fire/. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Rattray, Tim (July 15, 2010). "Helsing's Fire Review". http://www.slidetoplay.com/story/helsings-fire-review. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Wolinsky, David; Heisler, Steve; Agnello, Anthony John; Nelson, Samantha; Williams, Christian; St. James, Emily; Robinson, Tasha; Teti, John (August 9, 2010). "August 9, 2010". G/O Media. https://www.avclub.com/august-9-2010-1798222424. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 Rose, Mike (February 7, 2011). "Road To The IGF: Ratloop's Lucas Pope Plays With Helsing's Fire". Informa. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/pc/road-to-the-igf-ratloop-s-lucas-pope-plays-with-i-helsing-s-fire-i-. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Machkovech, Sam (January 12, 2019). "From Uncharted to Obra Dinn: Lucas Pope dishes on his illustrious game-dev career". Condé Nast. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/01/from-uncharted-to-obra-dinn-lucas-pope-dishes-on-his-illustrious-game-dev-career/. 
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Healy, Christopher (2010). "Helsing's Fire App Review". https://www.commonsensemedia.org/app-reviews/helsings-fire. 
  10. ↑ "Clickgamer.com". Gamer Network. May 26, 2009. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/clickgamer-com-new-iphone-publishing-brand-from-chillingo. 
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Helsing's Fire for iPhone/iPad Reviews". Fandom. https://www.metacritic.com/game/helsings-fire/critic-reviews/?platform=ios-iphoneipad. 
  12. ↑ Edge staff (September 2010). "Helsing's Fire review". Edge (Future plc) (218): 98. 
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 Rigney, Ryan (July 16, 2010). "App Store Games of the Week: July 16th Edition". GamePro (GamePro Media). http://www.gamepro.com/article/features/215843/app-store-games-of-the-week-july-16th-edition/. 
  14. ↑ Kuo, Ryan (July 13, 2010). "Helsing's Fire Review (iPhone)". https://www.gamezebo.com/reviews/helsings-fire-review/. 
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Pikover, James (November 10, 2010). "Helsing's Fire review". https://www.gamezone.com/reviews/helsings_fire/. 
  16. ↑ Patterson, Blake (July 12, 2010). "Unique Puzzler 'Helsing's Fire' is a True App Store Gem [date mislabeled as "October 14, 2011""]. TouchArcade.com, LLC. https://toucharcade.com/2010/07/12/unique-puzzler-helsings-fire-is-a-true-app-store-gem/. 
  17. ↑ "2011 Independent Games Festival Winners". http://www.igf.com/02finalists.html. 
  • MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms.[1] Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

Features

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers".[2] This approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months.[3] The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing.[4] A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.[5]

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

History

Logo used until March 2014

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school.[6][7] Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information.[5] In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.[5]

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount.[8] This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign.[7] A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).[9] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel,[10] and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.[7]

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million.[11] The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager.[12][13][14] Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface.[1] This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.[15]

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue.[16] Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.[17]

On February 13, 2025, Freyholtz stepped down as the site lead to move onto new projects, leaving operations to Tracy Poff, a veteran coder on the site, and Atari staff.[18]

See also

  • IGDB – game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sheehan, Gavin (2023-02-22). "Atari Relaunches The Fully Rebuilt & Optimized MobyGames Website". https://bleedingcool.com/games/atari-relaunches-the-fully-rebuilt-optimized-mobygames-website/. 
  2. ↑ Litchfield, Ted (2021-11-26). "Zombie company Atari to devour MobyGames". https://www.pcgamer.com/zombie-company-atari-to-devour-mobygames/. 
  3. ↑ "MobyGames FAQ: Emails Answered § When will my submission be approved?". Blue Flame Labs. 30 March 2014. http://www.mobygames.com/info/faq7#g1. 
  4. ↑ "The MobyGames Standards and Practices". Blue Flame Labs. 6 January 2016. http://www.mobygames.com/info/standards. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Miller, Stanley A. (2003-04-22). "People's choice awards honor favorite Web sites". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 
  6. ↑ "20 Years of MobyGames" (in en). 2019-02-28. https://trixter.oldskool.org/2019/02/28/20-years-of-mobygames/. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Plunkett, Luke (2022-03-10). "Atari Buys MobyGames For $1.5 Million". https://kotaku.com/mobygames-retro-credits-database-imdb-atari-freyholtz-b-1848638521. 
  8. ↑ "Report: MobyGames Acquired By GameFly Media". Gamasutra. 2011-02-07. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/report-mobygames-acquired-by-gamefly-media. 
  9. ↑ Corriea, Alexa Ray (December 31, 2013). "MobyGames purchased from GameFly, improvements planned". http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/31/5261414/mobygames-purchased-from-gamefly-improvements-planned. 
  10. ↑ Wawro, Alex (31 December 2013). "Game dev database MobyGames getting some TLC under new owner". Gamasutra. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/game-dev-database-mobygames-getting-some-tlc-under-new-owner. 
  11. ↑ "Atari invests in Anstream, may buy MobyGames". November 24, 2021. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-11-24-atari-invests-in-anstream-may-buy-mobygames. 
  12. ↑ Rousseau, Jeffrey (2022-03-09). "Atari purchases Moby Games". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/atari-purchases-moby-games. 
  13. ↑ "Atari Completes MobyGames Acquisition, Details Plans for the Site's Continued Support". March 8, 2022. https://www.atari.com/atari-completes-mobygames-acquisition-details-plans-for-the-sites-continued-support/. 
  14. ↑ "Atari has acquired game database MobyGames for $1.5 million" (in en-GB). 2022-03-09. https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/atari-has-acquired-game-database-mobygames-for-1-5-million/. 
  15. ↑ Stanton, Rich (2022-03-10). "Atari buys videogame database MobyGames for $1.5 million". https://www.pcgamer.com/atari-buys-videogame-database-mobygames-for-dollar15-million/. 
  16. ↑ Harris, John (2024-03-09). "MobyGames Offering “Pro” Membership". https://setsideb.com/mobygames-offering-pro-membership/. 
  17. ↑ "MobyGames on Patreon". http://www.patreon.com/mobygames. 
  18. ↑ "An update on MobyGames leadership". 2025-02-13. https://www.mobygames.com/forum/3/thread/269628/an-update-on-mobygames-leadership/#post-269628. 
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