Step into the decaying world of Kagenovia in Dawnrazor, a brand-new original Game Boy Color title developed for real hardware. Take control of Zedekiah, a betrayed knight reborn through parasitic vampirism, as he fights through blood-soaked ruins and biomechanical horrors.

Features:

Hardcore 2D action with gothic sci-fi vibes.
Biomechanic abilities – Use Blood Surge or Biomechanic Hearts to survive.
Moral choices – Spare or slay your enemies… and face the consequences.
Authentic visuals, music, and mechanics for Game Boy hardware.

Designed for Game Boy Color & Analogue Pocket – playable on real hardware and emulators! Decide who you are… and what you’ll become.

Controls (itch.io)

Arrow Keys (Left/Right) - Left/Right Movement

Arrow Key (Down) - Crouch

Z - Jump / Interact

X - Attack (Hold Arrow Key Down + X for a Crouching Attack)

Enter - Pause / Inventory

Shift - Activate Blood Surge

Arrow Key (Up) + X - Use Biomechanic Heart

The game can be saved at the Ironhold by using the Main Computer Terminal.

Please note that the on-screen instructions follow the Game Boy Color controls!

PDF-manual available in the download section for more information!

More information

Status	In development
Platforms	HTML5
Rating	Rated 4.0 out of 5 stars (2 total ratings)
Author	sbtalbain
Genre	Action
Tags	Dark, Dystopian, Gothic, Horror, Multiple Endings, Narrative, Retro, Story Rich, Vampire

Download

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Click download now to get access to the following files:

Download for Game Boy Color 512 kB

Download for Analogue Pocket 512 kB

Instruction Booklet 10 MB

Development log

Minor Updates & Improvements
38 days ago

Comments

ManFila_SP39 days ago

Hey there , just stumbled into your game .

Most of what I noticed has already been covered by the posters before me so I won't repeat that .

I like the world fusion of Castlevania & Biopunk ( Biopunk Vania , if you use that give me credit , Got it ?! ) .

I like that there is a story narrative driving the action rather than just another mindless hack slasher 😅

You should make the Blood surge icon unique , I legit thought it was another Heart unit I acquired .

On the inventory screen you can see the info' description of the Biomechanical heart even if you don't have one in the inventory .

I tried to continue a game after my last session from the Title screen but clicking continue just gave me a Black screen .

Looking forward to you cleaning up this Demo' and serving up something truly noteworthy for the Gameboy Community

😁😁👍👍

sbtalbain38 days ago

Thanks! Did you save the game at the Ironhold? There was indeed a bug where the screen goes black if there's no save data, that has been fixed now! The blood drop icon for Blood Surge is a bit too close to the hearts, I agree. I have to think about a better icon for that.

Thanks for the kind words, cheers!

ManFila_SP38 days ago

One other thing , why does a Knight called Dawn RAZOR have a whip as his primary weapon ???

It's already enough that most of us can see that the player avatar is a reskin from GB game , Castlevania : Belmonts Revenge but the whip is just too obvious.

If the whip was a later addition as a wink wink Homage to Castlevania that would be a better way but I would think you want Zedekiah to stand out as his own character 🤔🤔🤔.

sbtalbain38 days ago

He doesn't have his sword because the Countess took it as a trophy after their battle. There's a reason for everything, even if it's not explained in the demo yet!

LordValeer39 days ago

I think I found a bug, in the mire of forgotten souls, in the beginning of the stage, you fall down into a pit with 3 slug enemies, and there is a corpse you're able to consume. Well, the first time you consume the body and then get out of the pit, you can go back down the pit and go to where the corpse was at, you're able to go thru the dialogue again even though the corpse isn't there. Was that intended? I didn't think it was but I thought to let you know about it.

ManFila_SP39 days ago

Have you been able to get out of the mire ???

I'm stuck in that pit , all you can to is feed on the corpse & kill the enemies !

How do you move forward in that stage ?

LordValeer38 days ago

I haven't been able to no, but then again I haven't looked up the guide to get out of the pit, so once I do that I'll see if I can get out.

sbtalbain38 days ago

Thanks a lot, fixed this in the update!

csylos41 days ago

I have things to comment about, as well, but I think cicadahuman outlined most everything.

Music is great.
Graphics are good.
Jumping makes sense considering you're a vampire and have increased strength, but jumping over half the screen height feels odd, as well as how slow the jump is.
Forward momentum is wonky; it almost feels like you're moving in slow motion. This, also, adversely affects the jumps and makes platforming more difficult. I think you should turn off acceleration or make it max.
When you swing your whip, it takes a moment before the projectile is released to do damage. I've ran into several occasions where I'll whip an enemy close to me and my whip passes through the enemy, it hits me, then it dies. Also, there's too much of a lag time between swinging again.
Bats appearing out of nowhere and moving in a straight line is odd.
I think that the whip should be longer (if not from the start, upgradable).

All-in-all, though, great job. I'm working through a game in GB Studio, as well, and it is quite the chore to get everything adjusted JUUUUUST right, so great work on what you've got thus far. Looking forward to seeing more of the game.

sbtalbain38 days ago

Thanks csylos! This was very useful, especially the comments about the acceleration and the projectile. I adjusted those, hopefully they feel a bit better now!

Cicada Human43 days ago

Been playing your game, would you like some feedback on it?

sbtalbain42 days ago

Sure!

Cicada Human42 days ago(+1)

Alright here is my feedback. I hope this doesn't come off as mean-spirited. I really do like what you’re doing. When I saw this game last night, I actually got out of bed instead of going to sleep, played the game and wrote this.

Precision Jumps

There are a lot of deaths from missed jumps rather than actual combat, which feels cheap, especially since dying usually sends me back to a previous level. Those earlier levels already have a lot of precision jumps and easy ways to die. I can see this game being fun to some, but for me, it's more frustrating than enjoyable. When I reach the third or fourth level, I’m not dying to hard enemies. I’m dying because of a single missed jump.

Walk Acceleration and Jumping

The jumping itself can feel frustrating too. Your walk speed starts out slow, and if you don’t account for that right away, it throws off your timing. That usually ends in another death and a restart from the last level. After dying about eight times and reading the same dialogue, I turned the game off.

Attack Animation and Combat

Combat also feels a little off. The attack animation is quick, but the delay before you can attack again feels longer than the attack itself. It throws off the rhythm and makes fights feel clunky.

Enemies

About the enemies, the bats shouldn’t just be used as cheap hits during platforming. They would work better as regular enemies in normal parts of the level. The other enemies are mostly fine, though crouching feels inconsistent. Sometimes it forces me to stand back up after attacking, which is frustrating because of the attack cooldown.

The most annoying enemy was the one that shoots projectiles from just outside your range and has a jump before it. You either have to time it perfectly and jump, then attack, or take a hit and then kill it. That kind of challenge might make sense later in the game, but it feels too punishing for the prologue.

Overall, the game looks great. Some of the instant-death pits could be more visible, but otherwise the art is really nice. I like the story so far, but I haven’t made it far enough to enjoy it fully. I die too often and end up giving up. The game has a lot of potential, and I hope this feedback is helpful.

There's so much to love about this game and look forward to more from you as a developer.

sbtalbain42 days ago

No worries, this is perfect! Exactly the kind of feedback I need and wanted to get with the demo release. I'll definitely take these into account and do my best with refining everything. Cheers!

Dawnrazor

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