Parkour Hack ‘n Slash, Bloodthief, Getting Extended Demo
Heavily inspired by games such as Quake and Ghostrunner, Bloodthief is the debut title from noted YouTuber Blargis. It combines first-person melee combat with a suite of movement-based abilities, including wall-running, dashing, and a ludicrous amount of speed. The demo is out now on PC, but an extended version will go live on June 9, 2025.
Bloodthief puts players in the chunky medieval boots of a vampire as they zoom around castles, towns, and caves, dispatching enemies with brutal sword moves and slide attacks, thanks to quite possibly the most powerful feet in all of gaming.
“What my focus is now, is on squeezing out as much juice in as many creative ways as I can, out of the mechanics that I’ve set out,” Blargis said in his last devlog YouTube video, in August 2024. “The other aspect of this phase I can talk about, is just adding a layer of refinement to stuff to make it, you know, as fun and enjoyable as possible.”
Engineer by Day, Vampire by Night
Blargis is otherwise known as Jake, a California-based software engineer by day who’s been working as a game developer in his spare time on what was initially referred to as “Violent Thief.” In his first devlog video in July 2023, Blargis revealed what he’d already started working on, including a few details about inspirations and game dev decisions.
“One of my all-time favorite games is Hotline Miami, and my goal with this game is to basically make a first-person version of that, but with swords and bows,” he said. “I chose to build this game with Godot 4. I have probably spent more time playing around with pet projects in Unity, but recently I picked up Godot and I have been loving it.”
Fast forward to December 2024, and Blargis’ tenth devlog showcased the game as being closer to the state it’s in, in the demo, with an emphasis on the weapon system and overall gameplay ethos.
“So I want the weapons in Bloodthief to work like masks in Hotline Miami, where each weapon gives you a cool perk,” he said. “I also want it to work similarly to Hotline Miami in that you get to choose your weapon in the beginning of the level, but after that you’re locked in and can’t change it mid-level.”
“Like, at the end of the day, this is an action game. I don’t want people spending any more time than they have to messing around in inventory screens when, you know, you could be blowing up bad guys with your sword.”
Violent Speed
Blargis has also outlined how Bloodthief’s overall look is heavily inspired by Quake’s old-school, lo-res aesthetics, right down to the way clouds look and move. Quake was also one of the initial inspirations behind the core movement set for the player, thanks to its emphasis on fluid speed.
One side effect of this kind of player movement is that it encourages speedrunning, where gamers attempt to beat a level in as fast a time as possible. Blargis’ most recent video, in February 2025, highlighted how speedrunners have broken Bloodthief. However, instead of trying to stop this behavior he’s trying to encourage it.
“Instead of patching their shortcuts, fixing their mechanic exploits, and nerfing all their speedrunner tech, I’ve been embracing it,” he said. “I feel like having balanced mechanics lessens the level design load on me, because now instead of having to think about every little level interaction I’m going to make for the player, I can kind of just create a playground and let the player make their own fun.”
The current Bloodthief demo can be played through normally in around an hour, or up to 20 if a player wants to 100% it. Some of the demo levels have already been blasted through in as little as six seconds by speedrunners.
The extended demo will introduce an entirely new level, a new weapon and the three secret artifacts required to unlock it.
