Pale Incense to get Steam Next Fest Demo

It is that hallowed season; the spooky and dark creep in as the days grow shorter. I love Halloween, and I love all things vampiric, gothic, witchy, etc. For all the cozy vibes I enjoy, games like Pale Incense are absolutely my flavor.

Developer Ongun Ayhan has revealed that their upcoming project, Pale Incense, will be coming to the Steam Next Fest from October 19^th-26^th. This demo (across 3 in-game days) will give a slice of the perfume shop gameplay, as well as Edmund’s nightly hunts. Here is what the press release says about the upcoming demo and Pale Incense:

“Perfumer by day, hunter by night. In Pale Incense, you manage the double life of the vampire Edmund[,] and the game joins Steam Next Fest with a playable demo from October 19–26. Across 3 in-game days, the demo introduces both sides of the shop and the nights of the hunt for the first time.

This time, a Gothic love story puts the player on the side of the cost, not the hero. In Pale Incense, your wife is dying, and the only thing that can save her is the human essence you gather from the city’s streets at night.

Being a vampire here isn’t a power fantasy. It’s a fight to survive.

At the heart of Pale Incense is one question: how do you sustain two lives at once?

By day, Edmund is a perfumer. In his laboratory, he blends traditional ingredients with essences extracted from human blood, crafts scents, fulfills customer requests, and grows his shop. He looks like an ordinary shopkeeper[,] but the secret hidden beneath his counter could expose him at any moment.

When night falls, everything changes. The shop’s doors close, the city streets open up, and Edmund goes hunting.

As you roam the city, you harvest scents and Human Essence from your victims and search for Vampire Stones[,] but you’re not alone out there. Vampire hunters track your movements, a mysterious rooftop archer takes aim from above, and an invulnerable werewolf waits in ambush in the back alley. If you see it, running is your only option.

Fail to hide a body, and the city notices: the district goes into alert, the streets empty out, and your chance to hunt that night is over.

And you need to reach the boat on the riverbank before dawn. If the first rays of sunlight catch you, you begin to burn.

Pale Incense‘s perfume system isn’t a decorative side mechanic; it sits at the center of the game’s entire economy.

You combine several different scent types to craft unique perfumes[,] but the most valuable essences come from human blood. You convert Vampire Stones into Human Essence Stones to prepare Johanna’s healing incense. Neglect it, and her condition worsens by the day.

Which means every perfume sold, every essence harvested, is really the price of buying her one more day.

You invest the money and resources you earn into your shop, your equipment, and your vampire home. Convert Vampire Stones into Vampire Renown to unlock new abilities, then choose which ones to equip before heading out for the night. Customize your home to your own style, and upgrade your vampire bed to reduce the hunger you lose while you sleep.

You go from a small shopkeeper to a hunter who’s learned to survive in the city’s darkness.”

The idea of running a perfume shop that is central to the goals of a vampiric protagonist excites me greatly. The dual elements of Pale Incense’s gameplay may be difficult to pull off effectively, but I’m excited that the developer is working at it anyway. Hopefully players of the demo can give plenty of (constructive) feedback to make the game the best it can be.