Pantaloon tends to partner with developers of older, often overlooked games. For January we’ve partnered with Little Bat Games on a title that released just last Summer, with new DLC just around the corner. Vampire Therapist is a critically renowned visual novel that taps into real world therapy concepts, tapping into some weighty subject matter along the way.

We found some time with Little Bat Game’s Managing Director and general creative force, Cyrus Nemati, chatting about the concepts the game is grounded in, Little Bat Games particular flavour of vampire, and the upcoming DLC.

Enjoy x

Talk me through the inception of Little Bat Games. What were you doing before this, and was running your own indie studio always the plan?

Before starting Little Bat Games, I was working as a writer and a voice actor in video games for various studios. I never planned on running my own studio, honestly—it seemed like a bad idea, but I stuck around the industry long enough to know that it's full of bad ideas, so I thought I'd give myself the opportunity to realize my own! Thankfully, the funding environment in Germany is pretty good. I'm still heavily invested, but I haven't had to sell my plasma to get Little Bat Games up and running.

Tell me how Vampire Therapist entered the equation, and where the seeds for the game were first planted?

It was a water cooler conversation I had at my last studio. We were having a discussion about what vampires actually do, and the answer we came up with was "not much." Killing people and wearing sexy clothing is a little disappointing as a way to occupy oneself for all eternity.

There's a scene in Twilight (the film) where the vampire love interest Edward (around 120 years old if I recall) starts to play the piano, and we're supposed to be impressed because he's had decades of practice but looks to be in his early 20s. The music he plays is not actually impressive to a musician, but then I thought, why should he be good at the piano just because he's had a long time to practice? "Should Statements" are one of the first mental distortions you learn about in Vampire Therapist — but who defines what we "should" do? Often, they are self-imposed rules derived from our parents or from society, but they may not actually be what we "should" do. That was a great jumping off point to address other mental distortions that an immortal being might face.

What was your approach to the design of the game? Was there a very defined narrative that the rest of the game was crafted around, or were you more steered by character exploration or a theme?

I just started making the game, really. I experimented with simple branching choices as a mechanic, as one would expect in a visual novel, but it felt like I was just lecturing the audience, which isn't what I wanted. The narrative, however, was very much determined by character. I think my writing process is a little unusual in that I start with a punchline and work backward. What would be funny or interesting, and how do I get there? I thought, "what if vampires could drink blood consensually because they drank from goth necks", and Immernacht, the goth club the game is set in, was born. I thought, "what if a patron from the Renaissance could see a Transformers-esque blockbuster of today", and Isabella d'Este was born.

Once the characters are well-defined, then writing their stories becomes a study of insecurity. That's the core of my writing, earned from working in the Washington, DC political sphere. Resolving that insecurity is where my plots are derived.

Vampires are interesting due to the various stamps that different authors or studios might put on the well established archetype. What defines Little Bat Games' vampires in terms of traits and tropes?

Our vampires are a parody of vampires. I've always believed that parody is the best form of flattery, and requires deep knowledge of form. So our vampires aren't just sexy, they're stupid sexy. I pushed it far, which has certainly been noted, but it's done with sincere questioning of why and how vampires are sexy, and there's nothing funnier than taking the absurd seriously. We also lean heavily on history and the immortal aspect of vampires. Here in 2025, we can be a little incredulous that people think differently from us, but perspectives evolve, and vampires are an amazing vehicle to look at societal advancement. It's not just that they're immortal, but they're human as well, meaning they are susceptible to the social mores and prejudices of their time, and must evolve.

I've also tried to be a little bit scientific about what being undead is and how it works. There's plenty of handwaving, for sure, but I had some hard rules about why vampires need to drink blood from others (they don't oxygenate blood), how blood powers their bodies, and where it doesn't. For instance, Vampire Therapist vampires don't digest food at all, meaning it comes out in the same form it came in. They shouldn't eat tortilla chips.

The game has a fantastic cast and roster of voice talent. Tell me a little bit about how you approached the casting here, and how VO has been used to elevate the game?

Voice acting is my background! I've been making recordings since I was 6 years old, and have studied vocal technique ever since then. It's my special skill, and all of the writing of the game was written for performance as a result. I like to "hear" the characters before I ever write them, because the writing becomes a lot easier then. It also makes casting unusual, because I already have actors in mind as I'm writing. I don't hold open auditions, because I know who is going to play the characters already. In the case of Vampire Therapist I was lucky enough that every single actor I wanted was interested in the project. Matthew Mercer was a bit of a hail mary, but he's talented enough to handle anything I might throw at him. Poor guy had to be coached through German during our recording session!

Vampire Therapist delves into subject matter that needs to be handled deftly. What was your approach to the treatment of the themes of therapy and CBT that are at the heart of the game?

Good question. I was very keen to ensure that Vampire Therapist didn't come off too preachy, didactic, or dismissive. The cure for that potential illness was Sam Walls, the main character of the game. He's a Wild West cowboy vampire who's done some awful things, made peace with them, and come out on the other side, but he's not a "book smarts" kinda fella. He leads with compassion first, and compassion is the concept that ensures we're looking at every client kindly.

My consulting therapist was along for the whole ride, ensuring that our definitions were clear and that every choice presented to the player made sense. It was really a privilege to work with both therapists and historians on this thing, and I hope I can continue to work with academics.

The Couples Therapy DLC is due for release next month -- what does the update bring to the table, and what additional themes were you looking to explore here?

It's a pretty ambitious update considering our very low budget! Not only will players help two clients at the same time, but we've got a whole side mystery involving Johann Sebastian Bach (our goth club is set in Leipzig, where Bach did most of his work). Thematically, we're hitting extremely hard as well, as our clients both died in historical revolutions (France and Iran). We're delving into why revolutions happen, what happens afterward, and what can we actually expect from them as individuals.

And then, of course, there is the question of who is washing the dishes. Really heavy stuff.

What else has interested you in the indie space recently? Are there any games that have blown you away in the VN or narrative department?

I haven't been playing many games lately thanks to becoming a developer myself! It seems to happen with any profession. But this year, I spared time for two games I was very happy with. One visual novel is Pro Philosopher 2: Governments and Grievances. It's very similar to Vampire Therapist, but you're using philosophical constructs as your arguments with different philosophers. I know, it's very dorky, but I think in this world of 2025, it might benefit us all to have a better sense of what makes a good government. The other game that really grabbed me was Lil' Guardsman, for sheer bold zaniness. Every character is immediately memorable, which is definitely my thing. More often I've been going back to the classics — I started playing Ultima Underworld and dang, they did environmental storytelling to an incredible degree back when the environments were technologically far from where they are now!

What does the future look like for Little Bat Games? Any little tidbits you can share around the next project and how it might differ from VT?

We've got something very exciting in store that I hope we can reveal in the next few months. It will lean on our pedigree of strong characters, historical inspiration, research, and top-tier voice acting, but we're doing something very different in terms of gameplay. I'm calling it a narrative stealth game. We're in early pre-production but I should be making some prototypes soon. I'm excited to play it myself and see how it feels!

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Vampire Therapist: The Interview