The player character has been sent to defeat the vampire Count Dracula by the local Transylvanian villagers, and must obtain and use items from around the vampire's castle in order to defeat him. Players move from location to location, picking up any objects found and using them somewhere else to solve puzzles. The interface is text-based, commands took the form of verb and noun, e.g. "Climb Tree". Movement from location to location was limited to North, South, East, West, Up and Down.

The game differs from earlier Scott Adams adventures due to the use of time. Set over three days, certain problems needed to be solved on particular days, and events would happen at particular times on certain days. The protagonist also had to avoid being attacked on the first two nights to finish the game.