Welcome, Kindred, to this Bloodlines 2 Dev Diary from the team at The Chinese Room. Tonight’s diary is about hunting and feeding, both in combat scenarios and the more social setting of Seattle. Feeding is at the heart of the game loop and fantasy of being a vampire so if you faint at the sight of blood, read no further.

- Project Creative Director, Alex Skidmore

Feeding is a really important part of the vampire fantasy, and so from a gameplay perspective, we were set on making it a fundamental part of the player’s actions and strategies. You’ll be doing a lot of it - Phyre’s a little-and-often kinda drinker; that helps keep the beast in check- plus it’s your main source of healing, and critical to using your powerful discipline abilities. A lot of incentive for us to make it feel good!

Your main concern will be your surroundings - getting spotted feeding on the streets is a blatant Masquerade violation, and more violent types won’t be content to let you feed on their friends unscathed, so you’ll want to isolate your targets. Feeding in the swing of combat is risky, but not impossible - if you’re mindful of which direction you start a feed from, for example, your victim can help soak up a lot of gunfire for you!

One aspect that was really challenging was presentation, from a first-person perspective. Feeding in first person doesn’t really show you much at best, and looks silly at worst, but a simple cut in and out of third-person can also be disorienting and feels a bit disconnected. What we settled on uses a bit of both, with some basic cinematic action cutting techniques to maintain continuity of motion, and enough first-person action at the end to get you settled into your next move. It’s subtle, but I think it goes a long way in helping the flow of the game in hectic situations!

- Senior Game Designer, Max Bottomley

Blood Resonance Events
Not only is Seattle brought to life with people going about their own business, including NPCs reacting to the player (perhaps even running away in terror!) it’s also a place where the player can hunt!

As you move around the city, you’ll be able to track and hunt NPCs that have the potential to become fully resonated with a specific type of blood to feed on. Track these NPCs down using Heightened Senses and knowledge of the city, then use charm, fear, or anger to convince and bend them to your will.

Very early on we wanted these events to feel like something players would want to go and investigate as they pop up around the city, I like to refer to these events as vampire candy for players to track, follow, and feed on! Social Feeding is a key part of the players' time in our Seattle, and revolves around influencing the NPCs in certain ways - maybe you’ll stumble upon someone angry that the ATM has stolen their card and you can take that anger and feed on it. Maybe someone’s scared after missing the last bus home, and chasing them down a dark alley will tip them into terror and give you the Social Feed you’re craving.

It’s been great working on a system where the NPCs display very raw emotion letting the player really lean into the vampire fantasy allowing them to interact with the denizens of Seattle in a number of different ways. You can use abilities, conversations, or just plain terrify them then reap the rewards with a careful feed.

We wanted to give players the freedom to hunt the way they want but it was also important that players need to be mindful of how and where they feed to avoid breaking the Masquerade! Social Feeding is a slower process so it's best to lure victims to secluded areas.

Explaining to animators that I want an animation of someone cowering like a shocked actor from a 1950s horror movie then watching those animations come to life… Chef’s Kiss!

It's been really great to just sit and think, wouldn’t it be great if Phyre is approached by a mugger and threatened… only to have them turn and flee in fear once they realise what Phyre is! I’m really looking forward to seeing how players choose to tackle the hunt and feed within the city area itself.

- Project Lead Game Designer, Gavin Hood

Don’t miss the next DD where we sink our teeth deeper into the intricacies of Blood Resonance!​