Codex Interview Talking to Bill about Bloodlust - A Vampire RPG

[DarkUnderlord]

Tags: Bloodlust

Did you ever play the Last Half of Darkness? It was a creepy DOS horror game made by William Fisher and now floats around various abandonware sites. William Fisher (Bill), the game's creator, has made several more games in the series since but now, he's trying something different - he's making a Vampire RPG called Bloodlust. With Bill's pedigree in horror and a seeming interest in making a decent game with choices and consequences, we decided to talk to him about it:
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;">3) Are you funding this game yourself? Have you made any other games apart from this, and if so how did they sell?
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Yes, this game is funded by myself. Prior to that, I have released 4 games in the Last Half of Darkness series (Point & Click Adventure style gameplay) - The point and click niche is fairly small and never sells as much as I like... but they all sell good enough.
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;">4) What is the story behind this game? How much of an impact does player actions have over the story, and what year is the game set in? (assuming it is set in Earth)
 
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;">The player was bitten and is resurrected as vampire fledgling at the start of the game - the story unfolds as the player grows in bloodline and his/her memories slowly come back (Oh no! Please not another amnesia premise? Yes... lol!)
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Apparently slight memory loss is a side effect of the resurrection process. But who resurrected you? Who has bitten you? How did you wake up in creepy ruins area? ... It all unfolds as the story progresses.
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<p style="padding-left: 30px;">I am planing on setting it up with choices and consequences for the player to decide throughout the story. Siding and helping certain clans affects certain storylines, quests, etc. and ultimately creates different outcomes, etc. The demo starts off in a ruins/graveyard area with strange creatures and then moves towards the gritty backstreets and alleys of New Orleans where you find more humans and clan members.
 
You can read the rest or visit the website and download a demo.

 

[RK47]

.........*licks his lips*

Been a long time since the last vampire game....Bloodlines. Sigh. It's a premise that not many developers take advantage of.

 

[Wyrmlord]

The interface on this game actually looks like on of proper RPGs - interface windows, functional buttons at the bottom, and statistical combat text displayed on screen.

BTW, what is a Zombie Vampire?

 

[NewFag]

The interface on this game actually looks like on of proper RPGs - interface windows, functional buttons at the bottom, and statistical combat text displayed on screen.

BTW, what is a Zombie Vampire?

Looks basically like Bloodline's nosferatu. Except without pointy ears.

 

[villain of the story]

lolwut :D

I haven't read the interview yet and the I like the screenshots but gameplay videos look uninspired to say the least. Gameplay looks like Diablo with a vampire twist.

There is also a playable demo on the web page.

Also, people still thinking eyes that glow red is somehow a good idea...

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Also, people still thinking eyes that glow red is somehow a good idea...

Well, it's certainly intimidating as all fuck.

 

[Breaking Axe]

I didn't really enjoy the demo, that is not to say the game isn't good for an indie, the atmosphere and style felt too much like a first-person Diablo dungeon crawler which isn't really my thing. I know this is just the starting area but combat felt too easy, it makes me concerned that the game proper could develop into a grindfest. I prefer a few, significantly difficult battles, where in each scrap I'm barely surviving with the skin of my teeth.

It's also very hard to distinguish doors from walls.

Lastly, I feel that the game would be significantly more improved if it were isometric and turn-based.

 

[nihil]

because your character is Saved automatically - there are no re-dos

That's the way to do it.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

because your character is Saved automatically - there are no re-dos

That's the way to do it.

 

[Katana]

The game appears primarily inspired by Bloodlines. There is also shapeshifting in it, where you can become a wolf or a bat.

 

[Davaris]

Good looking artwork in that game. Anyone know if Bill does it? The only thing that interests me these days is horror, I will give it a try.

 

[Roguey]

It's so weird seeing Morgoth not being a troll.

Seems crazy-ambitious but the voice acting, choppy animation and framerate, and Diablo-in-3D combat are large deterrents.

 

[Katana]

The combat is exactly as it was in Bloodlines. Another thing to consider is that the game is still a year or so away from release, so stuff like the choppiness etc will probably be smoothed over by then.

 

[villain of the story]

But will we still get crazy black hair?

 

[quasimodo]

Because the world needs one more ARPG.

 

[Excidium]

Never thought I'd see a bloodlines clone...

 

[WRF Studios]

Thanks everyone for taking a look...

Not to make excuses, or anything... lol, but the demo is still kind of rough - some of the quest dialog is just setup to be placemarkers until some real thought can be put into quests, etc...

Also... game difficulty may be considered a little too easy for veteran rpg players - I didn't want the demo to be too frustrating for new players - but the full game challenge should ramp up nicely.

Also... sorry if anyone is having low framerate - If you have a any dedicated 3D card installed it should play fine...(integrated video cards may not be fast enough) I always make sure to do some testing with each version on a 3 year old computer with literally the cheapest graphics card you could buy from 2 years ago and it seems to plays good enough.

Alot of references to Bloodlines - believe it or not I just purchased that game a couple of months ago (far into the intital development of this game) Figured I should check it out (for research) since it appears to be one of the few Vampire RPG games released... Haven't got out of Santa Monica yet.

If anyone has any suggestions on how to make the game a more enjoyable experience... please feel free to contact me.

Thanks
Bill

 

[Excidium]

If anyone has any suggestions on how to make the game a more enjoyable experience... please feel free to contact me.

Well, based on the demo, I suggest that if you're going to set your game in the modern world, don't design it like a traditional fantasy RPG.

 

[Wyrmlord]

Alot of references to Bloodlines - believe it or not I just purchased that game a couple of months ago (far into the intital development of this game) Figured I should check it out (for research) since it appears to be one of the few Vampire RPG games released... Haven't got out of Santa Monica yet.

This is...a surprise.

 

[Johnny the Mule]

The interface on this game actually looks like on of proper RPGs - interface windows, functional buttons at the bottom, and statistical combat text displayed on screen.

BTW, what is a Zombie Vampire?
http://www.lasthalfofdarkness.com/bloodlust/concept2.jpg[img][/quote]

Consult the Federal Vampire & Zombie Agency
[url=http://www.fvza.org/]http://www.fvza.org/[/url]

Better question is why the picture looks like a crappy Photoshop filter puked all over it.

WRF Studios, dude, get yourself Tesseras True Patch. You might learn a thing or two about big guns, red eyes and horrifyingly black hair.

 

[Mastermind]

Demo won't work for me.

Pity too, I really wanted to give it a try.

 

[Roguey]

The combat is exactly as it was in Bloodlines.

Not something anyone should be trying to copy in my opinion.

Also... sorry if anyone is having low framerate - If you have a any dedicated 3D card installed it should play fine...(integrated video cards may not be fast enough) I always make sure to do some testing with each version on a 3 year old computer with literally the cheapest graphics card you could buy from 2 years ago and it seems to plays good enough.

Oh I didn't play the demo, I'm just going by what I saw in the three videos you have on your site. Hope you're able to get all this working anyway.

 

[Grunker]

Looks good. Bloodlines is one of my all-time favourites, if it is that sort of style you're going for then fuck it, I'm in!

 

[WRF Studios]

Well, based on the demo, I suggest that if you're going to set your game in the modern world, don't design it like a traditional fantasy RPG.

- yes thanks for pointing that out... The demo probably does seem too fantasy-like without the city portions. (and the guns too) - maybe change the "scrolls of identify" to some sort of internet wikipedia link to identify un-indentified items ( don't know?)

Demo won't work for me.

There are 2 boxes at end of demo installation - They are checked "off" by default since most users dont need them ... but you may want to make sure to have these checked ON for you.

If it still doesnt work (and you have fairly new computer and somesort of 3D card installed) you may need to re-install DirectX 9.0c - check "demo download" area for link to microsoft's directx download link.

Even if you already have the newest version of directx already installed sometimes a reinstall seems to clear up any errors.

WRF Studios, dude, get yourself Tesseras True Patch. You might learn a thing or two about big guns, red eyes and horrifyingly black hair.

I will look into this. Thanks.

Oh I didn't play the demo, I'm just going by what I saw in the three videos you have on your site. Hope you're able to get all this working anyway.

Oh... ok cool... yeah It probably seemed a little choppier since I was using some frame-grabbing software in background while running game on a not so fast computer.(better clean that up, huh?)

 

[Excidium]

Well, based on the demo, I suggest that if you're going to set your game in the modern world, don't design it like a traditional fantasy RPG.

- yes thanks for pointing that out... The demo probably does seem too fantasy-like without the city portions. (and the guns too) - maybe change the "scrolls of identify" to some sort of internet wikipedia link to identify un-indentified items ( don't know?)

Yeah, the demo definitely feels very fantasy-like, it's basically a dungeon crawl.

But it isn't only that, I don't like the abundance of magical items and elixirs, the way items seem to work in your game reminds me of Diablo. I think in this sort of supernatural setting, magic items should be rare and special, not shoes of +dex + vit being dropped by random creatures. Check in bloodlines for instance, armor only improves your defences. Magical bonuses come through special artifacts, of which there are only a handful in the game.

Oh and another very minor thing, it would be nice to be able to close inventory, quest journal, etc using ESC.