World of Darkness Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 from Hardsuit Labs

[HansDampf]

Does it matter at this point?

 

[Wesp5]

Audio director != composer.

Yes, but I think Rik was both on Bloodlines and most people assume he, and his company Womb Music, did the same for Bloodlines 2.

 

[Fedora Master]

Imho Paradox should scrap this shit and do a grand strategy game about vampires set in the world of darkness.

The first GSG where ruler mana actually makes sense.

 

[Eli_Havelock]

Even the "Community Ambassador" bailed from the fiery HSL/PDX honkshow.

What is that job title at Paradox? Is that like Forum Moderator 2.0? It's not like they had any info to give to the community, as the community had to hunt for it elsewhere.

But now they have a Real Job™!

 

[Twiglard]

Imho Paradox should scrap this shit and do a grand strategy game about vampires set in the world of darkness.

As in a mix between Total War, NWN2, and CK2? On face value this isn't the worst idea in the world.

 

[Feargus Jewhart]

It might be even worse! Somebody on Planet Vampire discovered that HSL is looking for a new Audio Director. A job presumely filled until now by Rik Schaffer and his wife from Bloodlines 1 fame. Are they gone now too?

https://careers.hardsuitlabs.com/jobs/989831-audio-director

They also lack a lead producer and a lead game designer.

 

[Flying Dutchman]

A Lead Game Designer?

That... that can't be for Bloodlines 2. It can't be. Right?

 

[CyberModuled]

A Lead Game Designer?

That... that can't be for Bloodlines 2. It can't be. Right?

It seems it's just very general for the entire game studio https://careers.hardsuitlabs.com/jobs

On the other hand, given Bloodlines 2 IS the only game they're working on as far as we know, uh...

 

[Roguey]

Yeah that's Bloodlines 2

https://careers.hardsuitlabs.com/jobs/978972-lead-game-designer

Previous experience owning, prototyping, iterating on, and implementing and balancing player progression systems on RPG titles is preferred.
...
Own game economies, cash/loot, and player XP systems from concept to release.
...
Experience owning, iterating, and tuning game economies, cash/loot, XP, and similar resources.
...
Understanding of AAA and RPG game development pipelines.
Deep understanding of player psychology and game economics.
Strong knowledge of Blueprints scripting and UE4.

After making such a mess with Bloodlines 2, no way Paradox would trust them to make another RPG before the first one's even out.

 

[Eli_Havelock]

You could ask, but you'd get one of their absolutely professional Community Ambassador replies:

"Disclosing when we're going to disclose information isn't something that I'd do as then it's just disclosing dates all the way down, heh. Aside from that, there's no new information I can give you. Like legit, there's nothing I can tell you right now or we'd be telling you it, heh."

Can't imagine why this drama masquerading as gamedev is a complete PR dumpster fire when the people responsible for getting information for the community is trying a bad poker bluff in text.

 

[Aeschylus]

According to my shady gaming-industry contacts, someone working at Paradox recently reported this game as being 'Barely a 7/10', which I'll file under the least surprising revelations of the year.

 

[Child of Malkav]

So, all in all, this truly is Vtmb. They got even the development hell right.

 

[Roguey]

According to my shady gaming-industry contacts, someone working at Paradox recently reported this game as being 'Barely a 7/10', which I'll file under the least surprising revelations of the year.

Seems much too generous unless we're talking a 7-10 scale.

 

[Aeschylus]

According to my shady gaming-industry contacts, someone working at Paradox recently reported this game as being 'Barely a 7/10', which I'll file under the least surprising revelations of the year.

Seems much too generous unless we're talking a 7-10 scale.

I think we're talking video-game-reviewer scale, so maybe 6-10.

 

[udm]

You could ask, but you'd get one of their absolutely professional Community Ambassador replies:

"Disclosing when we're going to disclose information isn't something that I'd do as then it's just disclosing dates all the way down, heh. Aside from that, there's no new information I can give you. Like legit, there's nothing I can tell you right now or we'd be telling you it, heh."

Can't imagine why this drama masquerading as gamedev is a complete PR dumpster fire when the people responsible for getting information for the community is trying a bad poker bluff in text.

Maybe that's the real masquerade here.

So, all in all, this truly is Vtmb. They got even the development hell right.

You wish! At least the previous team had a number of competent people who were good at their jobs. Here, these sorry excuses for human beings are probably still figuring out many genders should be in the game.

 

[Caim]

According to my shady gaming-industry contacts, someone working at Paradox recently reported this game as being 'Barely a 7/10', which I'll file under the least surprising revelations of the year.

Is this person a man or a woman? That can really change the meaning.

 

[Jenkem]

The game is still coming along nicely, expect a trailer at The Game Awards with Geoff Keighley!

 

[d1r]

The game is still coming along nicely, expect a trailer at The Game Awards with Geoff Keighley!

Was that a threat?

 

[Caim]

The game is still coming along nicely, expect a trailer at The Game Awards with Geoff Keighley!

Was that a threat?

Given that Geoff is the dorito pope, I think that it's evangelism.

 

[Wesp5]

So, all in all, this truly is Vtmb. They got even the development hell right.

Reading about the bugs in Cyberpunk 2077, I think we have another development successor right there too !

 

[Infinitron]

Development hell lulz aside, it's actually good news if this game is delayed to late 2021. That's a massive delay and it means Paradox are committed to the game, not just trying to polish and throw it out the window.

And as I've said that makes sense, because Paradox own the World of Darkness IP and they should have a strong interest in not fucking up their first in-house WoD game.

 

[Nano]

Development hell lulz aside, it's actually good news if this game is delayed to late 2021. That's a massive delay and it means Paradox are committed to the game, not just trying to polish and throw it out the window.

A delay gives them more time to remove Mitsoda's work, you know.

 

[Archibald]

Development hell lulz aside, it's actually good news if this game is delayed to late 2021. That's a massive delay and it means Paradox are committed to the game, not just trying to polish and throw it out the window.

And as I've said that makes sense, because Paradox own the World of Darkness IP and they should have a strong interest in not fucking up their first in-house WoD game.

Then there is a question of throwing good money after bad. Maybe they should just take an L and rethink their plans, because I see no reason to believe that another year of development would fundamentally change anything.

 

[Eli_Havelock]

Development hell lulz aside, it's actually good news if this game is delayed to late 2021. That's a massive delay and it means Paradox are committed to the game, not just trying to polish and throw it out the window.

And as I've said that makes sense, because Paradox own the World of Darkness IP and they should have a strong interest in not fucking up their first in-house WoD game.

Sure, just like Duke Nukem Forever and Daikatana, and a bit of Bloodlines' own history, the only difference is that those had experienced professionals working on them.

A developer can try to polish a turd all they want, but if they don't have the ability then they've basically become the high-budget version of the ubiquitous Kickstarter newbie developers crowdsourcing their education of game design. That is what we're looking at with Hardsuit and we're going to have to lie to ourselves to pretend it's going to get any better: BL2/HDX are already known as a trainwreck and HSL/PDX have been shooting blind since day one.

The hiring pool is going to be slim pickings if they expect their hires to be pure enough but also talented enough to fit the big boy boots and do the job. Since the inclusivity inquisition is thriving in their offices they're going to have to scrape harder than ATLAS (the game, not the company) "Senior" Game Designer Erik Waananen doing the same for Bloodlines 2. From an intern on GW2: Heart of Thorns to Senior Game Designer, quite the promotion!

 

[Roguey]

Yeah, "If we'll just keep spending money on it, it'll turn out fine!" isn't going to work. They don't know what they're doing and the people willing to sign up for their low-pay-and-high-turnover company won't know either. Scrap Bloodlines, give Harebrained Schemes a V:TM project.