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

[Duraframe300]

I've been trying to "track down" some of the Bloodlines dev team, see what they are up to nowadays.

Design, Dialog and Story

Brian Mitsoda -> Writer & Designer at DoubleBear Productions, since July 2009. (Also Additional Support)
Chad Moore -> Creative/Game Director at inXile Entertainment, since January 2019. (Also Lead Character Modeler and Additional Support)
TJ Perillo -> Principal Designer at Midwinter Entertainment, since November 2018. (Also Scripter and Additional Support)
Jason D. Anderson -> "The Help"* at Turtle Rock Studios, since January 2011. (Also Creative Director, Scripter and Level Building)
Leonard Boyarsky -> Co-Director at Obsidian Entertainment, since April 2016. (Also Project Lead, Concept Artist, Texture Artist and Additional Support)

* "I currently work at Turtle Rock Studios. One of the things I love about the company is that there are no titles, everyone are equals. So I don’t have a title."

Additional Design and Dialog

Stephen Bokkes -> Design Director at Rainbow Studios, since 2018.
Tiffany Chu -> Producer at Cryptic Studios, since August 2018.
David Webb -> Designer at ArenaNet, maybe not for long. (Also Additional Scripting)

If you want a full list (with titles):

Creative Director Jason D. Anderson -> Turtle Rock doing god knows what, initally went to Interplay on V13, then to InXile where he worked on a pre-Kickstarter version for Wasteland 2
Project Lead Leonard Boyarsky -> Obsidian, Project Director and Lead Writer on Outer Worlds - initially went to Blizzard on Diablo 3, does not have good memories of it and couldn't do the stuff he wanted to do
Lead Programmer Andrew Meggs -> went full MMO, first at Mythic on Warhammer, then Bethesda and now (well since 2011) at City State Entertainment as a Co-Founder and Technical Director (March of Oz, Camelot Unchained)
Programmers
Timothy Cain (General Knowledge)
Brock Heinz (also Lead Scripter), -> after a brief stint on NASCAR 2006 went to Obsidian for the Aliens RPG, now as with Anderson a lost soul at Turtle Rock.
Steven Moret, -> went to NCsoft, then Carbine and Glu Mobile, joined Obsidian 2 years ago so another ex-Troika Outer Worlds dev.
Jesse Reynolds -> went to Obsidian for NWN2, Aliens and AP, now at Carbine.
Steve Shimizu -> full Blizzard, worked on Ghost, Diablo 3 and Hearthstone. Now a technical director.
Dennis Taylor -> worked on Sopranos and Wildstar. Dunno where he is now.
Lead Scripter
Brock Heinz -> Ditto
Scripters
Marc Barber, Midway on TNA IMPACT!, then Monster High on DS? - dunno where he is now
Jocelyn Chew, -> worked at Pandemic! on Saboteur and Battlefront, after that at Infinity Ward on Call of Duty, all of this as a programmer
TJ Perillo, as mentioned now works at Midwinter (Scavengers), previously worked on Halo 4 and 5.
Steve Rhoades -> as with a lot of other Troikas went shortly to seven studios before working as an instructor at an art institute for 5 years, was a designer on Shadow of Morder before becoming Lead Designer on Shadow of War
Lead Animator Mark Bremerkamp -> Went to Obsidian where he was Lead Animator for New Vegas and Alpha Protocol. Afterwards went to Stardock for family reasons.
Lead Character Modeler Chad Moore -> as mentioned now at InXile. Worked on Spider Man 3 (WTF?) at Treyarch before becoming Lead Narrative designer on WildStar.
Animators
Nathan Brown, 7 studios then went to Pandemic before ending up at Naughty Dog in 2010. Animator on Uncharted and Last of Us since.
Long Nguyen, Treyarch, Carbine, Naughty Dog. Now at Obsidian also working on Outer Worlds.
Christine Thomas, -> don't know
Aaron Weldon -> went into film, last worked at Dreamworks on Zootopia
Concept Artists
Leonard Boyarsky, -> Ditto
Justin Cherry -> Fucking amazing artist, went to Obsidian as Art Director on Mask of the Betrayer, Storm of Zehir and Dungeon Siege III, now Art Director at Turtle Rock (the well)
Character Modelers
Jason Kane, -> Wolfenstein, Rage and Prey 2 (original), then went outside of gaming. Now designs interface and artwork for automotive cockpit electronics.
Craig Matchett -> EA and Lucas Arts, was Lead Charachter Artist on Outer Worlds at Obsidian for a year before moving on (start-up)
Modelers
Sean Keegan, -> pretty much immediatly went to Turtle Rock. Still there (AFAIK)
Bryan Bode -> Stranglehold and Fear 3. Now in movies
Texture Artists
Daniel Alpert, -> VERY shortly on Oblivion before joining Obsidian, Lead Charachter Artist on the NV DLC's as well as a charachter artist on multiple projects. Now Lead Artist on Outer Worlds.
Justin Cherry, -> Ditto
Leonard Boyarsky -> Ditto
Level Building
Jason D. Anderson, -> Ditto
Chris Ashton, -> Co-Founded Turtle Rock. Still there.
David Marsh, Midway on Gauntlet, -> Don't know
Jaime Sue, -> Turtle Rock
Bryan Warmack -> Supervillian studios after that dunno

And you did Story already.

Made in around 25 minutes from memory and very fast research. Please correct if necessary.

 

[imweasel]

Yep, Hardsuit labs spectacularly failed to fulfill diversity and gender quotas. The team should be at least 75% non-white, 50% female persons with vaginas and 50% homosexual.

You forgot the asexuals, pansexuals, transexuals, trans whites, trans coloreds and furries shitlord. REE.

Woops, yes I did. I also forgot the other 69+ genders. My bad.

 

[Space Nugget]

Jason D. Anderson -> Turtle Rock doing god knows what
Brock Heinz -> now as with Anderson a lost soul at Turtle Rock.
Justin Cherry -> now Art Director at Turtle Rock (the well)
Sean Keegan -> pretty much immediatly went to Turtle Rock. Still there (AFAIK)
Chris Ashton -> Co-Founded Turtle Rock. Still there.
Jaime Sue -> Turtle Rock

Made in around 25 minutes from memory and very fast research.

Oh, jeez! I really need to up my game.

 

[Infinitron]

Duraframe still has it.

 

[LESS T_T]

All that turtle rocks to make a free-to-play co-op FPS for Chinese publisher.

 

[Space Nugget]

All that turtle rocks to make a free-to-play co-op FPS for Chinese publisher.

• Some Vampire: The Masquerade devs went on to make a free-to-play FPS.

And if my suspicions are confirmed:

• Some free-to-play FPS devs went on to make a Vampire: The Masquerade game.

Huh...

 

[Space Nugget]

The email confirmed the date as well as time (announcement show at 20:00 PST/04:00 UTC) and location (Folsom Street Foundry). The location worked out to be a 15 minute walk from the last given location in the pastebins - 16th St Mission BART Station.

Source: https://wiki.gamedetectives.net/index.php?title=Tender#Invites

With that, I think there are no more open threads in the Tender ARG, though we didn't get to see the remaining Project Chimera leaked files.

(22 days to go)

 

[Duraframe300]

Jason D. Anderson -> Turtle Rock doing god knows what
Brock Heinz -> now as with Anderson a lost soul at Turtle Rock.
Justin Cherry -> now Art Director at Turtle Rock (the well)
Sean Keegan -> pretty much immediatly went to Turtle Rock. Still there (AFAIK)
Chris Ashton -> Co-Founded Turtle Rock. Still there.
Jaime Sue -> Turtle Rock

Made in around 25 minutes from memory and very fast research.

Oh, jeez! I really need to up my game.

Less a brag and more an admission that half that shit could be faulty or rushed. Tend to get things mixed up in my head.

 

[Jedi Exile]

Your guys talk about Bloodlines so much that I am tempted to play it again.

 

[Storyfag]

Your guys talk about Bloodlines so much that I am tempted to play it again.

It is only proper. After all, the Rule is:

"Whenever someone mentions Bloodlines, someone else shall replay it."

 

[Space Nugget]

Your guys talk about Bloodlines so much that I am tempted to play it again.

It is only proper. After all, the Rule is:

"Whenever someone mentions Bloodlines, someone else shall replay it."

 

[Twiglard]

There's a bunch of algorithms for creating lip sync data from the voiceover itself.

There is a tool for this for the Source engine too, but the main problem that I see is that this doesn't recognize the emotions in which the lines are spoken.

It's good news that the files keep Source's format in general, rather than inventing something from scratch entirely. That's easier to reverse-engineer.

Here's one–the voiceovers for "freeze!" and "stop right there!" are used for ghouls in Grout's mansion. [...]

[...] I thought I had fixed the former but somehow if NPCs don't find dedicated lines they fall back to others...

Would it work to provide all possible lines in that form for Grout's ghouls, except empty sound files? I guess you already tried that...

Having the occasion I have to mention that you've done an amazing service to the RPG community. And you're not even histrionic like Drog.

 

[Child of Malkav]

This game will suck. The talent, the people who created Vtmb aren't there anymore. They're gone, replaced by.....well those things with frog-rainbow hats.
Just because some guys that worked on Bloodlines happen to work on this, is not enough. They need the original team again period. Even Tim Cain(e) himself said in an interview (or was it Boyarsky? I don't know.) that creating a cult classic on purpose is impossible.
I want Vtmb 2 as well but I've seen too much of this industry to know better.

 

[Sukhāvatī]

 

[Space Nugget]

This game will suck. The talent, the people who created Vtmb aren't there anymore. They're gone, replaced by.....well those things with frog-rainbow hats.
Just because some guys that worked on Bloodlines happen to work on this, is not enough. They need the original team again period. Even Tim Cain(e) himself said in an interview (or was it Boyarsky? I don't know.) that creating a cult classic on purpose is impossible.
I want Vtmb 2 as well but I've seen too much of this industry to know better.

Will the game suck? Most probably. Too many odds against them.

If anyone is expecting a Bloodlines 2.0, they are setting themselves up to disappointment.

But here's the thing -- Hardsuit Labs could have chose any number of easy ways to procede:

1. a Blacklight: Retribuition sequel;
2. a MOBA-like Hero Shooter;
3. a Battle Royale Shooter;
4. a new free-to-play FPS, perhaps a quick-bucking Blacklight reskin;
5. just keep working on console ports and offering support to other studios, like Certain Affinity.

They've chosen what I can only describe as a "passion project" -- A Vampire: the Masquerade game (and everything, from job openings to CVs, points to it being a single-player RPG).

Is that enough for a game to be any good? Of course not.

Can we get something decent out of it? Yes. Let's take Fallout as an example: how many of the original team worked on Fallout: New Vegas?

Was Josh Sawyer on the original team? What about John Gonzalez? And Charles Staples? Chris Avellone, Travis Stout, Eric Fenstermaker...

One thing we know for certain: Hardsuit Labs is competent enough to not get their game cancelled early on. And if everything fails -- well, too bad.

The Schadenfreude is free.

 

[Wesp5]

It's good news that the files keep Source's format in general, rather than inventing something from scratch entirely. That's easier to reverse-engineer.

I never used that tool, but it seems the Russian coder who modified an old Valve SDK to made it work for Bloodlines did the same with their lip editor.

Would it work to provide all possible lines in that form for Grout's ghouls, except empty sound files? I guess you already tried that...

Yes, I already tried that and thought the issue was gone. Maybe I overlooked some! Are you playing the latest patch 10.3 rc 1?

 

[Child of Malkav]

This game will suck. The talent, the people who created Vtmb aren't there anymore. They're gone, replaced by.....well those things with frog-rainbow hats.
Just because some guys that worked on Bloodlines happen to work on this, is not enough. They need the original team again period. Even Tim Cain(e) himself said in an interview (or was it Boyarsky? I don't know.) that creating a cult classic on purpose is impossible.
I want Vtmb 2 as well but I've seen too much of this industry to know better.

Will the game suck? Most probably. Too many odds against them.

If anyone is expecting a Bloodlines 2.0, they are setting themselves up to disappointment.

But here's the thing -- Hardsuit Labs could have chose any number of easy ways to procede:

1. a Blacklight: Retribuition sequel;
2. a MOBA-like Hero Shooter;
3. a Battle Royale Shooter;
4. a new free-to-play FPS, perhaps a quick-bucking Blacklight reskin;
5. just keep working on console ports and offering support to other studios, like Certain Affinity.

They've chosen what I can only describe as a "passion project" -- A Vampire: the Masquerade game (and everything, from job openings to CVs, points to it being a single-player RPG).

Is that enough for a game to be any good? Of course not.

Can we get something decent out of it? Yes. Let's take Fallout as an example: how many of the original team worked on Fallout: New Vegas?

Was Josh Sawyer on the original team? What about John Gonzalez? And Charles Staples? Chris Avellone, Travis Stout, Eric Fenstermaker...

One thing we know for certain: Hardsuit Labs is competent enough to not get their game cancelled early on. And if everything fails -- well, too bad.

The Schadenfreude is free.

We'll see when the title drops. If they're dumb enough to call it Vtmb 2, well then I promise you I'm gonna have some expectations from it. Setting up for disappointment is not gonna be an option. You don't pick a name without at least doing your best to make sure you live up to it. What if some company announced Arcanum 2 or Wizardry 9, 10, Icewind Dale 3, 4, etc.? You'd have some expectations from it wouldn't you?

 

[Lacrymas]

If they name it VtMB2, you must have even lower expectations. As in, "prepare yourself for desecration, blasphemy and rape" levels of low expectations.

 

[Cael]

If they name it VtMB2, you must have even lower expectations. As in, "prepare yourself for desecration, blasphemy and rape" levels of low expectations.

The level of butthurt from fanbois would break the Schadenfreude meter.

 

[Space Nugget]

We'll see when the title drops. If they're dumb enough to call it Vtmb 2, well then I promise you I'm gonna have some expectations from it. Setting up for disappointment is not gonna be an option. You don't pick a name without at least doing your best to make sure you live up to it. What if some company announced Arcanum 2 or Wizardry 9, 10, Icewind Dale 3, 4, etc.? You'd have some expectations from it wouldn't you?

Sounds fair.

 

[Space Nugget]

 

[Roguey]

Well as reported back in 2016 https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.p...by-white-wolf-publishing.108654/#post-4522214

Technically not "Bloodlines 2."

 

[Tao]

Your guys talk about Bloodlines so much that I am tempted to play it again.

I'm already replaying redemption :S

 

[Space Nugget]

Well as reported back in 2016 https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.p...by-white-wolf-publishing.108654/#post-4522214

Technically not "Bloodlines 2."

Also this: https://www.pcgamesn.com/vampire-the-masquerade-bloodlines-2

Wester also suggests it’s unlikely that a new Vampire game would be Bloodlines 2, but that it could be “something Vampire RPG.”

 

[Space Nugget]

Also this: https://www.pcgamesn.com/vampire-the-masquerade-bloodlines-2

Wester also suggests it’s unlikely that a new Vampire game would be Bloodlines 2, but that it could be “something Vampire RPG.”

If any of you are wondering why the then CEO of Paradox Interactive sounds rather... "clueless" in his interviews:

Wester stresses that White Wolf are “very much independent from Paradox. They have their own team, their own CEO, and they pretty much run the business. And we have a lot of contact, but we’re not stepping on each other’s toes.

“The deal with Focus, I just heard about. They were like ‘we’re making a deal with focus, and it’s an RPG, and it’s a Werewolf game,’ and I knew just two weeks before the announcement. I don’t even know what it’s about. Sounds a bit sloppy, but I have full confidence in the White Wolf team that they’re going to deliver the right stuff.”

Source: https://www.pcgamesn.com/vampire-the-masquerade-bloodlines/vampire-the-masquerade-bloodlines-sequel