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

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Someone said it's Splash damage, guys who also made Arkham Origins.

I'm not sure they relate to Paradox in any way, though?
Is this a rumor started from some specific source or just a random guess some people made?

 

[fantadomat]

Well paracucks pulled the plug on shit ton of games. Going back to the roots of spamming DLC and releasing empty games.

 

[Roguey]

Are there any examples of other modern games of similar scope coming out alright despite changing developers during production?

Prey, though Arkane threw out everything Human Head did.

 

[GhostCow]

I struggle to even imagine a scenario where this comes out and turns out to be something vaguely competent at this point.

I dunno, I think it has much more hope now than it did with Hardsuit. Hopefully the new devs will delete 99% of the writing and we won't get a pozfest. That's really the bare minimum it would take to make me happy at this point.

 

[agris]

I think the Zeits' studio thread had some speculation its VTMB2 based on some recent hires/departures.

 

[Thonius]

Sunken something... cost...

 

[Fedora Master]

Oh god just let it rest in peace

 

[fantadomat]

Oh god just let it rest in peace

Fampyr don't die that easelly!

 

[Roguey]

I think the Zeits' studio thread had some speculation its VTMB2 based on some recent hires/departures.

"'a very reputable and talented developer' who has made a number of different games before" wouldn't describe Digimancy and there's no way a team that small would get something like Bloodlines 2. That's also an argument against Harebrained who are also pretty small (not to mention that their current job openings request people experienced with Unity, no mention at all of Unreal).

 

[agris]

I stand corrected!

 

[Wunderbar]

"'a very reputable and talented developer' who has made a number of different games before" - sounds like a mobile dev.

 

[Semiurge]

Damnit, why can't it be CDPR? They're cheaper now, after Soypunk.

 

[Lambach]

I'm really struggling to think of a single even relatively well-known studio in Anno Domini 2021 that could pull off a decent sequel to Bloodlines. And I'm not talking about just the lack of poz, but recreating the writing and the atmosphere. A studio with George Zeits in his prime could probably pull it off, but we've all seen how mediocre and lackluster the output is coming from all the veterans in recent years.

It's a shitty decision by Paradox to give this to a "very reputable developer" instead of giving it to a crew of fresh, hungry guys. You already blew all the good will you had with everyone except Jenkem and were half a cunt's hair away from shutting the whole thing down anyway, so what's the worst that can happen?

 

[fantadomat]

I'm really struggling to think of a single even relatively well-known studio in Anno Domini 2021 that could pull off a decent sequel to Bloodlines. And I'm not talking about just the lack of poz, but recreating the writing and the atmosphere. A studio with George Zeits in his prime could probably pull it off, but we've all seen how mediocre and lackluster the output is coming from all the veterans in recent years.

It's a shitty decision by Paradox to give this to a "very reputable developer" instead of giving it to a crew of fresh, hungry guys. You already blew all the good will you had with everyone except Jenkem and were half a cunt's hair away from shutting the whole thing down anyway, so what's the worst that can happen?

Hmmmm spiders...

 

[Lambach]

Hmmmm spiders...

Unless they have shown massive improvement in the writing department in Greedfall compared to Technomancer.... no. Unlike with Bloodlines, I pretty much forgot almost everything about each and every character in the game not even 24 hours after I beat Technomancer.

 

[jackofshadows]

How close have you been to shutting down the game, or has it become too big not to continue?

"When we lifted the game from the original developer, we had a long review in case we should end the game or run it further. Then we were actually prepared to close the production completely. But we got a 'pitch' that we thought was convincing enough to run. played on and we have very good hopes that it will be a good game that meets the players' expectations ", says Fredrik Wester.

"Great" fucking call.

 

[Gargaune]

"Great" fucking call.

PR aside, it's not much of a call, Paradox wouldn't be able to hold off on making a Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines 2: Many: Colons for too long, it's the flagship property in their White Wolf acquisition. How do you explain to your shareholders why you're not leveraging your most marketable new license? Whether it'll be the same project started under Hardsuit or something the fans will even want is another matter. For those of us who aren't fans, the forecast still reads cloudy with a high chance of popcorn.

 

[PlacidDragon]

"Great" fucking call.

hehe, yeah... what i hear when he says "we got a pitch that we thought was convincing enough to run...", is "We can get this done pretty damn cheaply, and maybe recoup some of the cost we sunk into it" (which doesn't sound promising in regards to quality).

Also, a "reputable and talented developer" is basically a label you could put on anyone that hasn't made a big game and hasn't made a gigantic dud. It could be a semi indie studio specializing in console ports, hehe

ah well.. time will tell i guess.

 

[PlacidDragon]

"Great" fucking call.

Whether it'll be the same project started under Hardsuit or something the fans will even want is another matter. For those of us who aren't fans, the forecast still reads cloudy with a high chance of popcorn.

I cannot imagine they'll be able to use much of the original code. Hardsuit had coded in the Unreal Engine for 20 years, and they couldn't get it to work properly. If the new company stays with the Unreal engine, you could save all the art assets, etc, but if there are changes to the story, location, etc etc.. its probably easier to start from scratch with your own "code language" (then again, i am not a dev, what do i know).

 

[Gargaune]

I cannot imagine they'll be able to use much of the original code. Hardsuit had coded in the Unreal Engine for 20 years, and they couldn't get it to work properly. If the new company stays with the Unreal engine, you could save all the art assets, etc, but if there are changes to the story, location, etc etc.. its probably easier to start from scratch with your own "code language" (then again, i am not a dev, what do i know).

Couldn't say without a lot more info on what's going on over there, but I doubt Hardsuit's problems were with the engine, my impression was that they couldn't manage design for the genre. Taking over someone else's codebase is always a logistical pain in the ass, but the situation can potentially warrant it. Unless you're taking over from that one Ukrainian developer who wrote all their comments in Cyrillic, was it GSC?

 

[Jarpie]

No one has mentioned the obvious choice... Beamdog!

Imagine the possibilites, VtMB with Siege of Derpspear writing!

 

[Anthedon]

The whole dead/undead state of this game is very fitting considering the subject matter. But I worry that the end result will look more like a zombie than a vampire.

 

[Duraframe300]

It is my honour to introduce you all to the new developer of Bloodlines.....

KO_OP

Introducing and featuring for the first time the clan of the Belunie. Fully vegan vampx* that have discovered their true selfs as werewolves, humans and broccoli. Watch as they fight back against the injustices of vampire bigots who misgender their actual characteristics as creatures of the night and have tons of sweaty, disgusting lovely sex.

Remember: Bloodsucking is just a social construct!

 

[Wesp5]

Couldn't say without a lot more info on what's going on over there, but I doubt Hardsuit's problems were with the engine, my impression was that they couldn't manage design for the genre.

I agree with that, the maps that I have seen and that were shown in the demo looked good enough for an Unreal 4 engine game. I suspect some of the design decisions were not working in the end, like the emphasis on melee with weapons that would break or firearms that you would throw away if they were empty. Or the three different ways of traversal disciplines around which the map designers needed to build all maps. Which they just couldn't realistically so mid-development it was announced that all players would be able to use all three ways which of course made the thinbloods even more powerful which kind of went against the whole idea to start with a low level character. I hope they can keep Mitsoda's story and will just bring the gameplay closer to Bloodlines 1, maybe with more satisfying combat...

 

[Vincente]

It's a shitty decision by Paradox to give this to a "very reputable developer" instead of giving it to a crew of fresh, hungry guys.

Like Hardsuit?