Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 News

Hello everyone!

Up next, our last faction release, The Unseen. For as long as there has been a Seattle, there have been some that didn’t suit the Pioneers’ vision of a place made of art as much as brick, glass and iron. The misshapen members of clan Nosferatu never had a chance to fit in. They were encouraged to stay out of sight: In the outskirts, the shadows and - as the city grew - its Underground.

“THERE IS ALWAYS TIME.” - The Council of Three

For more than a century, the Unseen have been led by the Council of Three - or "The Speakers" to the Nosferatu. These resourceful Kindred helped their people survive among the homeless and loners of the city. While the rest of Seattle’s vampires took pains to ignore them, these Unseen grew into a faction, began trading secrets… And grudges.

Today, the Council has left much of the Nosferatu’s operation to younger vampires more adept at gathering intel in modern nights. Where the Unseen used to be composed of thieves, frauds and homeless, they now also include journalists, engineers and hackers. While the older Nosferatu are used to an existence of survival, the younger ones have begun to look for ways of making a mark on their city.

The Unseen have been here for a long time, and they see everything. They’d be a potent ally to the vampires of any other of Seattle’s factions - if they can be found.


No other faction of vampires in Seattle looks out for their own like the Nosferatu. What else can you do, if nobody else will even look at you?


It’s amazing what the Nosferatu’s peculiar skills and a few decades of being ignored will unearth, if your home happens to be one of the tech hubs of the world. The Unseen know what you did, why you’re trying to hide it - and who’ll pay to find out.


Seattle has been a city of drifters, transients and homeless for almost as long as it has existed. By and large, people just look the other way. The Unseen walk among these unfortunates, hidden in plain sight to vampire and human alike.

If you are Igromir this week, don't be shy and come find us Hall 3, booth F10, to participate in the many fun activities we have in store!





We promise they don't bite....

Hello everyone!

Up next, our fourth of five revealed Factions of Seattle, The Newcomers. The Tremere have been historically kept out of Seattle - until Prince Cross suddenly allowed them access to the University District territory. There’s endless speculation about where in Europe these Newcomers might hail from and why the Prince decided to take them in now.

The Newcomers

"I realize that there are many in Seattle who will disparage you from associating with us. We're a threat to their stability - the inevitable pressure that changes the way the city's blood flows."
-Elif Parmak, right hand of Viktor Goga

The Faction’s charismatic leader, “Professor” Viktor Goga offers any vampire who would join him safe access to blood in one of the city’s richest hunting grounds, a spot in a rapidly progressing organization - and a promise of something greater. After all, it’s said that clan Tremere knows more about the true potential of Kindred blood than any other.

The Newcomers’ ranks have swollen with occultists, scholars, college students, runaways, and more than a few defectors from the other factions. Already, the Baron views the Tremere’s operation as his most dangerous competition.

Though conflict is on the horizon, the Tremere’s star keeps rising. Alluring, confident, visionary; they offer opportunity and risk in equal measure.





Founded by blood mages, recruiting from and hunting in the University, the Newcomers are easily Seattle’s most learned Kindred faction. Those with talent can rise to the top quickly.




Vienna lies shattered; Tremere across the globe are on the run. Still, there are whispers of the secrets and connections the Newcomers can call upon. Likely, not even Prince Cross himself can tell every rumor from truth. Either way, the Tremere's abilities generate a healthy fear in the Kindred community.




Nobody seems to know quite what led the warlocks to make the journey from Europe to the far edge of America. Given the Camarilla's generosity, it's likely they paid a high price to enter the city. What that price was, no one's quite sure.

Hello everyone!

Up next, our third of five revealed Factions of Seattle, The Baron. No matter who you are, no matter what you did, no matter who you’re running from; the Baron has a job for you. Promotion and power comes quickly in his organization - if you can stomach the work.

“You’re in the game now son. Ever since the night you got bit. That’s just how it is now.” - Josephine, lieutenant of the Baron


It’s hard to know just how many vampires swear allegiance to The Baron of Aurora. In parts, that’s because very few of Seattle’s Kindred have actually met him. Acting through his lieutenants, he has taken in the city’s destitute, defiant and desperate, turning them into a ruthlessly disciplined force with hands in every shady deal.

It’s said that every Kindred faction had to turn to the Baron at one time or another to carry out some unsavory business. This has turned him into one of the best-insured and simultaneously most dangerous vampires in the Emerald City. Where a less prudent man might turn such capital into a bid for Princedom, he has so far been content to stay in the back-alleys of his turf, hoard favors, and brutally defend his business interests.

Other Kindred often sneer at the Baron’s operation, which employs humans, ghouls, Thinbloods and vampires; thugs, drifters, smugglers, hitmen and gang members. Only the foolish mistake this for weakness: The people who bend the knee to the Baron may be the most dangerous force the city has to offer.



Nobody likes the Baron and his people - until they need something done or procured quietly and quickly. Someone will play this part, in any city. Many of Seattle’s powerful tell themselves that it’s just as well to further indebt yourself to the Devil you know.



The Baron’s operation thrives among the criminal element. Ironically, this has allowed his people to get away with things the other factions would have to treat as a Masquerade breach: Which beat cop truly thinks twice about some low-life ex-con meeting an especially grisly end in a turf war? On the flip side, unlife is often much shorter for the Baron’s people.



The Baron has no illusions about his own security: While seemingly unassailable now, his strength will remain only as long as he stays ahead of all competitors. If he ever shows weakness or becomes unreliable, his whole operation is going to fall, beginning with him.

Hello friends,

I am Rachel Leiker, Lead UI/UX Designer for Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2. My team and I are responsible for designing all the menus, HUD, and interface elements in the game. We also spearhead the cross-disciplinary practice of UX at the studio.

What is UX you ask? Well gather ‘round and let Auntie Rachel learn ya a thing or two. UX - or User Experience – in games is the process of expressing content and systems in a way the player can interpret. A lot goes into making games, and not all of it can (and frankly, should) be exposed to the player. It is our job as the UX department to figure out what pieces of information the player needs, when they need it, how they need it, and then evaluate if it is good feedback or if more can be done.

In an earlier post, our Creative Director Ka’ai talked about the Pillars of the game. UX works with similar pillars, and they help us to inform and focus the kinds of feedback we give to the player:

• Show the World of Darkness
  
• Be a Vampire
  
• Hierarchy
  
• Consistency
  
• Accessibility
  

Show the World of Darkness

The setting of the game dictates a certain aesthetic – modern day Noir, old versus new, tradition versus progress. We reflect this direction by presenting the player with a not-so pristine interface throughout the game.

Visual inspiration for the UI has been heavily influenced by Neo-noir and modern styles of media. The basic DNA of the style are high contrast, dramatic use of color, and high texture density to reflect the multi-layered quality of the world. With this in mind, we also needed to be careful not to obscure necessary information in style. The function of the thing is always more important than the form of the thing.

We established some basic scales for iconography and texture treatments - Modern, not Sci-fi; Scruffy, not grungy:




Be a Vampire

A HUD and menus are not typically something one would expect to deal with as a vampire, so we cultivated and curated every interaction to support that fantasy. Color scheme, interactions with the world, and character management have all been designed with this in mind.

To a Vampire, blood is everything. It sustains, it empowers, it demands. In the UI we use the color red very sparingly and only when it pertains to blood - Blood gain, blood loss, using blood, and specific feedback regarding health status. This is to help emphasize to the player that their very precious resource is changing, and they need to act accordingly.

Hierarchy

A game with complex systems needs sophisticated feedback. Hierarchies allow us to give the player the right information at the right time without overwhelming or underserving their needs. Every piece of feedback is given a priority against all other forms of feedback, which allows us to easily arrange their placement on screen and their visuals to help the player understand what is most important at any given time.

In the HUD, related items are grouped together – Navigation, Blood-related systems like Health, Hunger, and Disciplines, Combat, and others all have a specific place based on the attention they demand of the player. The more efficiently we can get the necessary information to the player, the more time they can spend immersed in the world and less time engaged with the interface. Notifications also follow this rule – things that demand less of the player’s time are small and appear in a certain location, while Very Important™ notifications such as Quest Completed dominate screen space and player attention.

HUD Priority Heat map



HUD Grouping breakdown



Consistency

Players can expect the UI to function the same way no matter how they are using it. From Character Creation to Quests to navigation, the player performs an action and the expected result occurs. The goal here is to make managing your character less of a chore and something you enjoy doing. By making it easier for the player to engage with and understand the menus during gameplay, we ensure that they spend less time thinking about the UI and more time enjoying the game. We achieve this by having a consistent menu layout through all pages, consistent input and button locations, and having precise, easily discernible visual feedback if player interaction is required or not.


Accessibility

This appears at the bottom of this list because it is really the foundation for all our work. Hardsuit Labs as a studio is invested in making games that can be enjoyed by as many people as possible. Wherever, whenever possible, the game UI and UX supports accessible features. For example, color is never the primary source of feedback. We use contrast, texture, iconography, FX, text, and layout to provide the primary feedback and use color as secondary enhancement. This helps players with color vision deficiencies without having to have a separate color-blind mode. We are able to test this by including testers with color vision deficiencies in our QA process to give us feedback. Inclusion is part of the accessibility process as well, we have been very conscious about creating iconography that is non-gender specific and considerate of cultural sensitivities. The icons are designed to not rely on gendered tropes (such as pouty lips for seduction or a man’s dress shirt to represent wardrobe), and we use straightforward ideas for icons that can be interpreted no matter the native language or culture.

I’ll be able to talk more about the accessibility options when we get closer to the game’s release, we have many options that we are implementing in the game to make it an enjoyable experience for all of our players. Designing for accessibility is not only great for the players who need them, but it enhances the experience for all players across the board.

UX is so much more than just meters in the HUD and upgrading your skill tree. It really tries to maximize the enjoyment of the player by removing obstacles and solving problems with good design. When you play Bloodlines 2, our goal is to make sure you get the most out of your time with the game and are able to fully immerse yourself in your story. The various UI elements and UX design are all there to give you what you need without getting in the way, putting the proper amount of Feed into your Feedback*.

Thanks for your time, if you have any additional questions or comments, I would love to read them!

-- Rachel Leiker



*I’m sorry Ka’ai, I had to.