Post by mysterd on Nov 17, 2005 22:36:49 GMT
There's a forum from Forumplanet and one of the game designers, B Mitsoda on ForumPlanet, began a thread to talk about the ONE year anniversary of this game.
So, here's a look back and some interesting info revealed on what was probably, I think, one of the best PC RPG's in recent years:
Link:
www.forumplanet.com/planetvampire/topic.asp?fid=9642&tid=1773542
This next stuff is on Therese/Jeannette, revealed that it was loosely inspired by an ex-girlfriend of his....
Okay, here's more on Heather Poe:
Seems they would've liked to port this one to the XBox, too:
I hope they Activision gives us an SDK. It'd be nice, but probably way doubtful....
I hope it Bloodlines 2. That'd be cool.
It's cool to note that B Mitsoda is a worker now at Obsidian.
It's be cool if Obsidian planned to do a true sequel to Vamp: BL.
Okay, here's where some of the past Troika workers are up to, nowadays:
So, here's a look back and some interesting info revealed on what was probably, I think, one of the best PC RPG's in recent years:
Link:
www.forumplanet.com/planetvampire/topic.asp?fid=9642&tid=1773542
This next stuff is on Therese/Jeannette, revealed that it was loosely inspired by an ex-girlfriend of his....
Vongetta wanted to put an end to all debate:
In creating the Therese/Jeanette character(s), was it the full intention of the designers to make the reason for her character ambiguous? As in, to keep us guessing? What I mean is that there has been endless debate as to whether there is only one woman with a dual-personality disorder, or whether there were actually two women?
Do I have to say *spoilers*?
I’ve talked about Jeanette and Therese with a lot of people, but never publicly, so here goes. First of all, Jeanette and Therese’s origin is loosely inspired by an ex-girlfriend, and true to the source, there is only one physical being. While the inspiration didn’t suffer from the same affliction, Therese has Multiple Personality Disorder (currently called Dissociative Identity Disorder, I believe), and I studied cases to make sure she was portrayed somewhat accurately. Several people have figured this out from the dialogue, but what it boils down to is, Therese was isolated and sexually abused from a very young age. To deal with this trauma and her seclusion, she developed a “sister”. Later, she would use the Jeanette personality to behave in a manner not fitting the obedient daughter side that was Therese. After the murder of her father, she was institutionalized. Therese was already suffering from the disorder when she was embraced, but with the Malk blood, the Jeanette personality is so fully developed and so intertwined with Therese’s psyche that neither can be considered the dominant personality, and the Jeanette side is no less real than Therese, and neither realizes that the other exists within the same body.
There is a lot of debate in the psychological world about the reality of this disorder and its portrayal in popular culture, but in a world full of vampires, it’s not open for debate.
In creating the Therese/Jeanette character(s), was it the full intention of the designers to make the reason for her character ambiguous? As in, to keep us guessing? What I mean is that there has been endless debate as to whether there is only one woman with a dual-personality disorder, or whether there were actually two women?
Do I have to say *spoilers*?
I’ve talked about Jeanette and Therese with a lot of people, but never publicly, so here goes. First of all, Jeanette and Therese’s origin is loosely inspired by an ex-girlfriend, and true to the source, there is only one physical being. While the inspiration didn’t suffer from the same affliction, Therese has Multiple Personality Disorder (currently called Dissociative Identity Disorder, I believe), and I studied cases to make sure she was portrayed somewhat accurately. Several people have figured this out from the dialogue, but what it boils down to is, Therese was isolated and sexually abused from a very young age. To deal with this trauma and her seclusion, she developed a “sister”. Later, she would use the Jeanette personality to behave in a manner not fitting the obedient daughter side that was Therese. After the murder of her father, she was institutionalized. Therese was already suffering from the disorder when she was embraced, but with the Malk blood, the Jeanette personality is so fully developed and so intertwined with Therese’s psyche that neither can be considered the dominant personality, and the Jeanette side is no less real than Therese, and neither realizes that the other exists within the same body.
There is a lot of debate in the psychological world about the reality of this disorder and its portrayal in popular culture, but in a world full of vampires, it’s not open for debate.
Okay, here's more on Heather Poe:
Quiller asked:
Specifically, were there plans to do more with the havens that were not finally implemented and was there more plot with Heather planned at one point (her removal from the plot is rather abrupt)? And hey, anything else that you thought was really neat that had to be cut from the game.
There were too many havens, and I believe there was discussion of more, but I’m so glad it stopped at discussion. Heather… Heather was always supposed to be removed from the plot at a certain point. Unfortunately, there was no time to give Heather a proper final scene. I wrote her with several takes to be used in this sequence, but I don’t even think we had time to do animations for the scene, much less a cutscene. Had we done a sequel, I would have found a way to bring Heather back for a proper sendoff (*cough*dream sequence*cough*).
As for other stuff that got cut, I actually think more things should have been cut. There were a few things here and there, but it would be pointless to reference them since they were cut. Several NPCs were axed before recording (for the best). And I wrote a ton of conversations for NPCs in the world (never recorded), just fluff, but still amusing – I recycled a few of these for the radio and TV scripts. And Mercurio, we rerecorded a bunch of his lines because the originals were deemed too profane. Oh, and Chunk, I think we had to cut his idles – I’m sure someone can check, but Chunk was supposed to talk about stuff he was seeing on his monitors, and they may be the funniest lines in the game thanks to Daran Norris, Chunk’s voice actor.
Specifically, were there plans to do more with the havens that were not finally implemented and was there more plot with Heather planned at one point (her removal from the plot is rather abrupt)? And hey, anything else that you thought was really neat that had to be cut from the game.
There were too many havens, and I believe there was discussion of more, but I’m so glad it stopped at discussion. Heather… Heather was always supposed to be removed from the plot at a certain point. Unfortunately, there was no time to give Heather a proper final scene. I wrote her with several takes to be used in this sequence, but I don’t even think we had time to do animations for the scene, much less a cutscene. Had we done a sequel, I would have found a way to bring Heather back for a proper sendoff (*cough*dream sequence*cough*).
As for other stuff that got cut, I actually think more things should have been cut. There were a few things here and there, but it would be pointless to reference them since they were cut. Several NPCs were axed before recording (for the best). And I wrote a ton of conversations for NPCs in the world (never recorded), just fluff, but still amusing – I recycled a few of these for the radio and TV scripts. And Mercurio, we rerecorded a bunch of his lines because the originals were deemed too profane. Oh, and Chunk, I think we had to cut his idles – I’m sure someone can check, but Chunk was supposed to talk about stuff he was seeing on his monitors, and they may be the funniest lines in the game thanks to Daran Norris, Chunk’s voice actor.
Seems they would've liked to port this one to the XBox, too:
Wizard of Thay on Forumplanet asks:
Is there any one feature that you wish you could have added?
An Xbox port
Is there any one feature that you wish you could have added?
An Xbox port
ejd asked for:
I would like to ask you what do you think about a possibility of reprogramming/getting the Bloodlines SDK.
You’d have to ask Activision. They own Bloodlines and all its assets.
I would like to ask you what do you think about a possibility of reprogramming/getting the Bloodlines SDK.
You’d have to ask Activision. They own Bloodlines and all its assets.
I hope they Activision gives us an SDK. It'd be nice, but probably way doubtful....
ItBurns hit home with:
Most of what I'd like to know has already been asked by others so I'll ask about the future. Are you or any of the other princple designers working on anything interesting?
Yes. Big yes. Only I can’t talk about my current project right now.
I'm looking for more good games to feed my habit and I would love to follow the talent as it were. I'm not only one of the 20, I want to be one of the future 20's!!!!
And I want you to be one of the future 20s! Also, I want there to be at least 500,000 sets of future 20s. A lot of us are at Obsidian Entertainment now – keep watching our site for more details.
Most of what I'd like to know has already been asked by others so I'll ask about the future. Are you or any of the other princple designers working on anything interesting?
Yes. Big yes. Only I can’t talk about my current project right now.
I'm looking for more good games to feed my habit and I would love to follow the talent as it were. I'm not only one of the 20, I want to be one of the future 20's!!!!
And I want you to be one of the future 20s! Also, I want there to be at least 500,000 sets of future 20s. A lot of us are at Obsidian Entertainment now – keep watching our site for more details.
I hope it Bloodlines 2. That'd be cool.
It's cool to note that B Mitsoda is a worker now at Obsidian.
It's be cool if Obsidian planned to do a true sequel to Vamp: BL.
Okay, here's where some of the past Troika workers are up to, nowadays:
EPO Bonded wrote:
...What is the Bloodlines crew doing now?
I am fortunate in that I still work with a good portion of the Bloodlines’ folks over at Obsidian Entertainment(plus a whole lot of other great people). To the best of my knowledge:
b mitsoda – writer/designer - Obsidian Entertainment.
Andrew Meggs – Lead Programmer - Mythic
Brock Heinz – Programmer/Lead Scripter – Obsidian Entertainment
Jesse Reynolds – Programmer – Obsidian Entertainment
Steve Shimizu – Programmer – Blizzard
Dennis Taylor – Programmer – 7 Studios
Marc Barber – Scripter – Planetwide
Jocelyn Chew – Scripter – Pandemic
Steve Rhoades – Scripter – 7 Studios
Mark Bremerkamp – Lead Animator – Obsidian Entertainment
Chad Moore – Lead Modeler/Design – Treyarch
Daniel Alpert – Art/Texturing – Obsidian Entertainment
Nivbed (Justin Cherry) – Art/Texturing/Concepts – Obsidian Entertainment
TJ Perillo – writer/designer – Surreal
Bret Johnson – Audio Scripting – 7 Studios
And I’m forgetting a bunch or do not know the current whereabouts of the names I left out.
...What is the Bloodlines crew doing now?
I am fortunate in that I still work with a good portion of the Bloodlines’ folks over at Obsidian Entertainment(plus a whole lot of other great people). To the best of my knowledge:
b mitsoda – writer/designer - Obsidian Entertainment.
Andrew Meggs – Lead Programmer - Mythic
Brock Heinz – Programmer/Lead Scripter – Obsidian Entertainment
Jesse Reynolds – Programmer – Obsidian Entertainment
Steve Shimizu – Programmer – Blizzard
Dennis Taylor – Programmer – 7 Studios
Marc Barber – Scripter – Planetwide
Jocelyn Chew – Scripter – Pandemic
Steve Rhoades – Scripter – 7 Studios
Mark Bremerkamp – Lead Animator – Obsidian Entertainment
Chad Moore – Lead Modeler/Design – Treyarch
Daniel Alpert – Art/Texturing – Obsidian Entertainment
Nivbed (Justin Cherry) – Art/Texturing/Concepts – Obsidian Entertainment
TJ Perillo – writer/designer – Surreal
Bret Johnson – Audio Scripting – 7 Studios
And I’m forgetting a bunch or do not know the current whereabouts of the names I left out.
