Vampire: Bloodlines Interview

Rock, Paper, Shotgun managed to track down Obsidian’s Brian Mitsoda for a pretty good interview about his time at Troika Games and the development of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines.

RPS: The character design in Bloodlines is what really stands out for me, can you elucidate the process of creating some of these characters a little?

Mitsoda: Sure. A lot of times they’re born out of necessity. You need a character to pose a problem or give out a quest or be a barrier of some kind. I don’t like to make the NPC outright say (I need you to do X, then I’ll give you Y) because I see it all the time in games and it shows the writer’s hand – it makes the character into an automated quest kiosk. I like the characters to come off like people actually do – they don’t say (hi) when strangers come knocking, they say (who the hell are you?) or they’re expecting you and know more then they let on, or they don’t care. I don’t like my NPCs to be standing around as if their lives begin when the character starts talking to them and end when the player leaves. Characters are the protagonists of their own game, from their perspective.

Major characters that the player speaks to multiple times need to show progression based on your previous interactions or actions you’ve taken in the world. One-off characters that you talk to once, need to have hooks or personality traits that make them immediately fascinating, or they feel like just another quest item depository. It’s nothing but putting a little extra effort into it – thinking about who the character is, what they want, what they think of the player, why they’re standing around, and how they’re sizing up or trying to take advantage of the player. I generally find the character’s voice out loud to get an understanding of their speech pattern and tone. If I’ve got it, then the dialogue just comes naturally after that.

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RPS: Do you have any residual bitterness about the game shipping unfinished?

Mitsoda: Whether you’re creating books, films, movies, anything, there’s probably something the creators want to change about it. The technical problems should have been fixed, no question. I suppose if I’m bitter about anything, it’s that even if our initial sales numbers weren’t that solid, I know the game has sold well over the years through digital distribution, and it illustrates just how short-sighted this industry can be. I’d love to know what the numbers are these days to find out just how successful the game was over time. Some residuals would be nice too.