Hi all! I’ve been watching StopGame in read-only mode for a long time, but it’s time to take action. I want to talk a little about the narrative design of my favorite game “Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines”, in the format of a video essay. I myself am a graphic designer, I don’t know anything about video editing and voice recording, so criticism, comments, and suggestions are welcome. I really hope for feedback.
The video was not created to release “triumphant content”, I just want to learn new skills and share ideas. If this work encourages someone to look at the game a little differently (or at least doesn’t make your ears and eyes bleed), then I will consider my great task completed. I myself am not too pleased with the end result, because self-criticism is a heartless thing.
I hope for your understanding, enjoy watching/reading everyone.
In 2001, Troika games began developing an ambitious project. In their opinion, the game should breathe new life into the stagnant RPG genre. Authors face a lot of problems. The publisher imposes an unsuccessful release date. In 2004, "Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines», the swan song of a great studio.
Sales drop to catastrophic levels, bugs negatively affect progress, and at some point patches stop coming out. There is simply no one to work on them – the studio has ceased to exist.
What is the result? The project acquires cult status, fans carefully restore unused content. Ten years after the release, fan modifications continue to be released. People’s love is unconditional, and anyone who touches the project notes an unsurpassed atmosphere.
So why does this game have such a unique, viscous atmosphere?? How does it work with the player’s feelings, why is it perceived this way??
Almost no vampire story is complete without a gothic style.
It is present in the game, both in the form of long verticals in architecture and the general monumentality characteristic of Gothic. The interiors are also not devoid of Gothic grandeur. The sophistication of the decorations emphasizes the aristocracy in the world of political intrigue of the vampire community. In cultural perception, Gothic is associated with mystical motifs, so its choice as the predominant style was obvious. A Gothic mansion, a completely established image in popular culture, which you could see more than once in horror films.
By the way, the horror genre receives special attention. Abandoned hospital, old haunted hotel, cemetery, snuff video studio. These locations are deliberately grotesque, because the universe of the world of darkness itself is a postmodern rethinking of the theme of vampires. Night predators are not only scary monsters living in ancient castles, they are organically integrated into modern realities, politics, and sociology. Therefore, a certain caricature is very suitable for the visual embodiment of the game, when technology could not yet produce a photorealistic picture.
Another simple but effective visual technique is the night time in which the story takes place. Does this limit artists?? Of course, since it excludes working with imitation daylight and palette. However, the disadvantage can work as an advantage because it reduces the project to one overall stylistic decision. In the end, this is simply logical (we play as a vampire, vampires are afraid of sunlight), which means it’s reliable.
This also helps the standard design solution – contrast. If we place light in the dark, we will focus our attention on it much more actively, which is why the illuminated exteriors in the game look more textured and visually richer.
Although the depressing mood is the backbone of the atmosphere and appearance of the game, it is worth noting that it also contains the image of a metropolis, and secret experiments, and a drug den, and mystical oriental motifs. It seems like a hodgepodge of everything in the world comes out, which in inept hands would crumble into hundreds of unrelated elements. In Masquerade, as in any great work, every part of the world is connected by a common theme. And this theme is total decadence.
It doesn’t matter where you are, in a nightclub with the self-explanatory name “Asylum” or in the cramped premises of a detective agency, deception, vice and a set of human sins await you everywhere.
The world is not fragmented into separate parts of visual space, but exists within one general mood.
A world of absolute darkness that deliberately https://macau-casino.co.uk/login/ excludes any positivity.
“Santa Monica is dead,” one of the characters depressively tells you, and this phrase is constantly confirmed by the appearance of the game, cementing the image in the mind.
The atmosphere works the same way any horror movie works. Fear and its accompanying sensations, such as anxiety and tension, are negative emotions that a person does not like to experience. However, he deliberately agrees to them for the sake of the thrill. Likewise, Bloodlines offers a dark journey, and as we know, darkness is not only frightening, but also mesmerizing.
Most of all I like some specific elements, presented in a non-trivial way. One example is the clothing and armor of the protagonist, if we play as a character from the Nosferatu clan. These are leather suits in BDSM style, with metal rivets and other paraphernalia, which, you see, is not the most common choice of appearance. "Bloodlines" allows itself a similar cartoonish, playful touch, because it is memorable and creates style. The most striking example is, of course, the rewritten dialogues for one specific clan of vampires – the mentally ill Malkavians.
These are bold decisions that create the image of the project. Speaking about “Bloodlines”, no one remembers an ordinary battle, everyone remembers how a vampire with an upset psyche had intimate conversations with a road sign or a news announcer.
The project was created as a social RPG, instead of endless dungeon clearing. Gifted authors posed the question: How can we tell this story through music, appearance, variability of passage?
If the player character is a crazy person who spouts funny nonsense in dialogue, it certainly takes on a comical tone, which is what most screenwriters would go for. The craftsmen from Troika Games go even further, they offer us a crazy seer who spoils events that have not yet happened. And the player can only guess about this when playing through it again, when he already knows the plot.
A special topic that I would like to pay attention to is the integrity of the in-game world.
Here’s an example of how it’s done well: we run past two police officers, eavesdrop on their conversation, and learn about terrible events that befell one of them in the past. This conversation is not just random, useless information, the events describe the danger that we will face in subsequent quests. When we first arrive at Santa Monica Beach, we can see a lone wolf in the distance if we look to the left. This is a character we have yet to meet.
On the same beach you can see the lights of a ship in the sea. This is a location we will visit in the future. Spam in personal email is a hint of where we will end up.
Such relationships within the game give the world integrity. Characters mention people we have met, we learn about hidden motives or situations that have a double bottom, the news mentions incidents in which we participated. The player makes mental connections through all the noted circumstances and due to this, the dynamics and liveliness of the world are created.
Often, the protagonist in the game is a hero without fear or reproach, saving galaxies. This approach is justified, because games, like any form of art, are a form of escapism. We play to feel like heroes, and the developers create comfortable conditions for this.
In Bloodlines, the hero is nothing more than a pawn on a chessboard. Everyone he meets strives to either use him or eliminate him. This narrative approach has its advantages. For example, the progression of a character, his transformation from a pawn into a piece worth reckoning with, is felt much more vividly.
All this together contributes to immersion and, paradoxically, makes this fictional world more real.
The characters in the game are static. They are tied to a specific place and practically do not move. There are almost no gameplay videos or long cut scenes with them. Most of them do not have an extensively written character and a long backstory.
Then why do they feel so alive?
It is clear that it will not be possible to write down the deep character and large-scale emotional coloring of each hero in the story, and it is not necessary.
Firstly, this is a task of titanic efforts. Secondly, if you conduct hour-long philosophical conversations with everyone you meet, the dynamics of the narrative will be lost. It will be more difficult for writers to move the player along the correct path of story development.
Therefore, the scriptwriters of “Troika games” act simply, but elegantly. They take exaggerated archetypes and outline them with a few features that are emotionally easy to read. Sarcastic and caustic cynic. Cunning and greedy rascal. Melancholic phlegmatic. Literally everyone you meet can be easily characterized. A similar approach is used, for example, in “Bioware” games, which is why the party members there fall into the soul of the players.
The difference between Masquerade is that they apply a similar method to all the characters in the game. Even a tertiary hero who tells you just a few lines will be a recognizable type. This technique quickly ties the player to the narrative and involves him in what is happening. Man is an emotional being, which is why he reacts most vividly to the manifestation of feelings and emotions. Most of the dialogue in Bloodlines is written to affect the player in one way or another. Lots of verbal confrontation, insults and appeal to feelings.
The appearance of the characters deliberately emphasizes the character and mirrors the personality. Each hero looks individually, with his own characteristics. Visual accents, such as piercings, tattoos or different eye colors, also work well. A high-profile illegal weapons dealer will never be even remotely similar to a grumpy and picky restaurant critic. Almost each of the one and a half hundred characters in the game was drawn and modeled unique clothes. The most important component is individuality.
Of course, the game has a set of ordinary opponents and extras, but you can talk to every more or less significant character. Most of the game can be completed without entering into a combat confrontation at all. You never know who is in front of you – an enemy, an ally, an intriguer or a random stranger.
At the beginning of the 2000s, the gaming industry had not yet developed such magnificent narrative design techniques as, for example, Cyberpunk 2077. Technology has significantly limited the possibilities. To keep the player’s attention during dialogues, the authors focused on facial animation. At that time, the Source engine had it at a noticeably high level. Don’t discount high-quality acting and an excellent script.
We put all these elements together, the basis of which is an archetype with pronounced features, and an appearance that emphasizes character. The end result is a great result. Just? Of course. But for me personally, the narrative magic lies precisely in the fact that what appears before you is not a computer model asking you to kill a dozen rats, but a real, living person. Yes, grotesque, but fit into the context, and most importantly – bright and memorable.
I like the solutions that Troika games chose.
In terms of narrative design, the industry is moving forward at tremendous speed. Games are getting better. “Bloodlines” is a great example of the fact that even twenty years ago, having a limited toolkit by today’s standards, you can use simple techniques that still work today.
"Bloodlines" is magic in its purest form. You don’t want to deconstruct it at all, just as you don’t want to notice excellent direction in a movie – it just works, you can just have fun.
And all of the above is my small declaration of great love for the project, which had a difficult fate, but a very worthy implementation.
Best comments
The point is just to “prescribe the form of madness”, to choose interesting options from the available material. The writers could have eliminated this aspect from the game, or limited themselves to its primitive display (jokes in dialogues), but they played it more interestingly (rewrote answers in dialogues, used spoilers as a narrative element). This is interesting.
Perhaps I did not formulate the idea quite correctly in the essay. Anyway, thanks for the comment.
If the player character is a crazy person who spouts funny nonsense in dialogue, it certainly takes on a comical tone, which is what most screenwriters would go for. The craftsmen from Troika Games go even further, they offer us a crazy seer who spoils events that have not yet happened.
So the developers have nothing to do with it, they did not create the Malkavians with their foresight, but worked with ready-made material. Unless they prescribed the very form of madness. As I understand it, on a tabletop it can take any form: from the one shown in the game to a completely sane character who panics at the sight of an elevator.