
An Elder of your choosing
As our game starts, an Elder that some call the Nomad wakes up in an abandoned building in Seattle. They don't know where they are or how they got there, but they are quick to adapt - the Nomad is old, and they have survived for a long time. It is clear that they have experienced the deathlike sleep of torpor. The last they remember was a smile and a piercing pain in the chest, delivered in their Haven in Tunis at the start of the 20th century. Now they are awake. What happened to them in their long slumber, and who woke them? Why does their Blood lack the strength and power they are used to? And why is their body carved with arcane sigils? The Nomad is a legend amongst Kindred. Their name has been whispered for four hundred years - of their presence in revolutions, on battlefields, at slaughters, and at the fall of Princes. Are they escaping these situations, causing them, or taking joy in red wrath and ruin? Whatever the truth, they are a catalyst - when they appear, the world of the Kindred will be irrevocably changed.

The themes behind the Nomad
In Bloodlines 2, the matter of history takes a front seat. Our protagonist is centuries old, and while they may change things up to survive, adapt and keep pace with the march of time, they’ve nonetheless garnered something of a reputation. If a time-immune forensic detective were to inspect and compare the various crime scenes that are human history, they would no doubt find one set of fingerprints consistent. May you live in interesting times, etcetera etcetera. Playing an Elder was a bold choice; to move forward without leaning into the unique opportunities that provides for roleplay would be a missed opportunity. In Narrative Design, we often find ourselves pulled between two ideals: providing agency and choice for players to make the story their own vs keeping the story feeling intentional, strong and tightly wound. The solution, then, is to establish what is immutable and, within that, carve out a more flexible play space. Ultimately, a good story is driven by characters being true to their psychology and either following that thread down towards tragedy, making the same mistakes over and over, or seizing upon the chance to challenge and change themselves. That’s what makes a happy ending triumphant: a character’s ability to sacrifice what they have desired and strained towards for so long, to defy the never-ending hunger of old, painful wounds for a chance at long-lasting healing. It’s what makes a tragic ending tug at our hearts: we see clearly what the character needs, and we see them turn away from it one too many times, too consumed by their pain to do the hard thing, give up their coping mechanisms and save themselves. What I’m getting at is that history, for us, is not merely superficial or textural. Sure, the Nomad’s been around a while, and sure we want to give you folks the chance to say what they did with that time. But as far as storytelling tools go, that doesn’t give us much and, as Narrative Designers, we need tools that will allow us to chisel out those big, emotional moments. So more important than the ‘what’ is the ‘why’. The play space.


Process and style of the ending cinematics


Art Direction
As we’ve mentioned, the art direction set its roots in Neo-Noir and the intro and outros are also designed with this light and dark contrast in mind. To give Bloodlines 2 a unique look, we wanted to use red and black combined with blood animations overlaid to add secondary movement and drench the city in blood. Each individual image should be evocative, and this is why our shots aren’t too literal. We wanted to leave something to the player’s imagination and together with the voiceover it results in an ending cinematic personal to each player, based on their choices in game.Assets Creation
Creating the ending shots towards the end of production gave us the chance to have access to a vast library of assets from the game. We took advantage of this assembling the ending scenes using the character models and props. Once the shot was approved our concept artists had to separate each layer in a way that the animators could easily create a parallax effect to bring the shot to life. For example, in the images with a main character plus an environment, the scene happens inside the main character shape, like illustrated in the scheme below.
Final animation
Motion graphic animation has been done by our studio partner Atomhawk Design Ltd. who worked closely with our Art Department. The concept team provided them with layered images and Atomhawk have animated and timed each shot in sync with voice-over. [previewyoutube=zczhT3zu3gw;full][LINK][/previewyoutube] Description: In-game video from the intro scene. To avoid any spoilers, we are not showing too much from the ending cinematics but safe to say you’ll see the faces and places you’ll come to know well. Now it’s up to you to complete Bloodlines 2 and unlock them! - Michele Nucera, Lead Concept ArtistCustomising the Nomad
As we know that you are all hungry for more information regarding the customisation options that will be available in the game, we want to leave you with a confirmation of what will be available to you. You will be able to change Phyre’s gender, hair style, hair colour and outfit. We’ll share more in-depth information about this when we are ready, but to tide you over until then here is a sneak peek!
