Art by Jordan Grimmer. A concept of heightened senses exploring how to differentiate between humans.
Art by Michele Nucera. Explorations of how feeding could look.
Once we get up close and personal, that’s when we can feed. We wanted the feeding to feel like an intimate experience between you and the victim - biting someone's throat will always give you a sudden rush of power. Drinking blood is a way to restore your powers and by doing so will become an addictive experience for the player.
We wanted the action of feeding to reflect the visceral nature of stealing life from a beating heart, taking life from a host, and transferring it to the player. Above we explored a few ways we could show this through the reaction to Phyre’s vision as the blood enters her system. This level of exploration, creating many different ideas and iterations, is key when we’re trying to find something that could work for a feature like this.
- Senior Concept Artist, Jordan Grimmer and Lead Concept Artist, Michele Nucera
Art by Michele Nucera. Get up close and personal with your victim.
Blood Resonance Events
Not only is Seattle brought to life with people going about their own business, including NPCs reacting to the player (perhaps even running away in terror!) it’s also a place where the player can hunt! As you move around the city, you’ll be able to track and hunt NPCs that have the potential to become fully resonated with a specific type of blood to feed on. Track these NPCs down using Heightened Senses and knowledge of the city, then use charm, fear, or anger to convince and bend them to your will. Very early on we wanted these events to feel like something players would want to go and investigate as they pop up around the city, I like to refer to these events as vampire candy for players to track, follow, and feed on! Social Feeding is a key part of the players' time in our Seattle, and revolves around influencing the NPCs in certain ways - maybe you’ll stumble upon someone angry that the ATM has stolen their card and you can take that anger and feed on it. Maybe someone’s scared after missing the last bus home, and chasing them down a dark alley will tip them into terror and give you the Social Feed you’re craving. It’s been great working on a system where the NPCs display very raw emotion letting the player really lean into the vampire fantasy allowing them to interact with the denizens of Seattle in a number of different ways. You can use abilities, conversations, or just plain terrify them then reap the rewards with a careful feed. We wanted to give players the freedom to hunt the way they want but it was also important that players need to be mindful of how and where they feed to avoid breaking the Masquerade! Social Feeding is a slower process so it's best to lure victims to secluded areas. Explaining to animators that I want an animation of someone cowering like a shocked actor from a 1950s horror movie then watching those animations come to life… Chef’s Kiss! It's been really great to just sit and think, wouldn’t it be great if Phyre is approached by a mugger and threatened… only to have them turn and flee in fear once they realise what Phyre is! I’m really looking forward to seeing how players choose to tackle the hunt and feed within the city area itself. - Project Lead Game Designer, Gavin Hood Don’t miss the next DD where we sink our teeth deeper into the intricacies of Blood Resonance!
