Brian Mitsoda and Ka’ai Cluney leaves Bloodlines 2 developement team

I knew that Ka’ai Cluney left in July and feared that Brian Mitsoda would leave as well. As Cluney was a very close friend, and the one who brought Mitsoda back as the main writer.

Couchpotato said:

Well give credit to the Codex they sniffed out that some of the upper management left, and he went by the name of Director Martin Ka'ai Cluney. He left Hardsuit in July.

He was supposedly a friend of Mitsoda from Obsidian, and probably the one who proposed the project, and brought Mitsoda on board. So it doesn't sound good.

Bottom line the only developer with RPG experience at Hardsuit.

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I seriously have doubts this game will be good or might even get released next year.

This is IMO far more important:

we are excited to announce that Alexandre Mandryka has come aboard as Creative Consultant, filling the Creative Director role for Bloodlines 2, and will help us in the final stages of development. Alexandre is committed to following the vision that is in place, and successfully bringing Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 to the fans.

Alexandre has been in the industry for more than 20 years and has worked on iconic franchises such as Assassin’s Creed, Warhammer 40,000, Far Cry, and more.

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RIP Bloodlines 2.

joxer said:

This is IMO far more important:

RIP Bloodlines 2.

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Very important his job is to get a finished product out the door by any means. That usually means cutting corners, content, and trying to salvage a game stuck in development hell.

This IP is cursed and Paradox should have chosen a different developer.

Mitsoda had this to say:

"Until recently, I was the Narrative Lead on a videogame called Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines 2 for Hardsuit Labs, Inc being published by Paradox Interactive (which owns 30% of Hardsuit Labs). After almost five years involvement with the studio, I was suddenly terminated on 7/16/20.
That this came as a shock to me is underselling it. I’ve worked on Bloodlines 2 for almost five years. The story and main cast was initially conceived in my living room. I helped develop the pitch for Hardsuit Labs and helped pitch the project to Paradox in Las Vegas. I’ve been in charge of the narrative since the beginning, working long days and sometimes weekends to deliver a successor to Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, and I’ve never been led to believe that I hadn’t succeeded. Very obviously, I have also been involved in the PR and marketing side of things, even though it was one of the most difficult parts for me. I’m a pretty private person – press and crowds tend to heavily trigger my social anxiety (which, if you’ve ever wondered about the gloves, they are “armor” that make me feel less exposed in situations that trigger my anxiety).
Bloodlines and the fandom of the game mean the world to me. So I lent my legacy with the franchise, my name, and my participation in marketing efforts for the game, even when it was intensely difficult and took a mental and physical toll. This is all because I wanted to do what was best for the game and the team.
The pride in the work, the fan expectations, and the support from co-workers who started out as fans kept me going through this long five years. And I’m incredibly disappointed and frustrated to say that this is where it ends for me on the project.
I was not part of the conversations that led to the decision to delay production, and to my knowledge, there were no delays caused by the Bloodlines 2 narrative development. I am confident and proud of the work that I and my team put forward. When that work will be seen and what form it will take is unknown to me.
It was a pleasure to work on this game and with many people at Hardsuit Labs and Paradox and I’m sorry I won’t be able to see it to the end. I spent years on some of the best characters and dialogue that I ever wrote. It’s meant a lot to hear from the Bloodlines community and I do hope that what’s finally delivered is as satisfying as I intended it to be. Thanks to all of you who supported me throughout the project.”"

"Until recently, I was the Narrative Lead on a videogame called Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines 2 for Hardsuit Labs, Inc being published by Paradox Interactive (which owns 30% of Hardsuit Labs). After almost five years involvement with the studio, I was suddenly terminated on 7/16/20.

That this came as a shock to me is underselling it. I’ve worked on Bloodlines 2 for almost five years. The story and main cast was initially conceived in my living room. I helped develop the pitch for Hardsuit Labs and helped pitch the project to Paradox in Las Vegas.

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Man that sucks I really want to read what actually went on behind the scenes.

As it doesn't sound good.

Ouch!!!!

a pibbur who is worried (well, he's always worried, but now he's more worried.)

PS @yemeth;. I liked that you posted this, not the news. DS

Isn't this meant to be close to release? Weird timing to be canning Mitsoda and bringing in a guy from Farcry. I don't have much hope for this now.

Pongo said:

Isn't this meant to be close to release? Weird timing to be canning Mitsoda and bringing in a guy from Farcry. I don't have much hope for this now.

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Yes it's been delayed twice now and this recent news adds more reason to why.

What? So he was just terminated with no explanation? Or did I miss something in Brian's response? This does not sound good. Fuck.

Is this series cursed or something? First one was rushed due to Half-Life 2, and wound up in the state it was. This one also seems to have a troubled development lifecycle.

That's unexpected especially Brian was at the front of all this as he mentions in his statement, and that he was not aware of this. What about his work and input into this IP? Are they going to change everything to avoid future royalty issues?

I guess we will hear more about this soon.

On the codex it seems a developer was answering questions.

Paradox dude would say it was about creative stuff and not about money and that the decision to fire Brian was made between the studio and Paradox.

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Link - https://i.imgur.com/UUPPSoi.png

Take it with a grain of salt I guess?

Weid as hell. They say it's not due to some misconduct. It's due to creative stuff, but the story and "stuff" is mostly done? Then why fire him? Someone's not telling the whole truth.

Judging by the guy they hired, I would guess there wasn't enough gunplay in it.

This is fucking nuts.

It's a shame, but this has disaster written all over it at this point. I'm no longer going to be actively anticipating this game, but I'll be happy if it turns out well.

The Codex found this post on Discord.

Can't verify it so as usual take it with a grain of salt.

Old Grognard said:

The Codex found this post on Discord.

Can't verify it so as usual take it with a grain of salt.

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Classic mismanagement then. It's frikkin hard to impossible to make estimates in software development. I only work in corporate-enterprise software development and see these kinds of issues constantly. I can't even begin imagine them in game development which is boat-loads harder to estimate since it's so much creativity and complexity.

Of course, usually management can't see that and they expect estimates to be release dates. Which results in more pressure on the team. Which results in turnover and even lesser productivity because you lose people with experience and context. It's an absolute miracle some games turn out as good as they do, and on time. But very rarely. The highly ambitious ones either have huge budgets to burn, or teams that litterally sacrifice themselves to get them out the door.

And all that work and sacrifice, at the end of the day, usually means nothing more to the owners than a return on investment. Not sure if that's the case with Paradox as they seem a pretty small publisher. But they'll get there.

Makes me glad that CDPR is such a relatively well managed company, and one that is both developer and publisher. I was looking forward to VBII, but the chances of that being a great game seem remote now.... I'll be good so long as Cyberpunk 2077 meets expectations (and I'm confident it will)

JFarrell71 said:

Makes me glad that CDPR is such a relatively well managed company, and one that is both developer and publisher. I was looking forward to VBII, but the chances of that being a great game seem remote now…. I'll be good so long as Cyberpunk 2077 meets expectations (and I'm confident it will)

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I'm curious about Cyberpunk. It came out that Witcher 3 had loads of crunch, and they lost some people. But it turned out fantastic. And I'm sure it is even more difficult with CP. So, I'm curious how much of the chaos they managed to keep from the outside world.

As you said, their main advantage is that they're publishing it, and can decide to take the risk of investing more money. RDR2 was pretty similar. It also took around 8 years to develop. And that was also self-published by Rockstar. I don't think these sorts of games with huge development cycles can be made any other way.