Posted July 10, 2013
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-07-10-reanimated-the-story-of-vampire-the-masquerade-bloodlines?utm_source=eurogamer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=net-daily
TL:DR
As time went on, and Spahl became more confident working with the Bloodlines' code, the unofficial patches went beyond simply fixing obvious problems, and began to restore cut content and finishing unfinished content. In patch version 8.0 Spahl restored a guard character to the game after finding his dialogue file. He used a script in the game's map to locate the guard's position and asked a member of the community to record the voiceover. The most substantial addition came in version 8.4, when with the help of the community Spahl restored an entire level to the game. "Our biggest achievement is the recreation of the cut library map which we basically had to build from scratch while using all the models and textures belonging into it, which Troika left us in the game files."
In fact, Spahl's patches have altered the game so much from its original state as to result in some criticism from the community, so now there are two versions of the patch, a basic one that performs straightforward bug-fixes, and an advanced version that restores content and tweaks many aspects of the gameplay.
--
Nine years on from the release of Bloodlines, unofficial patches are still being released. The latest, version 8.6, was released in April this year, and Spahl intends to keep patching the game "as long as people report bugs that I can fix and there is still stuff that we can restore." But for all of Spahl's efforts, the game will never be finished. There is already a list of issues which Spahl simply cannot fix, which begs the question: why? Why spend years of your life on a project that can never be finished?
"First of all patching, and especially restoring stuff, is sometimes much more fun than just playing the game, because it is active and creative," Spahl answers. "Second, it annoys me very much that some beautiful gems like Bloodlines failed because they didn't get the hype that larger blockbusters get or were released unpolished or unfinished."
Meanwhile, after working on the spy-RPG Alpha Protocol, another ambitious yet troubled game, Mitsoda has founded his own development company and is heading production of Dead State, which, oddly enough, is looking to recapture the development experience of Bloodlines. "It's about going back to basics - a small team that loves RPGs, making a classic RPG. We may not all be in the same location, but it still feels a lot like Troika did," he says.
"It would also be nice if we could keep the lights on after the game ships," he adds. "That's one bit of the Bloodlines experience that I would hate to replicate."
TL:DR
As time went on, and Spahl became more confident working with the Bloodlines' code, the unofficial patches went beyond simply fixing obvious problems, and began to restore cut content and finishing unfinished content. In patch version 8.0 Spahl restored a guard character to the game after finding his dialogue file. He used a script in the game's map to locate the guard's position and asked a member of the community to record the voiceover. The most substantial addition came in version 8.4, when with the help of the community Spahl restored an entire level to the game. "Our biggest achievement is the recreation of the cut library map which we basically had to build from scratch while using all the models and textures belonging into it, which Troika left us in the game files."
In fact, Spahl's patches have altered the game so much from its original state as to result in some criticism from the community, so now there are two versions of the patch, a basic one that performs straightforward bug-fixes, and an advanced version that restores content and tweaks many aspects of the gameplay.
--
Nine years on from the release of Bloodlines, unofficial patches are still being released. The latest, version 8.6, was released in April this year, and Spahl intends to keep patching the game "as long as people report bugs that I can fix and there is still stuff that we can restore." But for all of Spahl's efforts, the game will never be finished. There is already a list of issues which Spahl simply cannot fix, which begs the question: why? Why spend years of your life on a project that can never be finished?
"First of all patching, and especially restoring stuff, is sometimes much more fun than just playing the game, because it is active and creative," Spahl answers. "Second, it annoys me very much that some beautiful gems like Bloodlines failed because they didn't get the hype that larger blockbusters get or were released unpolished or unfinished."
Meanwhile, after working on the spy-RPG Alpha Protocol, another ambitious yet troubled game, Mitsoda has founded his own development company and is heading production of Dead State, which, oddly enough, is looking to recapture the development experience of Bloodlines. "It's about going back to basics - a small team that loves RPGs, making a classic RPG. We may not all be in the same location, but it still feels a lot like Troika did," he says.
"It would also be nice if we could keep the lights on after the game ships," he adds. "That's one bit of the Bloodlines experience that I would hate to replicate."
