What monster will you be?

Vampire Bloodlines 2

Generating hype for one of the most anticipated video games of 2021, based on the record-breaking Role Playing Game Vampire : The Masquerade.
Preview

What monster will you be?

Client
Paradox Interactive
Type

Product Launch

Website

Services

Creative Direction
UX Design
UI Design
Front-end Dev
Back-end Dev
Gamification

In 2020, Paradox Interactive and our partners at Alice & Smith approached us to collaborate on an exciting new Alternate Reality Game. This project would serve as a means to reveal the anticipated sequel to Vampire : The Masquerade - Bloodlines, an extremely popular roleplaying video game released in 2004. The ARG would last for a few months before the grand finale, which would serve as an official game reveal during the 2020 Game Developers Conference.

Following that, we would be in charge of developing the official website for the game, which would have the objective of serving as the main hub for all the new reveals about the game’s features, while generating as many pre-orders as possible before the launch of the game in the anticipated 2022 Q1 window.

Launch website
First, we created a custom-made web app aiming to lure Vampire The Masquerade fans into a marketing campaign based in a Alternate Reality Game, which would culminate in the video game’s reveal.
01

Tender, the Alternate Reality Game

We started the ARG by developing and releasing an early access dating app to the public, which positioned itself ahead of the curve because of the fact that it used your emotional profile to match you with similar people. The dating app also served as a ‘game’ in its own way, as users were presented with daily missions to accomplish, which we developed using the Playfab technology. On Tender, users could chat with their matches, not knowing that these were in fact AI’s that we put in place using the Botpress / Mitsuku technology, allowing us to understand the meaning behind every sent message and respond accordingly.


This fake app was a success, attracting more than a thousand members. As more and more people registered, we unlocked new features - making the ARG progress. Further down the line, certain ‘power users’ were invited to an official launch party.

The Tender official launch party was streamed on Twitch for over 50 000 viewers, which was held in Los Angeles during the Game Developers Conference. Little did the attendees knowthat this whole event was a setup. Every employee of the launch party : the bartenders, the waiters, the host - they were all actors that we paid. At the end of the event, a final reveal happened where the attendees realised that something was off and vampires were roaming around the party. This culminated in the official reveal of the trailer for Vampire : The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, the long anticipated video game.

02

The Tender Launch Party

The Tender official launch party was streamed on Twitch for over 50 000 viewers, which was held in Los Angeles during the Game Developers Conference. Little did the attendees know that this whole event was a setup. Every employee of the launch party : the bartenders, the waiters, the host - they were all actors that we paid. At the end of the event, a final reveal happened where the attendees realised that something was off and vampires were roaming around the party. This culminated in the official reveal of the trailer for Vampire : The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, the long anticipated video game.

To follow up Tender’s reveal of the upcoming video game, we had the pleasure of developing the website for the official video game. Our objective was to showcase the game’s beautiful new dark setting, while generating a large amount of pre-orders.
03

The Official Bloodline 2 Website

Inspired by the concept art from the game, we had a blast designing the new official website for Vampire : The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2. We pushed the envelope as much as we could in terms of animation and interactivity to bring out the immersive aspect of the game.

Most of the sections were aimed towards informing the visitors about the distinct new features about the game as well as showcase various spells, abilities, clans and factions available to players in Bloodlines 2. Also, in collaboration with amazing artists from the Bloodlines 2 team, we developed huge interactive posters which would serve as ways to discover more about the factions and the leaders within their ranks.

Developing a distinct visual style that portrayed the game’s vibe was crucial to this project, as we wanted to put front and forward the amazing art created by the game development team at Hardsuit Labs.

04

Earning in-game rewards

To increase engagement and time spent across all pages on the site, we gamified the official website through ‘quests’ that viewers had to accomplish. They could see these missions through the ‘My Account’ section of the website. It is there that they discovered their vampire rank, as well as the various rewards that they either already unlocked by playing the Tender ARG, or could unlock in the future by completing various tasks like participating in a referral system of finding hidden orbs within the website.

As this game was just revealed and had to generate hype and money through early sales, the pre-order section was a huge priority. We designed a visual and interactive module which allowed users to rapidly select and discover the contents of all the different editions of the game, and then be redirected to their favourite retailer to complete the transaction.

Other projects

Next projects: Breakfast Club

Breakfast Club

Next Project   Next Project   Next Project