Behind the Scenes the Making of Vampires Bloodlord Rising

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Many works place vampires in modern times. We wanted to return to the roots, portraying a world reminiscent of the one where vampire legends were born. The clearest inspiration, of course, is the story of Dracula—or rather, the history of Vlad the Impaler. Interestingly, director Robert Eggers took a very similar and masterfully executed approach in his latest Nosferatu. While Eggers focuses on the horror aspect, we focus on the perspective of a ruler.

The theme of vampires is incredibly multifaceted, and the biggest challenge was meeting the expectations of vampire fans. But what exactly are those expectations? Some love vampires for their horror, others for their romantic allure, and still others for their extraordinary powers. Trying to capture every aspect can lead to creating a game that is about everything and nothing at the same time. Even though our game is a sandbox, we decided to focus primarily on portraying the perspective of a ruler. Defining and committing to this direction was the most important—and the most challenging—part of the process.

The foundation of the world is realism, enriched with fantastical elements. If we want to showcase a vampire castle, there must be a local population living in a nearby village. If there’s a village, there must be fields where peasants work, and so on. On top of this fundamental layer of realism, we add fantasy elements that are closely tied to the world’s lore and the aspects we find visually compelling.

A key guiding principle for us was the idea that a single human, even a trained warrior, shouldn’t pose a challenge to the player. After all, a vampire surpasses humans in almost every way. That’s why we drew inspiration from the combat style of the Batman: Arkham series and, as a result, decided to focus on battles against groups of enemies.

A significant part of our team previously worked on much simpler games in Unity, confined to linear spaces. Honestly, we never would have guessed that we’d so quickly reach the point of developing a game set in an open world. However, Unreal Engine is built for this kind of experience, and we quickly realized that with its capabilities, the ceiling of what we can achieve is much higher.

Following the game’s narrative and strategy unlocks new elements for castle construction. Some of these elements are strictly tied to gameplay mechanics, such as various workstations where our vampires can perform tasks. However, we have no issue adding purely decorative elements as well. Players love personalization, and the ability to create their dream castle is a need we are eager to fulfill.

We made sure the game is packed with a ton of activities, such as building, combat, gathering, and most importantly—management. In multiplayer, players can delegate these roles to each other, allowing them to focus on the aspect of the game they enjoy the most. At the same time, we’re very mindful that single-player players shouldn’t feel like they’re experiencing a stripped-down version of the game. To ensure this, certain tasks can be delegated to vampires the player has turned, reinforcing the feeling of leadership and control.

Ian: In both sound design and music, we aim for organic sound, rarely reaching for synthesised and modern sources. Rather than trying to recreate actual medieval music, we’re taking instruments associated with this period and using them in modern ways to convey an atmosphere appropriate for the game. What if a folk band tried to play dark ambient? What if a medieval equivalent of Slipknot was performing in a tavern during a violent fight, at a wedding gone wrong? Having said that, some of the music is traditional, movie-style orchestral compositions, as they feel most fitting for an epic tale of vampirism, especially during cutscenes.

It’s hard for me to speak for the entire team. Personally, I love watching gameplay videos online and seeing how much fun people are having. That’s the moment you realize that all your effort wasn’t just a collection of completed tasks in a spreadsheet, but actual entertainment for someone whose existence you weren’t even aware of. Incredible!

People love bringing their relationships into the virtual world, which is why creating a game like this is our response to that trend. Players also feel an increasing need to express themselves in games, making character and environment customization incredibly important to them. We strive to meet these expectations, but it’s pure enjoyment for us—we spend a lot of time in multiplayer games ourselves and love games with strong building features.

Michał Ciastoń – CEO, game designer, writer with over 7 years of experience. Creator of the Lust Universe series. Fan of tabletop RPGs.

Martyna Cichoń – Lead programmer with over 7 years of experience. Independently programmed Lust from Beyond and Lust for Darkness. Aspiring drummer.

Michał Gołaszewski – Senior Programmer with nearly six years of gamedev experience. Contributed to Dying Light 2 during a Techland internship and has worked on several indie projects in Wrocław’s gamedev scene. TTRPG enthusiast — currently obsessed with Pathfinder 2e.

Andrzej S. Bieniek – Senior UX/UI Designer with over 15 years of experience (7+ years in game development). Illustrator, 2D animator, and indie game designer. Passionate about eccentric games and music. Collector of old keys.

Zbigniew Konarzewski – Lead Art and Technical Artist with over 9 years of experience in the gaming industry. He has contributed to titles such as Sniper Ghost Warrior, Sniper Ghost Warrior 2, Lords of the Fallen 2, and Outriders Worldslayer. Privately, he is a dog enthusiast and professional dog trainer.

Paweł Rotter – Lead level designer, experienced level artist and 3D artist, and rising technical artist. Developer of Hours After Midnight.

Anna Nowak – 3D artist specializing in character and clothing design. Proud owner of two wonderful cats.

Tomasz Łoboda – Lead animator. Graphic designer and game journalist since 1992, 3D artist and animator since 2004. Worked on projects such as Alien Rage, Enemy Front, Lords of the Fallen, Real Boxing 2, Godfire: Rise of Prometheus, Succubus, Ship Graveyard Simulator 2.

Ian Giedrojć – Lead sound designer. Sound and co-writer of Lust from Beyond, director of documentaries and feature films, i.e. Madnight 2021: Horror Showcase.

We also have tremendous support from our publisher Toplitz Productions, whose employees support us not only with marketing and financially, but also share their experience in optimization, design and production.

The new title better represents our game, which, aside from creating your own bloodline, focuses on the titular Bloodlord. Players start as Dragos, who has been granted land by his dark master, Vorago. His goal is to rebuild the ruins of his castle and fight off the encroaching Inquisition. While the game begins with Dragos as a lord, players can rise through the ranks by completing tasks assigned by Vorago, eventually becoming a baron, a viscount, and beyond. The success of a game often depends on meeting players’ expectations, which is why we carefully considered a title that best conveys what our game is all about.

Players can use the power of hypnosis, which causes the victim to start following us mindlessly, which, for example, will help in taking the villager outside the village to avoid witnesses. In testing, we noticed that some players use this effect on… rabbits! A vampire followed by hypnotized rabbits is cute and disturbing at the same time!

I’m convinced it will be our sound designer, Ian Giedrojć, as he’s known for working through the night. It’s hard to compete with that level of experience in avoiding sunrise!

Written by Ronny Fiksdahl, Founder & Editor of Fix Gaming Channel.

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