Interviewed by Ben and Infestator
Liz Buckley, Product Manager of BloodRayne

1. What is your name, and what is your role in the creation of BloodRayne?

Liz Buckley, Product Manager. I’m responsible for all marketing elements of the game including packaging, advertising, promotions, etc. I work very closely with Product Development, PR and Sales to get the word out and get the product on the shelf.

2. Where did the idea of a Vampire who kills Nazis come from?

There are tons of half-vampire stories out there from Blade to Vampire Hunter D that indirectly affect the overall mythology of dhampirs. Terminal Reality has experience designing games set in the 1930s and 1940s so they were comfortable designing a story just prior to World War II.
The actual environments and story were a very intertwined process. Terminal Reality knew they wanted to fit two popular genres together that normally weren’t combined (vampires and WWII), so Nazis were an obvious choice for enemies. The actual occult tie-in with the Nazis is well enough established through history so it was easy to play with it.

3. What kind of supernatural abilities do Agent BloodRayne posses?

BloodRayne has superhuman strength, agility and speed in addition to a series of supernatural dhampir visions. In terms of movement, she’s an incredible gymnast—flips, aerials, massive jumps—they’re a spectacular part of BloodRayne’s killing in the game. She can also hold a gun in each hand and target two different enemies at once, all while running at full speed. There’s never a shortage of action or firepower!

BloodRayne is also capable of Blood Rage—a berserker state during which she uses a whole new set of attacks that are much more deadly than her regular ones. In Blood Rage, she’s close to unstoppable but it’s only available while her Bloodlust meter is filled (then it’s up to the player to refill it with additional blade attacks).

She also has a unique set of vision modes: Extruded View, Dilated Perception and Aura Vision. Extruded View is a 1st person sniper vision that allows her to zero in on distant targets and take them out. Dilated Perception is earned about 25% of the way through the game and comes in handy when BloodRayne is outnumbered in combat situations. With slow motion enabled, she can dodge bullets, better target her attacks and clear a room much faster and more efficiently than she normally would. Finally, Aura Vision is a critical navigational tool that leads players to their next objective while providing the added ability of helping BloodRayne pick out victims that are most vulnerable.

4. Does she have any other weapons than her blades?

Definitely! BloodRayne features more than 30 different guns plus explosives and grenades. She can pick up and use any weapon her enemy uses and her inventory automatically optimizes. Players can also choose from 4 different weapon modes to efficiently manage firepower for a given situation.

BloodRayne can hold a small arsenal on her body: up to four handguns and/or small sub machineguns on her belt, up to two rifles and/or large sub machineguns on her back, up to two grenades on her belt and one special weapon on her back.

Don’t forget that BloodRayne always has her teeth and harpoon knife that function as weapons too. She can feed in one of two ways: hopping onto a victim to feed upright or throwing out her harpoon knife to reel a victim in and then feed on him on the ground.

5. “Horror-filled cinematic action immerses you in a story that you play instead of watch.” Can you go into detail about this?

There's a lot of history and character development in BloodRayne that makes for a complex storyline. That story unfolds through in game cinemas while intertwining seemingly unconnected locations, enemies and events. As the player progresses, the game’s three geographies (Louisiana, Argentina and Germany), varied amount of enemies (Nazis, Maraisreq spiders, vampires, mutates, Daemites and more) and supernatural artifacts connect and start to make sense. This “discovery” all happens in conjunction with non-stop, fast game play action.

6. Will there be varying levels of A.I. like in Max Payne?

The AI was designed to be quick and fun to play against. Each character in the game makes decisions based on a goal system that is influenced by traits, current physical conditions and situations. This gave the characters a sense of individuality and ensures that no two game sessions play out the same way. Soldiers are able to react to things like dead bodies, ally calls, gunfire or a BloodRayne sighting. The reaction to any given situation differs with each individual soldier. A brave one might engage in direct battle or come running to the assistance of an ally, while a cowardly soldier may fall back to allies farther away from the action, run to the nearest alarm or flee. The goal system is flexible enough to allow dynamic changes; i.e. a brave soldier passing by a multitude of gored allies while chasing BloodRayne may rethink the wisdom of his choice.

7. Can you give us details about the Infernal Engine?

The Infernal Engine is a completely new, written-from-scratch game and graphics engine that achieves superior rendering, lighting, animation, and physics at an astonishing framerate. This fully three-dimensional real-time engine allows for silky smooth transitions and blending. Terminal Reality can do lighting tricks that few other engines pull off while achieving a high level of realism and detail in the levels and characters.

Along with the lightmapped shadows and bump/specular mapping, the Infernal Engine also incorporates a debris/gore system that allows us to permanently leave severed limbs and broken pieces of the environment lying around. Often, you'll return to a room and realize that you'd already been there because the floor is littered with shattered boxes, spent machine guns, arms, legs, heads and other various body parts. Blood streaks on the floor and walls remain as permanent indicators that BloodRayne has been there.

8. Does this game take advantage of the Xbox hardware, or is it a port?

Meeting our development schedule would have been impossible if Terminal Reality had separate teams working on multiple versions of the game. There were dedicated programmers to the core of each platform, but all of the higher-level code is the same. The game was designed knowing that we would launch on all four systems, so there were no custom features for a specific platform.

9. What is your opinion on the Xbox hardware, and what do you see in the future for it?

Majesco’s catalog of products for 2002 and beyond attests to our support of the system and our belief that Xbox has a great deal of potential in the marketplace. Microsoft has stiff competition but they’ve made some incredible inroads and we think the system will continue to perform well in the future.

10. How long has the game been in development, and has it switched platforms at any point?

Approximately 18 months. The game was always slated to be on all 3 next generation consoles and PC and that’s what we delivered (2 weeks early actually).

11. How will BloodRayne distinguish itself from other action shooters?

I think BloodRayne’s appeal lies in the successful combination of a lot of different gameplay elements. There are, of course, many action shooters on the market, but let’s face it—none of them boast a badass heroine who harpoons enemies; slices up parasitic creatures and giant spiders; totes two guns at once and takes on 10 guys at once; flips and twists like a gymnast; flies into beserker Blood Rage mode; uses supernatural visions to hunt down and kill her prey; sports 4 ft blades on her arms; swears like a truck driver and snacks on Nazis. That’s pretty damn distinguishing!

12. Will the Xbox version have any exclusive features (graphic enhancement, extra levels, etc)?

The team developed the art at a high resolution with bump and specular maps for Xbox since the system has the memory to use them. So visually, the Xbox version will look sharper and have a higher amount of detail than the other versions.

13. Will there be any multiplayer aspect to the game?

Terminal Reality had an ambitious development schedule and the intention was to make a solid single player game that delivered a great game play experience.

14. What is the estimated release date at this time?

We’re very excited that we beat our Halloween launch date by 2 weeks for all three console versions. Xbox, PlayStation 2 and GameCube versions of the game shipped on October 15th so they’re in store now. PC will ship in March 2003 so it can be a simultaneous launch with the 4 international versions.

15. What aspect of the game are you most proud of?

I’m proud of a great deal we were able to accomplish from a development and marketing perspective, but if I had to pick one thing that encompasses both, it would be the character design. Early on in development, BloodRayne looked incredibly different than she does in the final game—buns in her black hair, goth- looking costume, monster-like features, etc…. We went through several iterations of the character before we arrived at our current redheaded, hottie vamp. She has her own unique look plus killer sex appeal, dangerous blades, spiked boots, ribbons, leather and lots of fang. Plus she has a major attitude that comes out in game. BloodRayne is the type of strong female character that has long-lasting appeal.

16. What will the gore be like in the game? Will it be strictly blood, or will it be blood and guts.

There is a lot of blood, dismemberment and beheading throughout the game. You won’t see “entrails” per se, but there’s enough slicing and dicing of body parts to keep even the most bloodthirsty gamers satisfied. Another nice feature relating to the gore—blood and bodies remain in an environment once a player has left it. This detail not only helps in navigation but it’s indicative of the level of detail players can expect from the game.

17. Is there anything you would like to say about BloodRayne in general?

BloodRayne’s the new, badass chick on the block and this isn’t the last you’ll see of her. ;)