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| A photo of Dan Pinchbeck (image source: Dan Pinchbeck) |
In a revealing new interview, Dan Pinchbeck, the former co-founder of developer The Chinese Room, has opened up about the turbulent development of *Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2*, confessing that he actively lobbied publisher Paradox Interactive to drop the coveted “Bloodlines 2” title altogether.
Pinchbeck, who left the studio in 2023 midway through the game's development, argued that the weight of the Bloodlines name—harkening back to the beloved 2004 cult classic—created an impossible standard for the troubled project.
A Legacy of High Stakes and "Anaconda F***balls"
Sitting down with host Cat Burton on The Goth Boss Podcast, Pinchbeck pulled back the curtain on a development cycle fraught with challenges. The Chinese Room inherited the project after its initial developer, Hardsuit Labs, was removed from the game following years of difficult production.
Pinchbeck described taking over a project that radiated "the frustration of a team who were desperately trying to finish something and really, really make their mark on it, but it had just gone south." He was quick to clarify this wasn't a criticism of Hardsuit Labs or Paradox, but rather an observation of the project's state.
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Faced with this reality, Pinchbeck and his team tried to rebuild the game from the ground up, incorporating elements from previous builds and the original title's celebrated storytelling. But from the very beginning, he believed the game's branding was its biggest obstacle.
“Right from the word go,” Pinchbeck revealed, “there was one of the producers that was then at Paradox, now with another publisher; we would sit there and go and have these planning sessions on ‘how do we get Paradox not to call it Bloodlines 2?’”
"You Can't Make Bloodlines 2"
The core of Pinchbeck's argument was starkly practical. With the constraints of time and budget, he felt recreating a direct sequel to one of PC gaming's most revered RPGs was simply unfeasible.
“That feels like the most important thing that we do here,” he vented, “is come at this and say this isn’t Bloodlines 2, you can’t make Bloodlines 2. There’s not enough time, and there’s not enough money.”
Instead of aiming for the open-world scale of a Skyrim, the team pivoted its vision. Pinchbeck explained their new goal was: “We can’t make Bloodlines 2, we can’t make Skyrim, but we can make Dishonored.”
Despite these passionate appeals, Paradox Interactive stood firm. The decision to keep the Bloodlines 2 name was driven by immense fan hype and commercial pressures—a situation Pinchbeck vividly compared to “untangling an anaconda f***ball of competing priorities.”
A Silver Lining in the Dark
Despite the overwhelming technical and logistical hurdles, Pinchbeck looked back fondly on one key aspect of his work: the story. “It was really, really important to do justice to the world and the mythos,” he said. “I had a lot of fun writing the story on that one, because the mythos on the RPG is so brilliant.”
Pinchbeck departed The Chinese Room in 2023 amid a studio restructuring, leaving the fate of the vampire RPG in other hands. Reflecting on the entire experience, he concluded with a dose of realism: “It was always going to be tricky.”
The highly anticipated—and often delayed—*Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2* is currently slated for a Fall 2024 release. You can secure your copy now to see how the final product lives up to its legendary name.