| Blood Bowl Q&A with Antoine Villepreux of Cyanide Studio |
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How did the idea arise for the combination of American football and characters from the Warhammer universe?
The idea came from Jervis Johnson who invented this crazy board game for Games Workshop 20 years ago.
How many players are on each team and how many teams are there?
A team roster is made up of 16 players, but only 11 can enter the pitch at the same time.
From among the many available Blood Bowl races, we chose to use eight of them: Humans, Orcs, Dwarfs, Skaven, Goblins, Wood Elves, Lizard Men, and Chaos. They are quite representative of the Blood Bowl universe and provide a good variety of gameplay.
We created seven pre-made teams per race, which you will play with in quick matches or play against in leagues.
Can you create your own teams?
You cannot create new “races”. But you’ll be able to combine and modify (within constraints) existing player types to create new player types variants.
Of course you can build your own team roster by choosing a race and buying players among the different positions (blitzers, throwers, catchers, linemen...) and play as that custom team in tournaments.
Is Blood Bowl more a real time strategy game or management?
First of all, Blood Bowl is a tactical turn-based game. Turn-based play is the heart of the game, and this game mode is present on all platforms. We tried to be very faithful to the original board-game so Blood Bowl fans should not be disappointed. But we also hope newcomers will also enjoy such a funny but very deep game.
Because we had the opportunity, and had already experienced real-time in a previous game, we also developed a real time version of the gameplay. It’s the same game, the same balance, the same skills, but a totally different way to play it: no turns, every character moves at the same time, much more like an RTS, and matches take much less time than in turn-based mode.
On top of those two ways to play matches, is the management. We provide different game modes:
Solo Campaign mode: through the cycle of seasons, you level up your team to give you access to more and more important tournaments present on the world map, and try to finally reach the Blood Bowl, the biggest tournament – and where you will fight against the most famous teams.
Solo Championship mode: Select your preferred kind of league play(championship, cup, back and forth matches, league size…) and try to level up you team year after year.
Online League: Play online (for free) either in the public league (ladder) to compete against players from all over the world, or in a private league that you, one of your friends, or any other online community can setup their own way (customized championship formula, amount of players…) and administrate.
How in-depth are the team managerial aspects?
As far as team management, we are trying to stick with the depth of the original board game, which means, for example - you can buy players, re-rolls, cheerleaders, popularity and much more.
As you play, your players gain experience and levels, can increase their abilities and acquire new skills. The players can also get old, suffer injuries, and can even die. You’ll also need to manage your player contracts during the inter-season breaks.
At any time you can take a look at the many rankings, statistics spreadsheets, and best-of lists available. We also provide what we called the “blitz” option (which is opposed to the “classic” one). It’s a choice that the player makes before starting any of the game modes, and that gives him access to extra optional features, that are not part of the original board-game. Real time is one of those features, but not the only one – in blitz mode, you can buy additional equipment, pre-match training and extra inducements, along with having available customizable leagues options (permanent death or injuries…) and more.
What differences are there between the two game modes?
Basically, it’s the same players, same rules, same skills and attributes: but completely different ways to play the match.
Turn-based is a faithful board game adaptation - You play turn by turn, one player at a time, and you are prompted on all dice and skills choices, just like you’re playing a traditional board game.
Real-Time matches are much shorter (10 minutes vs. the typical hour for Turn-Based play) and do not suffer any interruptions (so dice rolls and skill usage are automated). All players move at the same time (like a traditional sports game) and we have some additional adaptations from the turn-based rules to reflect this change.
Can you give us a basic synopsis of a typical match - if there is such a thing as typical in this game?
In a single player turn-based match, you'll create your team, hire your players, name them, then hire extra staff like cheerleaders and apothecary to take care of your team, and head out onto the pitch.
From there, you set up your players on the pitch (using an existing formation or creating your own). For every new "drive", a random event will occur. Depending on the affection of your fans, hooligans can raid the pitch and knock down some players of one team, an extra re-roll can be offered...
The ball is then kicked by the attacker into the receiver's pitch. From then, you might, for example, catch the ball, hand it off or pass it. Or you might decide to take the nasty route, blocking and tackling defensive players to cut a path for a huge run. During tackles/blocks, you roll for effect - maybe you'll knock down the other player, injure him, or likewise be knocked down and injured yourself. The other player will obviously be chasing down your ball carrier. If you are successful you'll end up bringing the ball into the opposing player's touchdown zone and score!
It's a well known fact that most Blood Bowl players enjoy hitting the other players’ faces even more than scoring a touchdown, but do not forget that in the end, the winner is the one who scored the most touchdowns after 16 turns... At least from an official point of view, Orcs keeps repeating the real winner is the one who harvest the biggest amount of teeth.
Was it easy to decide which of the Warhammer beasts would make an appearance, being suited to the game must have been a deciding factor but what were the requirements, have you created any new ones aside from the board-game characters?
No, we didn’t create any new races for the game, as we want to stay faithful to the original board-game. So the only choices for us were to decide which eight races we would keep from all of the available ones, and which star-player would have its own 3d model for each race.
The game features a referee, but what's his role considering the game seems to follow no rules?
Well in theory there are some rules ;) For example you should not try to hit an opponent lying down on the pitch. If the referee sees you, you’ll be sent off until next kick off.
It was also simply fun to see him on the pitch since it’s a character that is usually not represented in the tabletop version.Playing with “blitz” options, you’ll also be able to bribe him!
The two major game modes seem to convey themselves at two different audiences, the true tabletop fans and just general players, what will interest players to jump between the two modes?
What could bring tabletop fans to real-time might simply be the fact that it’s the only possible way to play a quick match of Blood Bowl…and also because it’s fun!
As for general players, I do not see the turn-based mode as “too” hardcore. The video game “hides” a lot of the complexity of the tabletop game, while keeping its deep tactical aspect intact. When starting playing turn-based for the first time, you do not have to know all the subtle rules, you can just start running, passing and fighting. I think chess (and the like) players will certainly also love Blood-Bowl.
The management options seem perfect for the true table-top fans of the game, however can some of these options be turned off or can the players choose a game type without the advanced management options
The “Blitz” option is here to adapt the rules to your needs.
Were there any difficulties developing for a particular system, are there any large changes across the platforms because of this?
Sure. DS is in 2D. And DS and PSP versions do not have any real-time mode, due to performance issues. Also Xbox 360 real-time mode has been adapted to fit the platform controls.
What multiplayer game types will there be?
LAN and IP-Direct for local games will be available, along with Internet play for online leagues. In the Internet (free) online leagues there will be a public (ladder) league and the ability to create and manage your own custom private league, to share with friends, or to support an existing online community.
Note that the game also supports hot-seat playing on a PC for multiple players to compete on one PC.
Will new races (teams) be added as DLC down the road?
We hope so. If the game sells reasonably well, we’d really like to add all the remaining races.There is also room for new stadiums, rules extensions (cards) and more.
We'd like to thank Antoine for answering our questions.
For Blood Bowl screens and movies click here.
Posted By: Robert Cram
Date: 2009-02-09
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