Big Download got a chance to ask questions to the Cyanide Studio team and got answers from the game's production director Antoine Villepreux and its lead programmer Pierre Marie Charavel. If you check out their answers you may find that some of the previously unnamed games in the new Blood Bowl have been revealed in our interview.
First were you happy with the response that you got from the first version of Blood Bowl?
Antoine Villepreux: Sure. There has immediately been a very active community around the game and almost 900,000 matches have been played on our online platform.
Pierre Marie Charavel: Yes we were – and still are: it is cool to see players still connecting online and playing a lot of matches in a day.
What made the development team decide to make an all new and expanded version of the game?
Antoine Villepreux: We knew from the beginning, when starting Blood Bowl 1, than there was plenty of room for future expansions, and we were only hopping that the 1st opus would have enough success to allow us to work on those.
You are adding a ton of new playable sides in this game. How do you balance all of these new factions with the ones that were introduced in the original game?
Antoine Villepreux: On one hand that's the easy part, since we do our best to be fully compliant with the original rulebook, and so we just have to use the rulebook balance, but on the other hand it makes AI a bit tricky to implement for sure.
Pierre Marie Charavel: The most complicated race to do right is definitely the Vampire: their Blood Lust skill is really something!
What are some of your favorite new "teams" in the Legendary Edition and why?
Antoine Villepreux: For their visual aspect my preferred team is the Undead. They look very cool and I love the ghoul!
Pierre Marie Charavel: Well...I like the Norse...they drink beers and know how to fight on the pitch. Then I also love the Ogres because the Snotling is so funny when he tries to chew his arm...yes, he's dumb!
What can you tell us about the new story mode in the new version?
Pierre Marie Charavel: This mode will offer some varieties and act as a big introduction to new races. At some point in the story you will be able to build your own team and choose what competitions you want to take part in. Games will be a bit more challenging with objectives to fulfill like "Score 2 TDs & make 10 dodges" in order to advance in the story. The goal is to win the Blood Bowl.
What other new features and additions can you tell us that will be put in the game?
Pierre Marie Charavel: We are adding 11 races, 8 Star Players and 3 new stadiums to the game. Also Goblin fans will be delighted to see the Bombardier in action: he's throwing bombs and the opponents are not that happy! Since we are aiming for a more BB CRP compliant edition, we have added Weather: it's now raining and snowing on the pitch. There is also a whole new multiplayer lobby with new features: we read all the criticisms– good or bad – and took into account suggestions, and designed a new interface from scratch that hopefully will meet players' expectation. There are really a lot of new features in this edition.
Will there be any new graphical improvements made in the Legendary Edition?
Antoine Villepreux: Not that much. We are still pretty happy with how it looks today, and didn't want to increase PC configuration requirements. Some might consider that adding stuff like weather effects as graphical improvements.
Pierre Marie Charavel: There's graphical improvement with the Weather system. It actually changes a stadium quite nicely.
After this game are there plans for any other Blood Bowl titles?
Antoine Villepreux: As always it will depend on the success of that edition. But expansion possibilities are almost endless.
Finally is there anything else you wish to say about Blood Bowl: Legendary Edition?
Antoine Villepreux: It rocks.
Pierre Marie Charavel: I hope players will love this new edition!
Antoine Villepreux: Sure. There has immediately been a very active community around the game and almost 900,000 matches have been played on our online platform.
Pierre Marie Charavel: Yes we were – and still are: it is cool to see players still connecting online and playing a lot of matches in a day.
What made the development team decide to make an all new and expanded version of the game?
Antoine Villepreux: We knew from the beginning, when starting Blood Bowl 1, than there was plenty of room for future expansions, and we were only hopping that the 1st opus would have enough success to allow us to work on those.
You are adding a ton of new playable sides in this game. How do you balance all of these new factions with the ones that were introduced in the original game?
Antoine Villepreux: On one hand that's the easy part, since we do our best to be fully compliant with the original rulebook, and so we just have to use the rulebook balance, but on the other hand it makes AI a bit tricky to implement for sure.
Pierre Marie Charavel: The most complicated race to do right is definitely the Vampire: their Blood Lust skill is really something!
What are some of your favorite new "teams" in the Legendary Edition and why?
Antoine Villepreux: For their visual aspect my preferred team is the Undead. They look very cool and I love the ghoul!
Pierre Marie Charavel: Well...I like the Norse...they drink beers and know how to fight on the pitch. Then I also love the Ogres because the Snotling is so funny when he tries to chew his arm...yes, he's dumb!
Pierre Marie Charavel: This mode will offer some varieties and act as a big introduction to new races. At some point in the story you will be able to build your own team and choose what competitions you want to take part in. Games will be a bit more challenging with objectives to fulfill like "Score 2 TDs & make 10 dodges" in order to advance in the story. The goal is to win the Blood Bowl.
What other new features and additions can you tell us that will be put in the game?
Pierre Marie Charavel: We are adding 11 races, 8 Star Players and 3 new stadiums to the game. Also Goblin fans will be delighted to see the Bombardier in action: he's throwing bombs and the opponents are not that happy! Since we are aiming for a more BB CRP compliant edition, we have added Weather: it's now raining and snowing on the pitch. There is also a whole new multiplayer lobby with new features: we read all the criticisms– good or bad – and took into account suggestions, and designed a new interface from scratch that hopefully will meet players' expectation. There are really a lot of new features in this edition.
Will there be any new graphical improvements made in the Legendary Edition?
Antoine Villepreux: Not that much. We are still pretty happy with how it looks today, and didn't want to increase PC configuration requirements. Some might consider that adding stuff like weather effects as graphical improvements.
Pierre Marie Charavel: There's graphical improvement with the Weather system. It actually changes a stadium quite nicely.
After this game are there plans for any other Blood Bowl titles?
Antoine Villepreux: As always it will depend on the success of that edition. But expansion possibilities are almost endless.
Finally is there anything else you wish to say about Blood Bowl: Legendary Edition?
Antoine Villepreux: It rocks.
Pierre Marie Charavel: I hope players will love this new edition!
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