Red Kiss – guiding vampires through a blood

Red Kiss – guiding vampires through a blood-soaked cold war Berlin

Inspired by interactive theatre and fuelled by the motion capture tech used by VTubers, the vampire spies in Red Kiss have personality in spades

‘You look at the news and you’re like, ‘Another pointless war, another pointless bloodshed, another pointless genocide.’ And that can make you a bit hopeless.”

Roy van der Schilden, narrative designer and business director at Wispfire, speaks of a very human feeling. But the protagonist of its upcoming game Red Kiss can relate – despite being a vampire.

You play as an (initially human) inhabitant of cold war Berlin who has tried to no avail to endure the conflict outside the window: through partying, journalling, activism … Still, you feel empty. When offered a new life of power and purpose, you don’t need much convincing to offer up your exposed neck.

“I think a lot of people who create vampire games feel the anguish and the melancholy of the genre,” says Van der Schilden. “Like, how to deal with your feeling of justice in an unjust world.”

In this tactical narrative RPG, you plunge into a fictional 80s Berlin by dispatching vampire agents to its fractured streets. They’re your eyes and ears, looking for clues, building reputation with city factions, and of course quenching their bloodthirst. As in last year’s superhero caper Dispatch (from AdHoc Studio), you’ll come across opportunities around the map, each with its own requirements, making use of a skillcheck system tied to six character skills. It’s up to you to pick the best fangs for the job, all while maintaining their energy, money and blood supply.

The vampires under your command are the beating (undead) heart of the experience. You progressively unveil their backstories by undertaking personal missions, during which you learn about their individual pasts and struggles. It’s in these moments that you begin to enact change and share some of your newfound purpose with others as guidance, deciding how their stories are ultimately resolved.

Wispfire emphasises the importance of the cast by infusing hand-drawn portraits with voice acting and motion-capture (mocap) animation. Notably, for the latter the team is using Live2D, a relatively inexpensive software tool commonly used by VTubers to animate their virtual avatars during a livestream.

A good iPhone was enough to start experimenting, but the team had to develop tools to adapt the software to suit their needs, and the tech isn’t without limitations. “With a mocap character for 3D, you usually can move your entire head,” says art director and animator Aïda de Ridder. “There’s something stuck to your face and it moves with you, right? We have a static phone, so we have to make their performance more centred. There is a limit to the range of movements.”

In order to make models feel “animated”, the team found that a performer needs to exaggerate their facial features to convey the desired result. But Wispfire is well acquainted with this, thanks to a shared background in interactive theatre where, as Van der Schilden says, “It’s harder to see for people in the back if you do a muted performance.”

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Vampires shine the most when they have strong personalities and distinct looks. In Red Kiss, many elements intersect with one another to give characters power and purpose. And this is all being funnelled through a queer and dark lens – like the best vampire stories are.

“We like queer media, “says Van der Schilden. “But we, as a team, always felt that a lot of the media was very pink rainbows, happy-go-lucky. We wanted to make a really dark, queer, diverse game. And I think Red Kiss is that.”

• Red Kiss is currently in development for PC, with a release date to be announced.

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