Bloodborne is an action role-playing video game developed by FromSoftware and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for PlayStation 4. Officially announced at Sony's Electronic Entertainment Expo 2014 conference, the game was released worldwide in March 2015. Bloodborne follows the player character, the Hunter, through the decrepit Gothic, Victorian era inspired city of Yharnam, whose inhabitants have been afflicted with an abnormal blood-borne disease. Upon awakening there on the night of the Hunt, the player is forcibly inducted into the ranks of the Hunters and cryptically told to "seek Paleblood". They begin to unravel the city's intriguing mysteries while slaying its many terrifying beasts, eventually attempting to destroy the source of the plague and escape the nightmare. The game is played from a third-person perspective, players control a customizable protagonist, and gameplay is focused on weapons-based combat and exploration. Players battle varied enemies, including bosses, using items such as swords and firearms, and journey through the story, exploring the game's different locations, interacting with non-player characters, collecting key items involved in the story, and discovering and unraveling the world's many mysteries. Bloodborne began development in 2012 under the working title of Project Beast. Bearing many similarities to the Souls series of games by the same company, Bloodborne was partially inspired by the literary works of authors H. P. Lovecraft and Bram Stoker, and the architectural design of certain real world locations in places such as Romania and the Czech Republic. The decision by game director Hidetaka Miyazaki to create a new intellectual property (IP) and not another Souls game was made because Miyazaki wanted to create something "different"; at the same time, Sony wanted a new IP to be made exclusively for the PlayStation 4.