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Well, the lip synch animations that I worked ...
January 31, 2007 by Adam in NWN2
 Well, the lip synch animations that I worked so hard on yesterday didn't work. I'm not quite sure why, at this point. I'm going to do some experiments and see if there's something obvious going on.
My debugging continues, working through PJJ's lengthy list. For example, in the prototype, I had this conversation that popped up when you clicked on a sign. It turns out it's rather clunky, so I moved it to the placeable description instead. With NWN2, you can have "Examine" be the default action. Otherwise it was pretty rare that people would go around examining everything. Unfortunately it took me a half an hour to switch them over.
There's plenty to do. Hopefully I can get through the bulk of the list today and get a new version to the testers. I'm really liking the voice acting. With Daniel's voice in the mix, the characters really come to life.
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I'm incredibly busy, but it's a very good kin...
January 30, 2007 by Adam in NWN2
I'm incredibly busy, but it's a very good kind of busy. Chris did the bulk of the voice work for Daniel and it's really good. I'm lucky to have some great voice actors and the majority of the dialog should be voiced. It's been pretty grueling to put everything together, but hopefully people appreciate it.
I have an untested implementation of my Kung-Fu style lip synching. It's not actually lip synched, but should hopefully provide the illusion of speaking. I think I've found a way to match the length of the voice clip to the animation, but I'll know more after testing tonight.
Debugging continues, with PJJ doing a wonderful job providing lots of good feedback. I'm still about halfway through the big bug report from the weekend. Good QA is another critical thing when doing these projects and I'm very grateful for his help.
All-in-all, things are going very well. No promises as to when I'll be truly finished, but hopefully it's not too long from now.
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After feeling like I was just puttering aroun...
January 29, 2007 by Adam in NWN2
 After feeling like I was just puttering around for a couple days, I finally got into the meat of things. First off, PJJ did a wonderful job testing, giving me pages of tidbits to go through. Sure enough, there's a fair amount of problems. Most are pretty easy to resolve, but a few are going to take some investigation on my part. I'm going to spend today going through the rest of the issues and see if I can take care of the easy ones. For the rest, I'll probably be adding debug code and seeing what comes up.
I also managed to convince my wife to record some dialog for the game. She's not a gamer by any stretch of the imagination, but she was surprisingly enthusiastic. I'd never really thought about the quality of her voice before, but it's rather nice and I may end up giving her some more work in the future. The main advantage is that she's always about and I can quickly steal her away to redo some part or another.
I think we're down to one major NPC who needs the dialog finished and a fair number of small parts here and there that I'd like to fill in. PJJ is really enjoying the voice acting, so I'm hoping it helps make an impact on the storyline.
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I worked on odds and ends yesterday and this ...
January 28, 2007 by Adam in NWN2
I worked on odds and ends yesterday and this morning. For whatever reason, I got the urge to write, and worked up some dialog for later in the campaign. I was quite happy with how it turned out and can't wait to move the story to that point.
Awhile back I got a request to add an RSS feed to this site. Since it's all coded by hand, I read up on the specifics, did a bit of coding, and whipped something up. There should now be a cute little RSS icon next to the URL for folks using Firefox or IE.
I also finally got around to adding a Downloads section to the navigation, though currently the only thing there is the Pirate Cards game.
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While I wait for QA to get cracking on testin...
January 26, 2007 by Adam in NWN2
 While I wait for QA to get cracking on testing, I've been finishing up some of the sound clips. Today it's working on my Lord Highcastle voice. I have a hard time judging my own voice, but hopefully it's not too horrible. I'm actually more excited about Chris' Daniel that he's working on diligently. He did some great stuff for the second module and Firestarter and can't wait to hear more.
I also need to find some time to work on other things like a walkthrough, list of credits, and so on. It's been rough being sick the last few days, but I think I'm on the mend. I've also got some interviews that people would like me to do (for my old NWN stuff, of all things). Busy, busy.
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I completely forgot
January 25, 2007 by Adam in NWN2
I completely forgot. I wrote up a toolset review for the NWVault the other day.
I'm still recovering, trying to find some time to get to e-mail and such. I have some sound clips I need to chop up, process, and stick in the game. Slowly getting there.
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I was as sick as a dog today and stayed home ...
January 25, 2007 by Adam in NWN2
I was as sick as a dog today and stayed home from work. While I couldn't move around much without upsetting my stomach, I did manage to finish the official campaign for NWN2. The final part of Act III was superb, clearly the focus of a lot of polish. Obsidian also did a great job at tying together a lot of the characters storylines at the end. Looking back over the entire campaign, I can now see how lots of the decisions I made impacted the ending.
Though I didn't work on my project at all, it was in the back of my mind the whole time. One thing I really enjoyed was upgrading my keep. I may end up changing things around with the player's ship in the second module. Currently you can switch ships like pairs of pants, but you lose a sense of ownership that you get when you have your own vessel, lovingly upgraded over your adventures. Anyway, something to ponder after I finish with the upcoming bug fixing and release of the first module.
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I spent today working to make sure the QA fol...
January 24, 2007 by Adam in NWN2
I spent today working to make sure the QA folks got it. The free file hosting sites are all somewhat sketchy in terms of spyware and such. Still, I tried a couple different sites and hopefully got the file to the people who needed it.
I continue to work on last minute things. I recorded a couple of the NPCs myself last night, just to get 'em done. It was fun playing with the various sound options in Audacity to make the voices sound like a totally different person.
I continue to try really hard to get lip synching in the game. Due to weird technical issues I need to make the length of the sound clip files to be a certain number of characters. I ended up spending a bunch of time making a toolset plug-in to make it happen. I'm not done yet, but I'm getting there.
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It's done
January 23, 2007 by Adam in NWN2
It's done.
It took me longer than I wanted, but I packaged up everything, uploaded it, tested the download, and made sure everything actually installs. I then went over to the dusty project boards that I've been ignoring far too long and made a post.
I already have a few things on my "to do" list for the next version, but for tomorrow I want to try and catch up on my e-mails. I suspect I'll be busy enough fixing bugs in a few days, not to mention getting the last of the voice work together. Still, it's a great feeling to reach this stage of the project.
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I was all ready to work on a new head for Dan...
January 22, 2007 by Adam in NWN2
 I was all ready to work on a new head for Daniel, one of the main NPCs. I took an existing head, retextured the head, smoothed out the normal maps, and got it looking great in the toolset. Unfortunately after a save and reload, the head vanished. I decided not to pursue the matter, as even a chance of a headless Daniel doesn't appeal to me.
I switched to cleaning up other issues. I finished writing and scripting the final dialog. It's a bit of dénûment, a calm interlude after the main action. I also made sure variables and NPCs were properly saved off.
I tested the transfer to the second module. The transition is a little odd - if the second module isn't present, you'll have to click on a "Load Module 2" placeable nearby. It works, but is a little quirky. It's challenging releasing an entire campaign in pieces.
Hopefully tomorrow I can package up what I've got and send it off to the testers. It's been a long time coming.
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Progress continues, though no flashy screensh...
January 20, 2007 by Adam in NWN2
Progress continues, though no flashy screenshots for the time being. I added a campaign description and penciled out some dialog for the final scene. I toyed with modifying the default heads for a couple key NPCs, but decided it would simply take too much time for not that big a payoff.
I'm also trying hard to keep up with e-mail. I've got a toolset review coming on the Vault sometime this week. I tried to do a dump of odd things I've learned along the way, so hopefully it's somewhat useful.
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110 Megabytes
January 19, 2007 by Adam in NWN2
110 Megabytes. That's how big the full install is shaping up to be. Of course, I haven't gotten all the voice actor work in there, so it'll likely get even bigger. I haven't done a "lite" version without load screens, music, and voice acting. If I were going to guess, it would be a third of that or so.
Anyway, I spent this morning trying to get the installer to work. I needed to manually copy a tlk file to a certain place, but otherwise it worked pretty well. I must have fired up the game a dozen times, though. The little "beep beep" the accompanies the Atari logo continues to echo in my brain.
I'm still feeling like I want to do a bit more cleanup before I unload this massive file on the QA folks. Hopefully next week I can finally get some other people taking a look at this monstrosity.
Update: So far it looks like the "Lite" version is 35 MB in size, which might be in reach of patient modem users. My rough estimate is that it would take a little under two hours to download.
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Today was overwhelming, with work and family
January 18, 2007 by Adam in NWN2
Today was overwhelming, with work and family. I managed an hour or so this morning, debugging yet some more. In this case it was to add some "just in case" code if the player ends up getting in combat or killing off a couple of the henchmen right before a particular cutscene. I'm still exploring hosting options for the QA work. It looks like there's a bunch of free ones, though I'll have to muffle my guilt at exposing the poor QA folks to endless ads. We'll see how it goes.
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Will the game stopping bugs ever end? I foun...
January 16, 2007 by Adam in NWN2
 Will the game stopping bugs ever end? I found a new batch yesterday, most of which have been fixed. There were some weird ones, such as having party members miraculously jumping through locked doors. Now I just have an issue with dead companions not appropriately vanishing, instead following the player around like a haunted dead critter. That should be easy to fix.
Still, progress seems very good at this point. I feel closer to QA release than I have been in many weeks. EvilMulder has some polished music releases I need to integrate into the campaign. I want to get an installer ready to go. I also need a good readme file and walkthrough, though I may work on that during QA testing. There's also some voice acting work that's missing, some of it fairly major. In a pinch I think I can just "make it happen", but the quality may not be as good as I'd like.
The tricky part is finding a good place to host the files. I'm currently looking at a 100 MB download, with 10 or so QA folks downloading new versions each week. My poor little closet server can't handle it.
I still have an SVN server I can use, but I'm not sure how easy it is to deal with files spread out across so many directories. The installer approach is simpler in some ways, though admittedly leads to big downloads.
Anyway, it's starting to feel like there's a light at the end of the tunnel. I'm sure there's a number of hurdles before we're finished, but I'm pretty happy with how things are coming along.
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More game-stopping bugs
January 15, 2007 by Adam in NWN2
 More game-stopping bugs. I finally got around to testing through a section of the game I hadn't really touched before. Sure enough, there were all sorts of issues. In one case, a custom floor I'd put down in an area was unwalkable. In another, a cutscene fired but never finished. Now I'm wrestling with a ladder that's supposed to allow easy travel between levels, but doesn't actually do anything.
The good news is I think this is the last of the mostly untested sections of the game. Hopefully I can get this level's kinks worked out, polish up the end a bit more, and get this monstrosity to QA to find out what horrible mistakes I've missed.
I also treated myself again and got into the third act of the official campaign. I wish I had more time to play, as I'm starting to really enjoy it.
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I made some really good progress yesterday
January 14, 2007 by Adam in NWN2
 I made some really good progress yesterday. Several more show-stopping bugs have been fixed. I also made sure a key conversation fires that makes the interaction between the player and a companion much more interesting. There were also endless little polish and side bugs that got fixed along the way. At this point, I can think of one major area I need to sweep for serious bugs. I also want to write some text for the final scene. Then it's a matter of getting this massive beast QA'ed.
The underwater section of the game was completely broken, with players, creatures, and placeables turning invisible. Plus the whole "holding your breath" part wasn't working. After resetting the environmental settings and adding the right area variables, it seems much better now.
The load screens ended up to be more work than I thought. It turns out the loadscreens.2da file doesn't like entries over 255, so I had to move mine up to the 200 range. I also added some TIPS and LORE text that appear on that screen, which is pretty snazzy. I can see using that considerably in future modules.
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It took me far too long to get all the load s...
January 13, 2007 by Adam in NWN2
 It took me far too long to get all the load screens working right. I had two module-corrupting crashes along the way, but carefully recovered from backup and kept trying until I had them all.
I treated myself to a bit of play time with the official campaign. I'm towards the end of the second act in the final dungeon, I think. My party seems pretty unstoppable at this point, with death happening only when I'm careless. High level parties tend to be that way.
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I tried hard to catch up with e-mail yesterday
January 12, 2007 by Adam in NWN2
 I tried hard to catch up with e-mail yesterday. I had a couple from some gaming magazines, wanting screenshots and text and such. I was a little late with their requests, but hopefully they can still get something to print. One of their requests was for screenshots, so I took the opportunity to get some load screens as well.
Load screens are at an insanely high resolution, 1600x800, which one of my computers can barely do. I ended up taking them in the toolset, which was easier to position properly. I'll probably limit the number of load screens since they're pretty big in size, though the total size of the module is already fairly massive.
It was fun to revisit some of the areas I haven't seen for awhile, such as the underwater ones. Hopefully today I can do the 2da file work and perhaps write some text for the tips that appear on the screen. Finally, I'll need to assign a load screen for each area. Currently they're random, and often look pretty odd.
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I think the last of the polish issues have be...
January 11, 2007 by Adam in NWN2
 I think the last of the polish issues have been resolved in the Remembrance: War area. I might tweak the balance a bit more, currently it seems a tad easy. I'm currently going through other sections of the game, noting various bugs.
I hit another show-stopper, an unwalkable area on the 1st level that made it impossible to move forward in the game. Assorted minor bugs continue to pop up, from conversations that don't properly fire to two doors placed in a doorway. Plenty of work to do yet.
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More show-stopping bugs
January 10, 2007 by Adam in NWN2
 More show-stopping bugs. I was running through the beginning of the module and found a couple places where the player simply couldn't progress. The worst was when an NPC kept endlessly jumping back and forth, never triggering the conversation that took the story forward.
I'm insanely busy, but trying to catch up with e-mail again. I have this agreement I need to sign in order to the the Pirate Cards game onto the german PC Gamer magazine. I'll get it in the mail tomorrow, hopefully. Busy, busy.
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I was getting ready to post a "I haven't done...
January 09, 2007 by Adam in NWN2
 I was getting ready to post a "I haven't done anything" message, but I ended up waking up early this morning and managed some solid debug time. There were some game-stopping bugs right after the entrance, evidently broken in the prototype and carried over to the NWN2 version. Repeating conversations that never end sure can be annoying.
I snuck in a tiny bit of modeling as well. You can see one of the broken crystals in the background of this screenshot.
I'm going to try really hard to get to my e-mail today or tomorrow. My sense of guilt is palpable.
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Yowza have I been busy the last few days
January 08, 2007 by Adam in NWN2
Yowza have I been busy the last few days. I'm taking time I don't have for a quick post.
I think the Remembrance: War area is finally working well enough. There are issues that I'd like to address, but they're mostly cosmetic or balance issues.
At this point, there's still some sections of the game that I haven't gone through in great detail, but the list is shrinking fast.
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Debugging continues, seemingly endlessly
January 07, 2007 by Adam in NWN2
 Debugging continues, seemingly endlessly. Well, it's not that bad, it just seems that every time I play through a section, I make note of all sorts of issues. Some of them are theoretical, some are possible exploits, and others are downright game-stopping.
My wife gets back today, so maybe I'll get more time. I also have to get to reading e-mail and discussion boards, which I've ignored for way too long now. I may be pretty good at making modules, but I'm a lousy project manager.
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Testing of the War area continues
January 05, 2007 by Adam in NWN2
 Testing of the War area continues. I have some balance issues at the moment - it's generally way too easy. There's also some dialog that isn't triggered, plus the horrible game lock up at the end of the area. Obviously, more work is needed.
Being the sole parent of two kids this week, one of whom is sick, is a bigger challenge than I thought. I've been sneaking in time here and there, but finding several solid hours to code is an impossibility. Ah well, my wife arrives tanned and rested from Mexico tomorrow.
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One of the things I felt vaguely guilty about...
January 04, 2007 by Adam in NWN2
 One of the things I felt vaguely guilty about was giving QA a pretty badly broken module to test when I was working on the prototype for the first module. You couldn't get from place to place, some areas didn't work, and it was quite the exercise in frustration. I'm trying hard to have the NWN2 version be at least playable from beginning to end, even if there are assorted issues along the way. There's still a couple areas that aren't working and would effectively keep a player from finishing.
Today I worked on the end of the Remembrance: War area, making notes about balance and the fact that the cavalry never shows up at the end (metaphorically speaking - there are no horses in Dark Water). This is one of those game-stopping bugs where the player twiddles his thumbs and wonders why the game isn't progressing any more. Hopefully it can be fixed soon.
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One of the things I've always struggled with ...
January 03, 2007 by Adam in NWN2
 One of the things I've always struggled with is how to best handle death in the game. For companions, it works much like the official campaign. If they fall in battle, they'll lay there and groan until the fight is over, returning wounded but alive. For the main character, though, I didn't want to simply take the "reload game" approach. Occasionally people get stuck in situations where they haven't saved in a long while and I don't really want to waste their time playing through an area again.
I've struggled with the concept in most of my modules. For Dark Waters I introduced Death, who shows up to collect you. I added the skeleton head model, wrote the dialog, and recorded my own voice. Hopefully it's an amusing way to handle the issue. Odds are, people will keep trying to die simply to find out what Death does next.
The debugging continues. Some of it is pretty minor at this point, like why some barrels aren't exploding in flames as desired. I'm hoping I can give it some more attention today, though with my wife out of town and a sick son, it's a bit of a challenge.
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I did some fiddling with the heads of a coupl...
January 02, 2007 by Adam in NWN2
 I did some fiddling with the heads of a couple key NPCs. The custom NPC heads that come with the game have a nicer range of skin tones, in my opinion. It also gives me the option of subtly modifying the heads later on, which might be fun.
I'm a full-time parent this week, so finding development time is even more of a challenge than usual. I managed to run through the final battle several times, getting things working as expected. It's a tough fight, and players who are cautious will have an easier time of it. The trap setting was especially challenging without the CreateTrapAtLocation function, but I managed to cobble something reasonable together. The hardest opponents are the firebomb-throwing Slithers, which can wipe out the party in moments.
I'm running out of areas that are untested. The lab area probably needs some looking after, as do the other parts of the sixth level. Other parts of the game need polish, especially the cutscenes now that I've figured out how to properly fade the camera. Progress continues to be steady.
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Happy New Year to all
January 01, 2007 by Adam in NWN2
 Happy New Year to all. Somehow between the various illnesses running rampant in our house, I managed some serious debug time this morning. The fan puzzle works great now, complete with moving dials, floating gems, and multiple ways to solve it.
I also fixed a bunch of other bugs, some cosmetic and others more serious. Several more cutscenes now work fairly well. There were some places where you couldn't get from level to level or pass through a door. At the moment, I'm working on the final battle, trying to get creatures to set reasonable traps. I'm also working on getting the player to respawn properly.
Still, it feels like I've made significant process lately. It seems like I'm on track to get this to QA in a couple more weeks.
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About Me
I've won multiple awards for my Neverwinter Nights modules, which I've been working on since the year 2000.
In the real world, I'm a web developer for a healthcare organization. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.
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