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The weekend was amazingly busy for me, though...
October 31, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
The weekend was amazingly busy for me, though I still managed to work on the project a bit. On Friday I worked more on the Mad Hatter sidequest for the second module. On Saturday I began in on Daniel's first romance dialog, which includes some fun twists. Yesterday I began going through all the great work of the musicians and adding them into the proper places in the game. This morning I looked through all the QA notes and started in on bug fixing again.
I also have an all-in-one installer that I put together. The total size of the first module is 38 MB in size, which seems pretty large. I suspect the bulk is the music files and tilesets. Once we get voice acting in there, it'll likely balloon to massive proportions.
As for today, I'm hoping to fix a bug with the translator tool that I've been sitting on for awhile. With luck, I'll get some time with the second module, which is shaping up to be rather fun. Ideally I'll put in the first couple scenes so that players can actually get from the start to Port Brighton proper.
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I've been busy, as usual
October 28, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
 I've been busy, as usual. This morning I put together yet another article on the latest round of screenshots. We're really starting to get a good feel for the tilesets and creatures that will ship with the game. It's getting hard to keep up with the new information, so I may start slowing down on writing these things.
As for Dark Waters, I did a little more texture work on the manor yesterday, though I'm not entirely happy with the results. More research is likely required. I also got some more dialog into the second module. Hopefully I can get some scripting in today, though we'll see how it goes.
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It was a busy day yesterday
October 27, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
 It was a busy day yesterday. As you can see, I found some time to continue working on the manor. I switched to a more traditional look after perusing some of the images of real castles and manors on the web. I also spent some time disassembling the geometry and putting in sandstone frames around the windows. I think I'm pretty happy with the way things are turning out.
We also had a new batch of screenshots hit the web, so I put together another article and sent it off to NWN2 News. Some of the shots are pretty amazing looking, especially the outdoor areas. I can't wait to play with the toolset.
I also managed some writing, putting some ideas and words down on paper. The Mad Hatter shop has turned into a regular little side quest, something I hadn't originally intended. Should be fun.
I also spent some time with the folks working away on the project. Sunjammer was showing off his shiny new array system in preparation for the trade system. Christian is passing along some more music. We have translators doing their thing, Lizabeth was working on new hires, and we're gearing up to do the first voice recordings. Good times.
Update: I recently started playing some of the games that were rapidly developed at the Experimental Gameplay Project. Some of them are amazing in their feel and simplicity. There was even a Gamasutra article on it. After reading it, it's gotten me very excited to sneak a few of these fun little side games into the campaign. Sure, I've got the Pirate Cards game, but I'm itching to put in a few more. We'll see if I can have a burst of creativity along the way.
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I have a pretty picture for everyone today
October 26, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
 I have a pretty picture for everyone today. I got started in on texturing the manor. It's slow work and I'm learning some techniques along the way. Danmar passed me some max scripts for help in texturing and I suspect I'll be looking them over sooner rather than later. There's lots of details on that model and it's a pretty tedious process getting everything just right. I'm still waffling over the texture itself. I'm reasonably happy with it, though I may look at some more stone wall textures to try them out.
I spent a fair bit of time just getting in touch with the team yesterday. Christian should be getting the last of the music for the first module to me, and I've given him some requests for some music for the second module. It's a treat when music magically appears for me.
Hopefully today I can get into some scripting for Port Brighton. Already I've created some interesting shops and want to make them come alive.
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Another day with no pretty pictures
October 24, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
Another day with no pretty pictures. I'm going to have to fix that soon.
I continue to work away on the bugs for the first module. I'm down to seven, with only a couple of them being very critical. The hardest ones are those where I'm not able to recreate the problem, as it makes it difficult to even know where to start. For those, I've been putting in "just in case" script, such as making sure you can abort a problematic cutscene and jump to where you're supposed to go.
I've grown to hate cutscenes. After this first module, I'm going to keep them to a minimum for the rest of the campaign.
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I've been a debugging maniac lately
October 23, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
I've been a debugging maniac lately. I'm down to 14 reported bugs that I need to fix or investigate. I'm hoping I can get that list shrunk down even more today.
On Friday I put a bunch of the dialog I had written down on paper into the game itself. There's still endless scripting that needs to be attached to each.
We had a team meeting yesterday, the first in a long while. Turnout was fairly light, though I did get to meet a few of the new people. I also wrote up a "Managing Risk" document, partially for myself. Game development is a tricky thing, with lots of unknowns throughout the process. Hopefully it's fun too, somewhere along the way.
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It's been hard to find the time to work on th...
October 21, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
It's been hard to find the time to work on things these last few days. Yesterday I was busy non-stop from six in the morning until nine at night. I did manage to sneak in some writing during the boring parts of a lecture. One of the dialogs was for a main quest and I like the way it's been turning out. The other is for Brighton Church, which I'm trying to make more than a simple "buy healing stuff" sort of place.
Hopefully this weekend I can hunker down and get the dialog in the game, perhaps do some modeling, or even work on fixing bugs.
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As expected, my free time has vanished
October 20, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
As expected, my free time has vanished. I did manage to scribble down some dialog along the way, though. I'm hoping the scoundrels out there can do a bit of skullduggery without feeling too evil.
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Busy day yesterday
October 19, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
Busy day yesterday. I snuck in on a NWN2 roundtable chat (registration required) yesterday. It was fun being able to talk to the developers and they seemed especially chatty since the screenshots were released. I got a couple questions directed towards me, which was fun.
I scribbled down some notes for a little side quest in Port Brighton, along with the dialog. The next couple days will probably involve minimal module work, though I'm hopeful I can spend some quality time with pencil and paper while I'm doing other things.
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Razvan continues to outdo himself
October 18, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
 Razvan continues to outdo himself. His latest work is Lord Brighton's estate, which is on my list of endless things that need to be textured. I love the variety of the architecture and can't wait to see it in the game. Of course, I can already tell it's going to take awhile to properly texture. If there's any texture artists reading this now, I beg of you to send me an e-mail.
Port Brighton continues to shape up. I have the Black Spot tavern and the Pirate Card game in place. I also snuck in a hook for one of the quests in the game. Currently I'm torn between working on more bug fixes for the first module and doing some writing for the second. Maybe I'll compromise and do both.
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I spent some time this morning working on get...
October 17, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
 I spent some time this morning working on getting Danmar's church into the game. I fiddled with the texture a bit more and plopped it in. Needless to say, it quickly became obvious that my scale was off. After a little more adjusting, I managed to make a more modest house of worship. Now I've just got to populate it with something interesting.
The other big push for today will be to start incorporating the Pirate Cards game. I'm trying hard to make Brighton an interesting place to spend time, and I'm hoping the card game helps with that.
One of the things I'm trying to do as the campaign progresses is to keep switching the feel of the game. The initial module is very much a dungeon crawl. The second is more of a city adventure (though several destinations you can sail to are quite different). Towards the end of the campaign, I'm hoping to switch things around again. Hopefully it keeps players entertained and on their toes.
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Port Brighton is slowly turning into a real place
October 16, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
 Port Brighton is slowly turning into a real place. I made my first merchant, the Mad Hatter, who runs a little hat shop near the wharves.
Of course, this meant that I had to get my hat and earring scripts working properly in the game. There's now several earrings you can choose from, each giving different bonuses. Of course, hats and earrings can't be worn with helmets, so there's some critical fashion decisions to be made by the player. I also noticed today that the hats cast shadows, though only one hat works properly. Shadows in NWN are a pain to get working properly for complex geometry.
I have endless merchants to work into the town, hopefully providing some interesting things for players to spend their money on. Probably my next big thing is the Black Spot, along with the Pirate Card game.
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I've been working on lots of miscellaneous th...
October 15, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
 I've been working on lots of miscellaneous things the last few days. Work on the first dialogs of the second module continues. I integrated the set item system with the first module. I fixed some issues with the new QA item powers, letting the QA staff examine and set internal reputation levels.
This morning I started in on Port Brighton, which I can tell already is going to be a rather large city. Fortunately I've given myself the excuse of "pirate attack" to give myself some room to get creative later down the road. A few shops will be boarded up or being repaired when the players first sail into town.
I'm still hoping to work in a tailor, jeweler, and tattoo parlor. Those seem to be the staples of pirate adventures and I wouldn't want to disappoint anyone.
I also made a couple updates to my screenshot article, though it's hard to keep up with all the new information that's coming out.
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The busy days just don't stop
October 14, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
The busy days just don't stop. I worked a bit more on the initial dialog of the game. They're being fairly elaborate, setting the stage for the romances and personal interaction in the campaign. Of course, the black-hearted pirates among you can simply ignore those happy thoughts and simply blow them off.
Sunjammer has been working away on High Seas. To make the prototype more workable, I spent some time working on some custom content. I ended up making a new map tileset, some invisible blockers, and a single island placeable. If the blank map and island placeable approach works, I'll probably end up making a couple dozen drawn islands to throw down on the map. That gives us the flexibility to add and remove islands as the campaign evolves, in addition to making the map any size we'd like.
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It was pretty busy yesterday
October 13, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
 It was pretty busy yesterday. I wrote up an article dissecting the first NWN2 screen shots for NWN2 for NWN2 News. Within hours, my guesses started crumbling. It turns out that there weren't any tiles in any of the screenshots, suggesting a completely different mechanism for making outdoor areas. Ah, well.
I worked a little more on texturing buildings last night, not quite happy with the results. I also scribbled down some dialog for NWN2 and decided to make some more changes to the first module. I'm having to restrain myself from adding endless set items. It's just such a fun concept to play with.
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Well, they're out
October 12, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
 Well, they're out. If for some odd reason you haven't seen them yet, run, don't walk, and take a look at them. I'm hoping to do a fairly in-depth analysis of them today, so I'll probably have some more to say about them. In general, I'm very happy with the direction things are going. I'll probably chat with Razvan today and get his impression of relative polycounts. So far, I think we're generally in the right ball-park.
In this very small picture of ships in the distance, you can see the details they've added. I suspect we may have to polish ours up as well, adding ropes and furled sails. I still feel it makes sense for us to add in as much variety as we can.
I did a little modeling myself yesterday, getting the church finished up. I also ran across a site with some nice Thief textures, which I'll probably end up using to some degree. Work on the module continues as well. I ended up adding in some set items to the first module, and adding in a couple more encounters.
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I've been quiet the last two days
October 11, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
 I've been quiet the last two days. I had both kids on Sunday and my daughter has been sick, so real life has been keeping me busy. I did manage to texture one of Danmar's models, a church, though I'm not entirely happy with my work so far.
I've also been playing a little Dungeon Siege II (mostly my son plays and I watch). One of the things the packrat inside me loves is the concept of set items. The more items from a set you equip, the better they become.
I decided to create something like that for Dark Waters. There were a few tricky parts, most notably finding a way to only remove effects created by the set, but I finally got it working late last night. It's pretty cool to add and remove equipment and watch the bonus effects pop into existance. I suspect I'll be sprinkling set items in hidden places throughout the module as rewards for people who like to carefully explore.
Also, the PC Gamer with official NWN2 screenshots is out. I haven't seen anything yet, but the reviews are generally positive.
Razvan has also been busy. I'm particularly fond of the windows, which look fun to texture.
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One of the central hubs in the game is the Bl...
October 09, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
 One of the central hubs in the game is the Black Spot, a tavern with an entrance made from a shattered ship. The original model was done by Razvan and the texture was done by Danmar. It's beautiful.
I got it in the prototype tonight, after a surprising amount of time spent fiddling around. An earlier attempt is on the left, with the alpha texture that supplies the "dirty" look causing weird holes in the side. The texture mapping also got messed up, creating an odd repeating pattern. Plus, the game would crash when I moved the mouse over it (probably because it was very high polycount).
I carefully re-exported it and made it a static model. That appears to have fixed the problem and I can now start to build Port Brighton around it. I should probably get some sort of blocking walkmesh around it, as it'll save time when the QA folks get to play with it.
I did a little writing today as well. I'm still hoping to put more notes around the first module, giving more history and atmosphere. I think I've succeeded, at least with these few small notes.
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I worked on hats yesterday
October 07, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
 I worked on hats yesterday. The image on the left shows off an amusing bug I ran into when developing them. Essentially the hats are VFXs like any spell effect, applied to the character's head. There are issues, such as the geometry of the head poking through the hat. I ended up making a small and large version. It turns out that dwarves and half orcs have particularly ginormous noggins.
I've been a modeling maniac lately, converting Danmar and Razvan's models to NWN format. I had much better luck last night, though the lighthouse is still not quite ready for the game. Hopefully I can get the Black Spot tavern in today, which is one of the key locations in Port Brighton.
I'm also continuing to write dialog for the second module, which is highly entertaining. There's a certain joy I get when setting up comedy and hope right before moments of utter despair.
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I've been fiddling with modeling things as of...
October 06, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
 I've been fiddling with modeling things as of late, trying to get some of Danmar and Razvan's work into NWN. I've been struggling with my scales and transformations, and often find the NWN model flung about into strange misshapen pieces. With some diligence tonight, I can hopefully sort it out.
Razvan's latest goodies include this smaller domed tower. I've also been helping him through a difficult time. As a Maya user, he's been distraught over the recent acquisition of Alias by Autodesk. Poor guy.
Yesterday was also spent working on dialog for the second module, which continues to be entertaining to write. There's also endless cleanup to do, such as recording when the player is kind or cruel to the various NPCs, and making sure that information gets passed to the next module. Ah, the joys of roleplaying.
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It's admittedly difficult to keep up with Razvan
October 05, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
 It's admittedly difficult to keep up with Razvan. He seems to crank out a new model each day. Of course, they still need to be textured and put into a game, but it's nice to have that library of interesting things to draw from.
I worked on dialog for the second module a bit. The first few scenes are rather interesting, and I'm trying to work in a fair bit of humor. Of course, this isn't a romantic comedy, though I suppose it has those elements, along with horror, action, and high adventure.
The Independent Games Festival is holding a mod competition and I was sorely tempted to submit my work for NWN. The catch is that I'd have to "own" all the content, which is basically impossible to ensure. For every module, I've used outside content of some sort. I couldn't really accept any prize money knowing that dozens of other people deserved a piece of it. Anyway, it's nice to remain part of the community and focus on what I love - making fun games and enjoying myself in the process.
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The fashion show continues
October 04, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
 The fashion show continues. Razvan whipped up a hat yesterday. I'm hoping we can get a nice variety to add to our intrepid sailors' wardrobes. After all, when it comes to pirate adventures, it really is all about the clothes.
Yesterday was filled with yet more bug fixing. The menu issue was very simple once I figured out what was going on. Henchmen should no longer permanently die. I swapped out two broken tiles that made an area impassable. Typos have been fixed.
Who knows, maybe I'll actually get a chance to work on the second module today?
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Sometimes I have these odd urges and I can't ...
October 03, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
 Sometimes I have these odd urges and I can't keep myself from doing strange things. But enough about my personal life . . .
I decided that a pirate game wasn't complete without large gold earrings. I kept telling myself that this was just a prototype, but I went ahead anyway. It's not directly equippable, as there's no earring slot. I opted for a VFX approach, which has some serious limits. The biggest issue is that I had to make a separate model for each gender and race. I'm hoping that the ear position on the respective heads are relatively similar, otherwise they'll be at odd places.
If NWN2's effects work the way the developers are hinting they do, I can envision a "fitting" process by which you position an earring once and then it remembers where to put it from that point on. That's the hope, anyway.
My debugging continues. Unfortunately I've gotten to the hard ones. I spent a good long while trying to get a "go back" dialog link to work on the dynamic menu system. Little things like that drive me crazy.
I also worked more on some Port Brighton ideas, documenting the critical path and key points of interest on the island. The brainstorming phase of a module can be both fun and frustrating, depending on how fast ideas come and how good they are.
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After yesterday's screenshot goodness, NWN sc...
October 01, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
 After yesterday's screenshot goodness, NWN screenshots pale in comparison.
I spent a lot of time yesterday coordinating and sending e-mails it seems. Fortunately I did manage a bit more work on the module itself, fixing bugs and cleaning things up. The walkmesh on the ship was horribly broken. Now it's at a "merely annoying" stage. I had a funny bug where a particular NPC was killed and suddenly stood back up again moments later, ready for action. It was a case of a fix causing another problem. No rest for the weary.
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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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